Save Lives Campaign Working Party Group

In 2021 William and Jon Shayler- CEO of Erudus, set the foundations of the Save Lives Campaign. It started as a 3 point plan and has been adapted and developed with support from industry experts to currently 5 points.

The aim of the plan is to join as many businesses, charities, trade bodies, experts and academics in the allergen world together for anyone eating out with a common sense approach to providing allergy information, collaborating and providing one voice, “Save Lives, the solution”.

The link below will take you to a Webinar hosted by restaurant online and Trustwell - A leading company which offers a safety and compliance platform for the food industry.

Trustwell invited William as a hotelier and founder of a digital allergy information platform Control Catering, to discuss the Saves Lives Campaign and understanding the impact of proposed changes such as Owen’s law and on how to leverage tech to balance consumer safety and operational flexibility.

https://www.restaurantonline.co.uk/All-products/Navigating-New-Allergen-Information-Regulations-Strategies-for-UK-Hospitality

Speakers

Save Lives Campaign

Introduction

The Working Party Group is (UNDEMANDING OF YOUR TIME!) looking to add more people across different fields of expertise to join the allergen world together, building good foundations is most important, with input from businesses, charities, trade bodies, experts, academics and Government. The larger the group, the higher chance of building the foundations that are needed for change.

Once there is enough traction William would like to hand over the running of the Campaign to another ‘not for profit’ person to develop and see it to fruition. Please email william@controlcatering.com if your are interested in joining the group:

Current Supporters (more to follow)

• William Ireland: Caterer and founder of Save Lives Group
• Jon Shayler: Erudus CEO
• Anthony Mangnall MP: for Totnes and South Devon
• Caroline Benjamin: Food Allergy Aware, Founder
• Steve Walpole: Director & Consultant Chef
• Natalie Hopkins: Founder, The Allergy Badge
• Roger Rossignol: West Country Foods
• Giles Thomas: M J Baker
• Rikki Down: Rex Down Wholesale Fish Merchants
• Stella Holt: Food Allergen Management in Catering Consultant
• Lynne Bowers: Health and Care Consultant, former NHS Director and Registered Dietitian
• Alistair MacAuley: Course Director in Business Strategy, Operations & Enterprise Group Leeds Business School

The role of the working party group is;

• To review, agree and improve the 5 points and add more if needed
• To agree to receive changes to the plan and comment on the proposed changes

We have an agreement from Erudus to mail out their email database to promote the campaign and ask their wholesale customers to do the same to their own Caterer customers. We're hopeful that upwards of 1 million contacts will receive the campaign information.

The Petition is for a change in the law to provide one voice.

"Save Lives, the solution for anyone eating out with a food allergy, intolerance or dietary need"

Changes must be made. It is the Government's responsibility to provide tools that are workable - the Government must play it’s part to assist enabling these 5 points:

Point 1

There should be one government department owning the "single source of truth," who would manage and maintain the allergy information database after initial build and remain the single point of contact and authority.

They should provide information on;

• Calories and allergy information,
• Carbon footprint- companies such as My Emissions help reduce emissions and display carbon labels,
• McCance & Widdowson – can this be adapted to include calories but exclude recipes,
• Natasha’s Law – all ingredients need to be checked,
• Accurate and full ingredients listed in alcoholic drinks. The FSA states ‘Alcoholic drinks which contain more than 1.2% of alcohol by volume are not required to bear a list of ingredients. However, any allergens will still need to be declared in a contains statement. For example, this could be phrased as: "Contains: wheat"’.

Point 2

All menus in the UK to have an allergen control statement and best practice guidance detailing how the consumer will be provided information regarding ingredients.

Point 3

Near miss reporting to agree on a system - HASUK

Hospitality Allergen Support (HASUK.co.uk) was formed in collaboration with Jacqui McPeake and Caroline Benjamin of Food Allergy Aware. Both Jacqui and Caroline are experts in their field.

Working together on this project highlighted the need for improved knowledge and the need to include Near Miss reporting as a standard within Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) across the hospitality sector.

It is apparent that training across the sector is inconsistent, and staff do not always have the knowledge to communicate effectively with management and customers when a Near Miss incident occurs.

Both Jacqui and Caroline are passionate about raising awareness and the prevention of reactions or fatalities relating to allergen management. They want to see Near Miss reporting as standard in all food safety & allergen management procedures.

Point 4

No open packets of nuts allowed on airlines taking off or landing in the UK

Easyjet has banned the sale of nuts on their flights and will be urging passengers to leave any snacks containing nuts at home. However this is unfair to people with nut allergies, they cannot leave the plane!

Point 5

First Aid boxes to include at least two adrenaline pens

A common sense approach to have pens available in hospitality environments.

Supported by Natalie Hopkins from The Allergy Badge

All of the information below, support letters and Zoom information/link is a history of how the Campaign has evolved