Megan Lee: Parents campaign for food safety after allergy death

The parents of a girl who died after an allergic reaction to a takeaway said their "princess" had inspired them to campaign for food safety.

Megan Lee, 15, died after eating a meal containing peanuts from Royal Spice in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, in 2016.

Its owner Mohammed Abdul Kuddus and manager Harun Rashid were jailed for manslaughter last month over her death.

Adam and Gemma Lee have created a video as part of a campaign urging food firms to be more aware of allergies.

They made the film with Lancashire County Council's trading standards to raise awareness of allergies and to prevent a similar death.

Mrs Lee said while it was "emotional" making the video it was "something they had to do".

"We want to help people. Megan loved helping people... and we take that as inspiration," she said.

Megan Lee died two days after having an allergic reaction to eating a takeaway meal

Mr Lee said being without Megan "breaks our hearts", with Mrs Lee adding it was not easy to relive her death for the campaign but "we do that in the hope [it helps] others... and standards improve".

In sentencing at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Mrs Justice Yip said Megan had highlighted her allergies when placing her order but the takeaway had no systems or processes to manage allergen control.

Mr Lee said: "It's very important to raise awareness and educate food businesses.

"We urge food businesses to be responsible, look after the customers and provide safe food."

Fatal consequences

The couple, who have stopped having takeaways since Megan's death, warned customers to take care when ordering food and be "as vigilant as possible".

Director of Public Health for Lancashire Dr Sakthi Karunanithi said food outlets needed to do everything they could do to supply safe food to customers, as allergies were on the rise and allergic reactions could have fatal consequences.

Dr Karunanithi said: "Every 20 minutes someone is getting admitted to an NHS hospital in the country due to food allergy and much of that can be prevented if we are all more food allergy aware."