An inquest found hazelnut residue from a previous drink contaminated Mia Shay St Hilaire’s milkshake at a London cafe.
LONDON — A 12-year-old girl with a hazelnut allergy died after drinking a milkshake contaminated with nut residue left in an unwashed cafe blender, an inquest into her 2023 death has concluded.
Mia Shay St Hilaire, from Sydenham in southeast London, suffered a severe allergic reaction after drinking a Twix milkshake at the Pop Inn Cafe on Southwark Park Road in Bermondsey while visiting with her aunt and sister. Assistant coroner Briony Ballard concluded that the drink had been cross-contaminated with hazelnut residue from a Kinder Bueno milkshake previously prepared in the same blender. Mia developed rapidly progressing anaphylaxis and later collapsed at her aunt’s home.
The inquest at London Inner South Coroner’s Court concluded Oct. 8. Despite extensive emergency treatment and being transferred to intensive care at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Mia died on Aug. 30, 2023. She had suffered the allergic reaction three days earlier. The coroner’s findings connected the reaction to contamination from the previous milkshake and the failure to wash the blender before Mia’s drink was made.
CCTV evidence reviewed during investigations showed cafe operator Baris Yucel preparing Mia’s milkshake without cleaning the blender after its previous use. Southwark Council said its food safety investigation found that substances from an earlier milkshake remained in the equipment. The council said Mia had a tree nut allergy and investigators believed hazelnuts and almonds were present in the drink prepared for her.
The council later prosecuted Yucel over food safety failures at the cafe. He pleaded guilty to six charges, including failing to make allergen advice available or visible to customers, failing to properly manage allergen contamination during food preparation and serving food containing an allergenic ingredient that should not have been present. In January 2025, Croydon Magistrates’ Court fined him £18,000 and imposed a 100-hour community order.
Southwark Council said after the prosecution that food safety officers had visited the cafe following Mia’s death and identified breaches of food law. An enforcement officer required procedures aimed at preventing another incident and made follow-up visits to check that those measures were being maintained. Council Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Neighbourhoods Natasha Ennin said at the time that the incident might have been avoided if basic food safety rules had been followed.
Yucel’s lawyer previously said the cafe operator had shown genuine remorse and had no reported incidents during more than two decades in the food business before Mia’s death. According to the statement reported by People, the lawyer said Yucel took steps to improve his understanding of allergen safety after the incident and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. Yucel no longer owns or operates the cafe, People reported.
Following the conclusion of the inquest, Mia’s parents, Adrian St Hilaire and Chanel Spence, called for changes to the way food businesses are assessed for allergy safety. They said customers often rely on food hygiene ratings when choosing where to eat, but those ratings do not necessarily show how a business manages allergens. The family has called for a separate, clearly displayed allergy management rating alongside existing food hygiene scores.
The family’s lawyer, Michelle Victor of Leigh Day, said evidence heard during the case raised concerns about how food allergies are understood, managed and monitored in the food service industry. The family is asking the Food Standards Agency and other authorities to review the framework governing food allergy safety and consider changes to how allergen controls are assessed and enforced.
The Food Standards Agency told People that food businesses have a legal duty to provide accurate allergen information and must take allergen risks seriously. Rebecca Sudworth, the agency’s director of food policy, said the FSA had produced updated guidance to help businesses understand their responsibilities, including the risk of cross-contact, and said the agency continues to keep its policy under review.
Mia’s parents said after the inquest that they wanted changes made in their daughter’s memory and hoped lessons from her death could help protect other people with food allergies. The inquest has now concluded, while the family’s call for a dedicated allergy management rating remains a matter for regulators and other authorities to consider.