The three-year, £2.2m trial, set up by Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, aims to discover whether foods such as milk and peanuts can be used under medical supervision to treat children and young adults with food allergies.
The trail, which is being led by the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, has received financial backing from food companies including KFC, Greggs and Lidl. It will be funded by the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation.
Natasha died in 2016 after eating an artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette from a Pret a Manger at Heathrow Airport that contained sesame, to which she was allergic.
Because the baguette was made on the premises it was not legally required to carry any allergy information, a rule that has since been changed as a direct result of Natasha’s death. Known as Natasha's Law, from 1 October 2021 all food businesses are required to provide full ingredient lists and allergen labelling on foods prepackaged for direct sale on the premises.
“This is a major first step in our mission to make food allergies history,” says Nadim Ednan-Laperouse.
“The aim is to save lives and prevent serious hospitalisations by offering lifelong protection against severe allergic reactions to foods.”
“If successful, this will empower the NHS to provide cost-effective treatments for people living with food allergies, through oral immunotherapy.
“It would enable people, once desensitised under clinical supervision, to control their own lives and stay allergy-safe using shop-bought foods rather than expensive pharmaceutical products.”