A 12-year-old girl died after drinking a milkshake mixed in an unwashed blender at a south London cafe, a coroner found as she concluded the inquest on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026.
Her parents, Adrian St Hilaire and Chanel Spence, have called for cafes to display a separate allergy rating in the window. They made the demand on Good Morning Britain, with hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls. Their daughter, Mia Shay St Hilaire, lived in Sydenham, southeast London, and had a hazelnut allergy. She died in the hospital on Aug. 30, 2023.
The couple argue that food hygiene ratings tell diners nothing about how a business handles allergens. They want a separate, clearly displayed allergy management rating next to the hygiene score, so allergy sufferers can judge where it is safe to eat.
“When you see a five-star rating at a shop, you feel like, you know, you’re safe,” Spence said on Good Morning Britain. Her husband said of the rating they want: “Had that been in place, we’d be looking at a different outcome and a totally different story.”
Two Sips at the Pop Inn
Mia was out with her aunt and sister in August 2023 when she ordered a Twix milkshake at the Pop Inn Cafe on Southwark Park Road, Bermondsey. Spence said Mia knew after “two sips” that the drink contained nuts and told her aunt: “This has nuts in.” Spence said of the cafe: “It was a place she had gone a week before.”
Assistant coroner Briony Ballard heard the evidence and concluded the inquest on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, at Inner South London Coroner’s Court. In her narrative conclusion, she found that Mia drank part of a Twix milkshake that had been “cross-contaminated with hazelnut residue from a Kinder Bueno milkshake previously prepared in the same unwashed blender.”
The anaphylaxis came on rapidly, the coroner found. Mia collapsed at her aunt’s home. She was given extensive emergency treatment and moved to intensive care at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, where she died.
Ballard found failures and missed opportunities in the management of the child’s allergy. Baris Yucel, the Pop Inn Cafe’s food business operator, left the blender uncleaned before he made Mia’s drink, closed-circuit television footage showed. Ballard will send a Prevention of Future Deaths report to the cafe, Southwark Council and the Food Standards Agency, she said.
A £18,000 Fine at Croydon
Yucel, then 47, pleaded guilty to six food safety offenses brought by Southwark Council. Croydon Magistrates’ Court fined him £18,000 and gave him a 100-hour community order on Jan. 24, 2025.
Customers could not see or obtain allergen advice at the cafe, and allergen contamination went unmanaged during food production, two of the offenses stated. Another covered the serving of food containing an allergenic ingredient that was not meant to be in it. The council said at the time it believed hazelnuts and almonds were present in the drink.
The judge treated Yucel as a man of previous good character, his lawyer said, with no previous incidents reported against him in 22 years. The lawyer said Yucel pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, took immediate steps to educate himself in September and October 2023, and thinks of Mia and her family every day.
Basic food safety rules, had the cafe operator followed them, might have prevented the death, Southwark councilor Natasha Ennin said in January 2025. Officers would carry on working with local businesses so the rules are followed across the borough, she said. The council said an enforcement officer visited the cafe several times to check that prevention procedures were maintained.
Mia’s parents said after the sentencing in January 2025 that the conviction and fine would, they hoped, show food businesses across the country what happens when food safety is not taken seriously.
No Allergy Matrix, Five Stars
The cafe’s most recent five-star hygiene rating came in 2024, according to the Food Standards Agency website. Yucel is no longer the owner or operator.
Angela Bruno, the family’s solicitor, said on Good Morning Britain that no allergy matrix was found at the cafe during a 2020 inspection, yet it was still given a five-star rating. She said an inspection two years later was “missed,” and alleged that a further inspection planned for September 2026 was not carried out.
“Mia passes away in 2023, and again they go in. Still no matrix, no allergy signs, other issues are raised with regard to contamination,” Bruno said.
The food safety team at the law firm Leigh Day represents the family, led by partner Michelle Victor. The evidence pointed to serious concerns about the way the food service industry understands, manages and monitors food allergies, Victor said. The family is urging the Food Standards Agency and other authorities to look again at the rules covering allergy safety and to weigh substantive reform, she said.
The parents believe Mia would still be alive had the local authority made sure the cafe understood and carried out its allergy responsibilities.
‘She’s Our Every Day’
Mia’s parents thanked the coroner in a statement, calling the investigation careful and thorough. Their daughter’s voice had been heard, and they were grateful for that, they said. “Mia was, and is, deeply loved and she will never be forgotten,” they said.
Spence spoke on Good Morning Britain about her grief. “It doesn’t really change a thing, you know, she’s our every day,” she said.
Rebecca Sudworth, director of food policy at the Food Standards Agency, offered her “deepest sympathies” to Mia’s family. “Food businesses must take allergen risks seriously, every time,” she said.
Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, the founder of Natasha’s Foundation, said the inquest showed how much ground remains on awareness, understanding and regulation of food allergies. Her daughter Natasha died at 15 after an allergic reaction to sesame in a Pret baguette. Ednan-Laperouse said allergies are not a preference or a choice, but a serious and unpredictable medical condition.
