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A manslaughter probe has been launched after a 20-year-old with a dairy allergy died after being served a tiramisu dessert that was made with milk.
Anna Bellisario and her boyfriend had reportedly been dining at a fast food restaurant in Milan on January 26 last year.
She went into an anaphylactic shock and died on February 5 at San Raffaele hospital.
The two women who ran the pastry shop that supplied the restaurant are under investigation for manslaughter, Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera reported.
It claimed that the investigation so far had suggested the pair had mixed up the invoice of vegan sweets with desserts containing milk.
Anna Bellisario and her boyfriend had been dining at a fast food restaurant in Milan on January 26 last year, Italian media reports. She went into an anaphylactic shock and died on February 5 at San Raffaele hospital
The two women had mixed up the invoice of vegan sweets with desserts containing milk, it has been suggested in the first part of the investigation, according to a report (Stock Image)
It is alleged that the company did not prevent the mixing of the two production lines in the laboratory pastry shop, supplier at the time to 63 Italian restaurants of the Tiramisu vegan product.
In a reconstruction by prosecutors Tiziana Siciliano and Luca Gaglio on Monday, the investigating judge Fiammetta Modica, using information in part based on wiretaps that ‘draw a worrying picture of unscrupulousness’, ordered the ban of the owners of the laboratory, a mother and daughter, the newspaper reported.
It was suggested that if the separation of the ingredients and environments had been respected, and the staff had been given the correct training – instead of just a four-hour course – there would have been no mixing of casein with products of vegetable origin in the pastry laboratory, which led to the fatal outcome for the girl.
When she ordered the tiramisu, Ms Bellisario checked the label, but also asked for further information, due to her very strong allergy.
She had then started to eat after being given reassurance, it was reported.
On the second spoonful, she felt sick and ran to the bathroom to try to vomit.
She took the asthma medication and the cortisone that she always carried with her, but shortly afterwards she lost consciousness and later died in hospital.
Ms Bellisario, who studied fashion design, regularly went to the restaurant. She had an egg allergy and also suffered from a strong milk allergy.
In other tiramisu packaging from the same brand, traces of milk protein were also identified.
On top of that, traces of egg were found in the mayonnaise of the supposedly vegan sandwich that Ms Bellisario had as her main dish in the restaurant.
The product, Tiramisu Mascherpa, was withdrawn from the market by the ministry of health on February 6 last year, due to it possibly containing milk proteins not indicated on the label.
