The mother of a 13-year-old who died after drinking a single sip of a Costa Coffee hot chocolate has heavily criticised food and drink outlets for treating allergy training as a "tick box exercise." An inquest found the 13-year-old Hannah Jacobs died following both a "failure to follow the processes" and a "failure of communication" between staff and Hannah's mother. Abimbola Duyile, Hannah's mother, said "unacceptable" allergy training "is really not taken seriously enough."

Hannah Jacobs had collapsed within half an hour of taking just one sip of her drink from a Costa franchise in Barking, East London, in February last year. This was despite her mother telling staff of her daughter's severe allergies to cow's milk. Hannah's mother Abi asked Costa staff to thoroughly clean equipment, but Hannah immediately knew the drink wasn't made with soya milk upon trying it, an East London Coroner's Court was told. She began vomiting and collapsed immediately after being rushed to a nearby pharmacy. Despite being injected with an EpiPen and ambulance staff attempting to resuscitate her, Hannah died in hospital a short time later.

Abimbola Duyile told the inquest that her daughter was diagnosed as a toddler with severe allergies, which led to her avoiding meat, eggs, fish and wheat following previous mild allergic reactions and tests. Ms Duyile said that her daughter rarely ate out other than at restaurants they trusted with her serious allergies, such as Nando's - where she enjoyed chicken and chips. Hannah would also rarely eat at friend's homes unless her mother trusted them enough to take sufficient care of her allergies. Ms Duyile said Hannah had enjoyed a soya hot chocolate at Costa on several occasions before. The inquest was told that no previous reaction had been serious enough for Hannah to be injected with an EpiPen.

It was also heard that she was not allowed to take an EpiPen to school with her, and that the dentist she was visiting that day after she went to Costa may have had an EpiPen onsite, although one was not offered during Hannah's reaction.

In a statement read to the court, the bereaved mother described her daughter, saying: "Hannah was just entering adolescence and learning to be independent, taking ownership of her allergies when she was tragically taken from us. She had known from a young age what her allergies were and took them very seriously. I have always been extremely diligent in managing Hannah's allergies and she had never suffered a serious allergic reaction prior to this incident."

She continued: "Hannah loved life. She was a vivacious, caring, affectionate, outspoken and energetic child with a strong sense of right and wrong. Hannah had everything to live for and was so full of life and promise. Having heard all the evidence over the last week it is clear to me that although the food service industry and medical professionals are required to have allergy training, this training is really not taken seriously enough. And better awareness is needed in these industries and across society of the symptoms of anaphalxis."

She added: "Allowing people who serve food and drinks to retake an allergy training test 20 times is not acceptable. Treating allergy training as a tick box exercise is not acceptable. Being a medical professional and not reacting quickly to even a possible anaphylactic reaction is not acceptable. And the consequence is that my daughter is no longer here. My beautiful Hannah only had 13 years on this earth when she should have had many, many more. I truly believe that with Hannah's combination of confidence, outspokenness, deep sense of right and wrong and her natural thoughtfulness and affectionate nature she could have achieved so much in this world."