A Darlington hospital consultant has been named the first ever winner of a national award for his investigation into the risks people with food allergies face from restaurant and take-away meals.
Dr. Tushar Banerjee, consultant paediatrician at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, has been selected by Imperial College, London, to receive the Jill Warner Award, which will be given annually to the research project considered to have the most impact on the care of people with allergies.
Dr. Banerjee, said, “My research revealed that people with food allergies were at significant risk of accidental exposure when eating take-away and restaurant food, largely due to the lack of knowledge of people working in these venues. Around 15 people die from the most serious form of food allergies in the UK every year and hospital admissions for food allergies have increased 500 per cent since 1990.
“These are preventable deaths and having identified the risks through my research, I worked with Darlington Borough Council and addressed two awareness-raising meetings for large and small-scale caterers in the town. We also made them aware of a European Union directive, introduced in late 2014, requiring restaurants to highlight ingredients causing allergic reactions, such as milk, eggs, fish and most dangerous, peanuts, on menus.”
“Winning this award came as a total surprise and I am particularly pleased as it means my research findings being shared even more widely than I hoped.”
Dr. Bannerjee runs a multi-disciplinary food allergy clinic at Darlington Memorial Hospital where patients can be seen by a dietician, gastroenterologist, dermatologist, respiratory clinician and a specialist allergy nurse.
Dr Banerjee (centre) with members of the Trust’s research team, including Professor Murphy (left), who helped conduct the study
