A MOTHER has slammed a supermarket for not issuing a warning after her son went into anaphylactic shock after eating a milk chocolate egg in the wrong packaging. Jacqueline Harniman, of Popple Way, Stevenage hit out at Waitrose after her son Joshua Parvin

A MOTHER has slammed a supermarket for not issuing a warning after her son went into anaphylactic shock after eating a milk chocolate egg in the wrong packaging.

Jacqueline Harniman, of Popple Way, Stevenage hit out at Waitrose after her son Joshua Parvin was hospitalised after eating Waitrose Jelly Mini Eggs.

Joshua, 18, has been allergic to milk since he was a baby and Ms Harniman had bought the eggs as an Easter treat for him as the ingredients list said they were milk-free.

The eggs were covered in a crisp shell so it was not possible to see what was inside.

Last Thursday evening, Joshua ate two of the eggs.

Suspecting something was wrong, he bit into a third to look at the contents.

This showed the egg contained milk chocolate and by this time he was already feeling the effects.

He eventually went into full anaphylactic shock, with a purple face and swollen lips and airways.

Ms Harniman gave him an adrenaline injection at home and rushed him to Lister Hospital where he was given intravenous drugs and oxygen.

He was released about five hours later.

Ms Harniman believes a mistake means that the eggs were put into the wrong packet, and although she accepts that incidents like this can happen, she is critical of the way Waitrose handled the situation.

After she contacted the Stevenage store on Friday, all packets of the eggs were withdrawn from branches across the country.

But Ms Harniman claims she was told there were not many left in shops and feels that a warning should have been issued in case other people who bought the product were allergic to milk.

"I think they've been very, very lax in not issuing any kind of warning," she said.

"Even if they didn't wish to issue a recall what they should have done is alerted the public and told them to check before giving them to anyone who might be allergic to milk."

Joshua, who works in telesales, was back at work on Tuesday this week but Ms Harniman said he had not fully recovered from the incident.

"He's very pale and very, very tired. These things completely wipe you out because your body goes into shock.

"It's made us all extra paranoid about what we're giving him again," she said.

A spokesman for Waitrose said: "We took action as soon as we knew there was an issue, immediately taking the products off the shelf and are investigating it as a matter of urgency.

"In addition, we contacted Allergy UK and Anaphylaxis Campaign who alerted their members."

The alert on the Allergy UK website says that some packs of the eggs could contain milk or soya.

It advises any customers with milk or soya allergies not to eat the eggs and to return the pack to Waitrose for a full refund.

Customers with queries can ring the customer services department on 0800 188884.