Costa offered £5 to breastfeeding mum after potentially deadly milk mix-up

A breastfeeding mother has slammed Costa after her newborn son could have suffered a fatal allergic reaction and was only offered a £5 note as compensation.

Rozanne Richardson, 31, slammed the coffee giant after she was given cow’s milk in her latte instead of the non-dairy milk that she ordered.

Mrs Richardson’s newborn son Levi has a serious dairy allergy and could have suffered a potentially fatal anaphylactic shock if she had breastfed him after drinking the latte.

The mother-of-two said when her husband returned to the Costa to complain, he was given ‘pathetic’ compensation of £5 in cash.

A Costa investigation revealed cow’s milk was used even though coconut milk was put through on the till, Mrs Richardson said.

Costa then offered her £500 as a ‘goodwill’ gesture – but she rejected it.

Mrs Richardson, from Andover, Hampshire, expressed worries that ‘history was repeating itself’, after the death of a 13-year-old girl with a dairy allergy who ordered a non-dairy drink at a Costa in London.

Mrs Richardson was on a family holiday to the New Forest last month when her husband Spencer went into a Costa Coffee at a service station on the M27 motorway.

She said Mr Richardson ordered her a decaf latte with coconut milk, telling Costa staff that it was for his wife, who was breastfeeding a baby with a dairy allergy.

After sipping the latte, Mrs Richardson knew something was wrong: ‘The emotions ran over me. What if I didn’t taste the difference in the milk instantly and then gave my newborn a feed in the New Forest?

‘Being remote, what if he had an anaphylactic shock because of my breast milk due to a Costa error? Haven’t enough people died and had serious reactions due to coffee shop errors?’

Mr Richardson was given £5 in cash as compensation after complaining to Costa staff, which his wife said was ‘pathetic’.

She added: ‘The response should have been that they will log it as an allergen breach and that training will be done to avoid it from happening in future. How dare they think that £5 is good enough to replace a newborn’s life or allergen breach?’

The mum said she now has to watch when she orders coffee anywhere to make sure it is not being made with dairy milk, which would give her newborn son a serious allergic reaction.

‘Going to a coffee shop is meant to be a relaxing thing, and nowadays it’s a nerve-wracking time because the fact is it could have had a massive impact,’ she said.

Costa investigated and found ‘cow’s milk was indeed put into [her] decaf latte, even though the ‘alternative milk went through the till’.

Mrs Richardson claimed that Costa offered her £500 over the phone as a ‘form of goodwill’ following the incident, and she was asked to sign a form in an email so that they could send her this money. She rejected it.

A Costa Coffee spokesperson said: ‘We acknowledge that on this occasion, at one of our franchise partner stores, our service didn’t meet the high standards we set for ourselves and appreciate the distress it has caused.

‘We take allergen management seriously and understand how important it is to our customers, our team members, and the communities we serve.

‘All team members complete mandatory training, and we have clear processes in place to support them when serving customers.

‘We have reinforced these procedures across all our stores, including franchise partner locations, to reduce the risk of this happening again, and we will continue to keep our approach under constant review.

‘We have been in touch with the customer directly to apologise regarding the handling of this case.’

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