Baris Yucel

Introduction

Baris Yucel is a London café operator who ran the Pop Inn Cafe on Southwark Park Road in Bermondsey until a fatal allergen contamination ended his food-business career. In January 2023 a 12-year-old customer, Mia Shay St Hilaire, who had a life-threatening tree-nut allergy, suffered a fatal anaphylactic reaction after drinking a Twix milkshake at his cafe — a drink that an inquest later concluded had been cross-contaminated with hazelnut residue from a Kinder Bueno milkshake prepared in the same unwashed blender minutes earlier. Yucel admitted six food-safety offences brought by Southwark Council, was fined £18,000 and ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, and no longer owns or operates the cafe. The story returned to the front pages in October 2026 when the inquest into Mia’s death concluded with a narrative finding that her milkshake “had been cross-contaminated with hazelnut residue from a Kinder Bueno milkshake previously prepared in the same unwashed blender.”

Background Information

Yucel operated the Pop Inn Cafe, a small café on Southwark Park Road in Bermondsey, southeast London. On an August 2023 afternoon, Mia Shay St Hilaire — a 12-year-old from Sydenham with a known tree-nut allergy — visited the cafe with her aunt and sister and ordered a Twix milkshake. CCTV footage later presented at the inquest showed Yucel using the shop’s blender to prepare a hazelnut-containing Kinder Bueno milkshake minutes before making Mia’s order, and showed the blender was not washed between uses. Mia reportedly took two sips and told her aunt the drink “has nuts in.”

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated conduct — guilty pleas entered, no jury trial. Yucel pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to six offences under the Food Safety Act, prosecutions brought by Southwark Council’s food and safety team; the convictions are a matter of court record. The inquest into Mia’s death returned a narrative conclusion rather than a finding of unlawful killing, and a coroner’s inquest in England and Wales establishes facts, not criminal liability.

The incident itself was over in minutes. CCTV presented at the inquest showed Yucel preparing the Kinder Bueno milkshake containing hazelnuts, then making Mia’s Twix milkshake in the same blender without cleaning it. Mia developed what a coroner’s report described as “rapidly progressing anaphylaxis” and later collapsed at her aunt’s home. She received emergency treatment and was transferred to the intensive care unit at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, where she died.

Southwark Council’s food and safety team investigated and prosecuted. In January 2025 Yucel, then 47, pleaded guilty to all six offences: failing to make allergen advice available or visible to consumers, failing to manage allergen contamination during the food production process, and serving food containing an allergenic ingredient that was not supposed to be present, among related counts. He was fined £18,000 (about $24,000) and handed a 100-hour community order at the sentencing hearing.

In a statement read at the inquest, Yucel said he had not asked about allergies when taking Mia’s order, and that while the cafe’s policy was to clean the blender after each use, “at busy times this is not always” done. Assistant Coroner Briony Ballard, hearing evidence at London Inner South Coroner’s Court, published a narrative conclusion finding that Mia consumed a Twix milkshake “which had been cross-contaminated with hazelnut residue from a Kinder Bueno milkshake previously prepared in the same unwashed blender,” after which she “developed rapidly progressing anaphylaxis and later collapsed at her aunt’s home.” The inquest examined seven issues, including the cafe’s allergy management, the emergency response, and whether any actions or inactions contributed to Mia’s death.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Mia’s parents, Adrian St Hilaire and Chanel Spence, said in a statement: “No family should ever have to lose a child in these circumstances,” adding: “If the local authority had ensured that the cafe’s allergy management responsibilities had been properly understood, and put into practice, we believe Mia would still be alive today.” Through their law firm Leigh Day, they called on the Food Standards Agency and other authorities to review the food-allergy safety framework and to create a separate, clearly displayed allergy-management rating alongside the existing food hygiene scores, which they noted say nothing about how a business manages allergens.

Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, founder of the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation — whose daughter Natasha died at 15 from an allergic reaction to sesame in a Pret A Manger baguette — said the inquest showed “how far we still have to go” on food-allergy awareness and regulation, arguing that “food allergen regulations should be as important as food hygiene.” Michelle Victor, the family’s solicitor at Leigh Day, said the evidence had highlighted serious concerns about how food allergies are “understood, managed and monitored within the food service industry.”

The court’s consequences for Yucel were concrete: an £18,000 fine, a 100-hour community order, a criminal record of six admitted food-safety offences, and the loss of the cafe. Yucel’s lawyer told Southwark News that the judge accepted his client “had shown genuine remorse,” had educated himself on allergen management in the months after the death, and had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

Current Status

Yucel no longer owns or operates the Pop Inn Cafe, which has closed. His January 2025 convictions stand, and the October 2026 inquest concluded with the narrative finding that the cross-contaminated milkshake caused Mia’s fatal anaphylaxis. The family continues to campaign for a dedicated allergy-management rating for food businesses; there is no indication of any further criminal proceedings against Yucel. The New York Post’s October 9, 2026 story on the inquest’s conclusion brought the two-year-old case back to international attention.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Yucel’s food-business career is over: he was fined, sentenced to community service, and lost the cafe, and his name is now attached to one of the most closely followed food-allergy deaths in modern London. The case has become a policy touchstone in the UK’s ongoing debate over allergen regulation — cited by the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation and by the family’s lawyers in calls for a dedicated allergy-rating system — and the coroner’s narrative conclusion gives regulators a documented instance of how an unwashed blender, a missing allergy question and an unread policy combined into a child’s death. For café and restaurant operators, “the Pop Inn case” now functions as a standard citation for what failing to manage allergens can cost.

Sources

New York Post, “12-year-old girl dies from drinking milkshake after cafe’s careless mistake,” Oct. 9, 2026 — source
The Independent, “Girl, 12, died after drinking milkshake from unwashed blender at London cafe,” Oct. 8, 2026 — source
London Crime News, “Mia Shay St Hilaire inquest,” Oct. 2026 — source
London Crime News, “Baris Yucel fined £18,000,” 2026 — source
@nypost, X post on the milkshake death, Oct. 9, 2026 — source