A restaurant's secret recipe change was linked to the 2023 death of a soon-to-be college graduate.
Alison Pickering, 23, who was days away from graduating from Tarleton State University, was on a first date at an unidentified restaurant she had frequented because she knew she could eat its mahi mahi despite her severe peanut allergy on May 12, 2023.
“She would repeatedly go to the same restaurants and order the same dishes, you know. And that was a common thing,” said Grover Pickering, Alison's father, via CBS News Texas.
The restaurant's kitchen staff, however, reportedly changed its mahi mahi recipe to include peanut sauce, unbeknownst to Alison or the servers.
“She took a few bites, realized something was wrong,” Grover Pickering said.
Alison reportedly used her EpiPen and walked to an ambulance outside where she talked to medics after feeling the effects of the peanut sauce.
“Somewhere along the way things went downhill,” Grover said.
Alison reportedly fell unconscious and never woke up, with her death ruled to be caused by a "severe anaphylactic shock from ingesting peanuts that were not disclosed on the restaurant menu." The Pickering family is working to stop more hidden allergy deaths from happening a year and a half after Alison's passing.
“We would love to see more done to make wait staff and patrons aware,” said Joy Pickering, Alison's mother, via CBS Texas.