Law Championed by Grieving Mother Takes Effect, Requiring Food Allergy Training for Restaurants

A new law enacted last year requires additional food allergy training for restaurants took effect on Sunday. The genesis for the law is one mother’s heartbreaking quest to protect others from the tragedy that befell her son.

A decade ago, 24-year-old Sergio Lopez took a lunch break with a friend from the music academy where he worked in McAllen, Texas. He ordered a veggie taco after asking if it contained peanuts, to which Sergio was highly allergic. He was assured it did not.

Upon receiving his takeout order, Sergio asked again and was told a second time that the order did not contain peanuts.

While eating his lunch he began feeling a tingling sensation, a telltale symptom of an allergic reaction.

“So, he called [the restaurant]… it’s on his telephone. He spoke to them for a minute and a half, and they again told him ‘It’s just spices’,” said his mom, Belinda Vaca.

Sergio finished eating his taco and returned to work. There, he was seen grabbing his throat, saying, “They lied to me! They lied to me!”

A coworker drove him to the hospital while he kicked and screamed, struggling to breathe. The coworker spotted a private ambulance along the way, and Sergio got out, waving his hands before he lost consciousness.

Vaca arrived at the hospital to find her son covered with tubes, comatose.

Less than eight hours after her son had eaten the taco, Vaca was ordered to leave the room as medical personnel rushed in. Shortly afterward, she was asked if she wanted to say her last goodbye to her son.

Sergio died early the next morning. His mom said the autopsy concluded his cause of death was anaphylaxis triggered by peanuts.

Later that same day, Vaca returned to the restaurant with a co-worker who ordered the same taco and asked what the ingredients were. The owner came out and told her that peanut butter was one of the main ingredients.

She recalls the coworker telling him: “My friend just lost her son this morning because you told him no. He asked three times and you told him no that it doesn’t have peanuts.”

The owner replied: “Oh, well he asked for peanuts. This has peanut butter.”

Vaca contacted State Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. in 2015, who was the first to sponsor legislation in her son’s name requiring additional food allergy training for eateries. She spent the better part of the next decade working to advance the legislation, meeting with legislators, and paying for flyers and T-shirts to promote her cause.

On May 29, 2023, Senate Bill 812 known as “The Sergio Lopez Food Allergy Awareness Act” was sent to Gov Greg Abbott. On June 18, it was filed without his signature, becoming law.

The legislation officially took effect on September 1, 2024.

But Vaca intends to keep fighting for federal legislation in memory of Sergio.

“It might take me my whole life until I die. It may not happen,” she said. “But, just like there is a Heimlich maneuver poster in every restaurant, why can’t there be a food allergy awareness poster in every restaurant in the United States to save lives?”

Here is a 2023 report from KARK-TV with Belinda Vaca’s and Sergio Lopez’s story:

We congratulate Ms Vaca on her incredible achievement resulting from years of determination and hard work. Her efforts will save lives in Texas, and we have no doubt will save lives nationally when her work eventually leads to similar federal legislation.

Thanks to her, Sergio’s legacy will forever be one of protecting the allergic community from anaphylaxis.

We remind our readers to take two emergency epinephrine devices along with them everywhere, every time they leave home, and to administer the drug when they first suspect anaphylaxis.

Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening reaction to a food, drug, insect venom, or environmental substance. Epinephrine is the only drug that can halt and reverse the progression of anaphylaxis, but it must be administered promptly to prevent the worst outcomes.

But epinephrine can’t help you if it’s sitting in a medicine cabinet at home. Be sure to have your lifeline with you always.