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Travelling abroad with a food allergy
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Ordering food in another country is harder because the language, the label and the dish may all be unfamiliar. Food Standards Scotland says the same safety steps still apply: be clear, give examples, ask how the food is handled, check for a last-minute change, and do not eat there if you doubt that staff understand. A translated card helps the kitchen read the list of foods. It does not cook the meal, and it does not replace your own allergy plan. This article stays inside what UK bodies actually publish. It does not invent the allergen law of every country you might visit.
What you can assume, and what you cannot
In the UK, businesses must tell you about 14 allergens. That list is Annex II of assimilated Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. The European Union uses that same regulation’s list of 14, so the names you are used to seeing at home, from celery through to tree nuts, are the names in EU allergen labelling too. How a particular restaurant presents them, and how good the conversation is, still varies. The regulation is not a promise about the pan.
Outside the UK and the EU, do not assume the menu law matches. Some countries require different disclosures. Some require very little on a restaurant plate. We do not keep a country-by-country chart here, because a chart we had not checked against that country’s current law would be worse than useless. Name the foods you need avoided, in writing and out loud, wherever you are. If you are allergic to something that is not on the UK list of 14, say that food too. The Food Standards Agency says the same at home: the 14 are what businesses must declare, and anything else is still worth an explicit question.
The foods themselves do not change at a border. Peanut is still peanut if a menu says groundnut. Mustard can still sit in a dressing. Milk can still be butter on vegetables. The guides for peanut, mustard, gluten and milk are written for UK kitchens, and the hiding places they describe are a useful set of questions abroad as well. They are not a local inspection report.
A card the kitchen can read
We write the foods down when we cannot rely on a spoken sentence. The card should name the foods to avoid, say that it is an allergy, and ask the kitchen to check the dish, the sauce, the oil and the garnish. It should not claim that a whole cuisine is safe. It should not be a medical letter pretending to be one. You still ask what is in the plate in front of you, because a card lists foods, not a translation of every dish on that night’s menu.
Searching SafePlate is free, including before you travel. You can search restaurants for a food allergy before you go, and you can search on the SafePlate homepage. The usable allergy chef card, translated into 38 languages, is part of SafePlate Plus. The allergy chef card page that everyone can open is a preview, in sample wording, so you can see the layout. It is not filled in with your foods, and you cannot print it as your card. Plus is what lets you build the card from your profile, choose a language, and show it or print it.
Some of those languages are marked beta, please double-check. If you see that mark, ask someone who reads the language to confirm the card before you rely on it. Food names that have no translation stay in English, which is another reason to point at them and say them. A card nobody has read does not change the order. Hand it over before you choose, and ask them to take it to the person cooking. If they will not look, treat that as the doubt Food Standards Scotland tells you not to eat through.
The same questions, in another language
- These foods are an allergy. Please check the ingredients, not only the dish name.
- Please include the sauce, the cooking oil, the marinade and the garnish.
- Could the same pan, fryer or board have touched those foods?
- Has the recipe been changed today?
- If you cannot check, please say so. We will order something else.
Call ahead when a phone call is possible. The person who answers may not speak your language well, which is what the card is for, and they may still need to fetch someone who knows the recipe. A confident “no problem” that arrived before they looked is the same weak answer it is at home. Ask them to check and come back.
Buffets, street food and food packed at a counter are harder because you may not be able to see a full ingredients list of the UK PPDS kind. Do not assume a foreign label uses the UK emphasis rules. If you cannot read it and nobody can tell you the ingredients, skip that item. There will be another meal. There is not a second chance you can plan if the first one was a guess.
What you carry, and what an airline decides
The NHS advice on anaphylaxis says that if you have adrenaline auto-injectors, you carry two with you at all times, you check the expiry dates, and you do not leave them somewhere too hot or cold, such as in the fridge or out in the sun. A car in summer and an aeroplane hold are both poor places for them. Follow the storage advice you were given with the devices. This article will not tell you a dose or which brand to take. Use the ones you were prescribed and shown how to use.
Ask the airline, before you fly, how they want prescribed auto-injectors carried. We are not going to guess a carrier’s rule, a liquid limit or a form. If your clinic has given you a written plan, keep it with you so you can follow it. What a border official wants to see is their process. Pack the food questions and the medical plan as two different pieces of paper, so a kitchen is not handed a document full of notes it does not need, and a doctor abroad is not handed only a chef card.
Emergency numbers are not 999 everywhere. Before you go, look up the local number for an ambulance and write it on the same page as your plan. If you think you are having anaphylaxis, use your auto-injector if you have one and get emergency medical help. The NHS steps we use for a reaction in a UK restaurant explain the UK sequence, including lying down and not walking even if you feel better. Abroad, follow your own plan and the emergency service you have reached. Do not wait until you are back at the hotel to see if a reaction passes.
When you are back in the UK, the questions are the ones in how to tell a restaurant. London, Manchester and Edinburgh each explain the local food-safety setup for the day you land. A trip does not change the rule we use at home: information first, and no meal we are unsure about.
Sources
Set up your foods before you search. This is not medical advice. Confirm the meal with the kitchen. In the UK, if you think someone is having anaphylaxis, call 999.