Traveling with Food Allergies: Take the Worry Out of Your Vacation

When you have a food allergy it is important to avoid all of the food items that you are allergic to. While this can be difficult to do when you are at home it is especially difficult to do when you are traveling. Fortunately there are tricks, tips and strategies that you can use to protect yourself from accidentally eating the wrong foods while on vacation.

Understand Your Food Allergy (or Allergies)

If you have already identified foods that you are allergic to then you are in a great position to plan for your vacation dining and snacking. Your first step is to compile two food lists. One list needs to be made up of foods that have the ingredient(s) that you are allergic to, and one list that is made up of safe foods. Type these lists into a word processor and shrink them down so that each list fits on one side of a note card. Then print out your lists, cut them out, paste them to a single note card with safe foods on one side and unsafe foods on the other side, and then have the card laminated.

If you don't have a laminating machine then you can buy a roll or clear contact paper for about $5 and use this to laminate your card. Keep this card in your wallet or purse for easy reference.

Air Travel and Food Allergies

When you travel by plane there are several situations that can put you in direct or indirect contact with food allergens. The first situation is during the in-flight snack. If you are allergic to peanuts then you will want to avoid handling any packaging that contains peanuts, even if it just passing the peanut pouch to the person sitting next to you. You don't know if nut fragments have contaminated the packaging, or if the flight attendant has touched peanuts with her/his hands while preparing meals, passing out snacks or cleaning up snack debris.

The second situation that you can come into contact with food allergens is during the in-flight meal. If your flight is short then this is something you won't have to deal with. Simply eat before you leave or after you land. However, if you are planning a long flight then you will need to contact your airline at least 24 hours in advance to make arrangements for your "special meal."