How do people manage severe food allergies on trips away?

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Just a pondering really, a friend is having extensive tests for food allergies. If you are severely allergic, how do you manage things like days out, weekends away etc?
Friend is a bit terrified of eating something out and it having possible lethal effects. Currently she is taking her own food everywhere , but how do you do it for longer than a day trip?

Surely if she was deathly allergic and was going to have a lethal reaction, she’d have had one by now at some point in her life? Most people who have food allergies don’t have anaphylaxis.

I agree with you though for those with very severe food allergies it must be scary. Especially flying on a plane, you’re relying on people to be considerate and stick to the rules!

In brief, you are limited in what you can do without a massive amount of planning. Depends what allergies you end up with.
Some restaurants are useless and just say they can't cater for allergies. Chain restaurants are usually better.

Not an allergy, but my daughter is coeliac, so serious long term impact if has even traces of gluten.
When she was first diagnosed we were really anxious to eat out anywhere, took food with us everywhere, didn't go away. But gradually we have learnt to navigate and even went abroad this year.

We

• ask for recommendations in specialist Facebook groups for places we are visiting
• contact them ahead of visiting to check their policies and procedures
• recheck everything on arrival

Your friend should get an EpiPen if anaphylaxis is likely, and as their friend you should learn how to use in case they are to unwell to be able to.
Look for places which are certified by coeliac UK- even if not a gluten allergy, it demonstrates an awareness of how to handle food without cross contamination.

Chains we have found are really helpful are pizza express and nandos

I remember ordering an allergy meal on the plane and was asked if I would mind changing seats at the start of the 8 hour flight, I assumed they'd send the allergy meal my way when the food came out but nope, they did not.

So basically you don't eat!

Dd is not anaphylactic but has a dairy allergy severe enough that she becomes immediately unwell. It gets worse every time she is exposed- so pp who mentioned having a reaction by now, it can get worse over time.

planes she takes her own food. She won’t eat anything unpackaged and not clearly labelled.

restaurants can be tricky, she’ll stick to “safe” foods and follow her instincts on how seriously it’s taken- if she thinks they haven’t understood then no. Uk tends to be good- orders signed off by managers, little flags, warnings on cross contamination. Other countries not so much.

she carries antihistamines always. If going anywhere English is not spoken she also gets little cards made up in the local language stating her allergy.

I know what foods are the biggest risk and generally avoid them. For me that is mainly curries and deserts. If I'm unsure about something, I will do a "dab test", put a tiny amount on my lip and see what happens.

If I was going to somewhere with a language barrier and iffy medical care, I would take an epi pen.

Obviously depends how severe your friends allergy is though.

I can’t go away unless it is in the UK and self catered. I can only really eat food I’ve cooked with maybe a few exceptions for meals in certain places but have to make very boring choices as my options are so limited therefore don’t really bother eating out.

Simple as that - it really restricts my life and I feel a sort of grief for the life I could have had. Love other cultures and - prior to developing these issues - I loved to travel but now I can’t.

Self catering.

packed lunches and teas for the plane/car/days out

we drove to France with a freezer bag full of ore made food

Does depend on severity, where you are going and what they are. If for instance you have a dairy and gluten issue then it’s relatively easy to navigate, both are required to be listed on menus and people understand. Harder are more hidden ingredients like celery that’s in stock cubes, soya, in many processed foods etc but any commercial kitchen must be able to tell you what’s in food, I simply give the ingredient lists to clients (free soup kitchen) and it’s up to them to decide if they can eat our food, I have to caution that’s it’s a tiny kitchen so cross contamination is a possibility even though we try our best - if I can manage it, proper trained chefs should be able to

BIL has a number of severe allergies but mostly the usual major allergens like fish, eggs, nuts. He goes everywhere with two epi pens.

Usually travels with his own food, prefers self catering and tends to stick to taking holidays in locations where the cuisine largely works for his allergy. eg: he likes Greece because it's relatively simple to get lamb kebabs and a salad. Loves Italy as mostly lives on Italian food in the UK.

He also gets his allergies listed, translate into the local language and printed out so he can hand it to waiting staff. A few places have basically said they can't cater for him without risk and he goes elsewhere.

And many who have benign reactions for years when inadvertently‘poisoned’ by the allergen - if you can call vomiting so copiously that you block the sink and lavatory in the offending restaurant ‘benign’ - develop anaphylaxis with no warning. You really can’t rely on what’s happened before.

In the uk, yes.

other countries, not so much so.

the us can be bad for example. Gluten they’re pretty good, other allergens not so much. Even normally safe food like rice they will cook with butter. Chains are often best as they tend to have little books with allergens listed they can find somewhere.

subway we stopped going as more than one branch tried to argue that tuna was vegetarian, and said they didn’t need to change gloves, that and the double dipping into all the bowls.

Dh has a severe nut allergy, he’s very low key about it (too low key sometimes) only recently got an EpiPen as we were travelling to a developing country with a high usage of nuts. He does the lip test and maintains he knows where they hide.

A family friend died in his 40s from an allergy having only recently started having allergic reactions. They were still testing to find out what he was allergic to.

My DD has severe and multiple food allergies. Theses are the steps we take:

1. never eat plane food. We always take her own snacks/food.
2. I wipe down seats and tables with disenfectant wipes before she sits in them. I have found nuts down the seats and cleaning of planes between customers is very minimal.
3. she wears a ffp2 mask when flying to minimise reactions to airbourne allergens depending on the food type served onboard.
4. We take a whole suitcase full of foods and snacks. Things like cup a soup, noodles, biscuits, crisps, chocolate, breadsticks. It means that when we get to the destination we scan pick up cheese and fruit and she has a snack type lunch if we can’t find anything suitable.
5. carry an allergy card in the local language and show it every time you eat or drink. Food that is safe here can often be prepared differently in other countries.
6. know what works for you. For us Italian food places are less risky due to her allergies so regardless where we are we look out for Italian.
7. look at the whole menu to decide on your individual risk eg dd will only have icecream if no nut type icecream is served.
8. it’s ok to enjoy the ambience and not eat. Often my daughter will enjoy going to different places to enjoy their cocktail menu and maybe a bowl of olives rather than eating dinner and will then have noodles at the hotel.
9. We travel with 4 EpiPens and piriton just in case. If we are going somewhere hot they are kept in a cool bag style lunch bag with a cold pack inside.
10. cruise - this is by far the easiest option. P and o have specialist allergy chefs that check in everyday with my DD and prepare her food just for her. It really is wonderful.

there’s probably a whole lot more that we do without even thinking. The philosophy my daughter has is she would prefer to visit wonderful places and eat noodles in the hotel room or boring ‘safe food’ than not visit these places at all. Interestingly, places that you think will be easy to visit are often harder than those that you expect to be challenging. We found Hong Kong soo easy and the staff soo accommodating (it helps that they have m and s) but America it was almost impossible.

I am very casual with my own (I know I shouldn’t be, but they are very specific and I know exactly which foods/cuisines to avoid). But my children both carry epi pens and I’m too scared to take them abroad. It’s really sad. I travelled extensively myself before kids but being responsible for their safety (rather than my own) terrifies me into boring, safe approaches to life. I don’t want them to be forced to live as shrunken versions of themselves so I need to get over it. I will follow this thread for tips.

what are your friend’s allergies? If they are top 14 there are lots of online resources to help find safe places to eat out

Different countries have different levels of allergy awareness.

Italy in major tourist cities is generally very good. They have a large coeliac population so you find places marketing themselves on managing gluten free. Lots of places will ask about allergies and/or hand you a very detailed allergy menu.

Plus there is always self-catering.

Print offs in the local language stating ‘I will die if I eat X - major allergy - beware’.

I take my own pre packaged foods, and a good multivitamin and just accept that while away my diet won’t be great. I have multiple very severe allergies so it’s just not worth the risk for me. I also double my antihistamine dose

No, severe allergy can strike at any time, particularly in midlife for women due to hormone changes - and previous mild reactions can become Ana at time too. Your post is naive but I do think most people assume these things. Allergy is very unpredictable. Severe allergies can also suddenly disappear.

Lip test works. I do it too (my allergens aren’t nuts), and you do also eventually understand where things hide

My little cousin died abroad from anaphylaxis related to her long standing food allergies. It has devastated the family.
She was at Uni and took her own food and cutlery everywhere with her in her own Tupperware. So she would go to mates’ and take everything with her ❤
She was really doing well.
She was away with her mum in the country her mum is from and speaks the language fluently but it just takes one slip up from chef and that’s it.
So the answer is, you can’t be safe, it’s really terrifying and all you can do is make choices about how you live your life. And sometimes those choices will get you.

We’ve had a few occasions though, so his approach hasn’t always worked but it’s a balance, he needs to life his life without obsessing over dying.

My daughter has a life threatening milk allergy and we take or buy food. Occasionally she might have something like chips but that’s it. She would often have a boiled egg for breakfast with fruit, then she eats either food I can buy from a supermarket or have taken with us. Last year we did a 3 week road trip through the states and we stopped at supermarkets and occasionally she had McDonald’s chips. The only times she’s had anaphylaxis is in restaurants abroad (twice) and will never do that again. She’s at university now and it’s extremely stressful. People have no idea what this sort of allergy is like unless they experience it.