Please sign in to post.

First time traveling with a food allergy

Posted by (Florida) on

I discovered that I am allergic to buckwheat while traveling in Italy last year, so now I'm planning my first overseas trip with a known food allergy. Does anyone have recommendations for allergy card companies? I see a bunch of different options online. I've thought of making them myself using Google translate, but I have no way to check if the translation is correct.

We are going to be traveling to Greece, Turkey and Portugal in the next year. If anyone very familiar with those areas know of specific foods I should avoid, that would be great. Buckwheat is a good grain substitute for people who are gluten free, so it's popularity is growing. Thank you so much!

Posted by
8889 posts

Do not use Google translate, it is only 80-90% accurate, and not to be trusted with something so important.
I suggest you search the internet for "Buckwheat Allergy cards". Thre are usually plenty of free ones to print out, usually providfed on websites for suffers (right word?).
I found plenty for Wheat, but not Buckwheat, a bit obscure.

You could try the "contact us" on this site: https://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/knowledgebase/buckwheat/
It is the UK association, but UK people travel to Europe more and are more likely to have hit this problem.

Posted by
610 posts

Thank you for that link, Chris. I will try contacting them. Buckwheat does seem to be kind of obscure in the allergy world, so this is trickier than I thought!

Posted by
27104 posts

Tamara, for future reference (not an issue with your current list of destinations). But I think buckwheat is a very common ingredient in Breton galettes (crepes with savory rather than sweet fillings). There are lots of creperies all over France.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.