Eating Abroad With Food Allergies: A Safety-First Guide

Travelling with a food allergy is entirely possible. Plenty of people with serious allergies eat their way around Asia and Europe every year. But it takes more preparation than eating at home, because the safety nets you rely on in Australia (familiar ingredients, English labels, staff trained on allergen rules) are thinner or simply different overseas. This guide is about the practical habits that keep you safe.

Before you go

Talk to your doctor and get a plan

See your GP or allergist before a big trip. Ask for an up-to-date action plan, enough medication for the whole trip plus spares, and a letter explaining that you need to carry adrenaline autoinjectors and any other medication. In Australia, ASCIA (the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy) publishes a travel plan for people at risk of anaphylaxis that your doctor can complete with you.

Carry your medication: all of it, always

• If you have been prescribed adrenaline autoinjectors, carry them in your hand luggage, never in checked bags, and keep them on you at every meal.
• Check your airline's policy on carrying autoinjectors on board, and keep the doctor's letter with them.
• Adrenaline should be kept away from extreme heat. In the tropics, do not leave it in a hot car, a beach bag in full sun or a scooter compartment.
• Learn the local emergency number for each country, for example 119 for an ambulance in Japan, 1669 in Thailand, and 112 across the EU and as a general number in Indonesia. Check these before you go, as they can change.

Insurance

Declare your allergy to your travel insurer as a pre-existing condition if their policy requires it, and check what is covered. An ambulance and a night in hospital overseas can be very expensive.

Allergy cards in the local language

A printed allergy card (a short, clear statement of what you cannot eat, written in the local language) is still one of the most useful things you can carry. It is quicker than a phone, it survives a flat battery, and you can hand it to a server who takes it into the kitchen.

A good card:

• Names each allergen specifically (peanuts, not just "nuts"; prawns and crab, not just "seafood" if that is your allergy).
• Says how serious it is: that even a tiny amount, or a shared pan or oil, can make you very ill.
• Lists the hidden forms you are worried about: peanut oil, fish sauce, shrimp paste, dashi, sesame oil.
• Says thank you. Kitchens are far more willing to help when you are courteous.

Have the translation checked by a native speaker if you possibly can, and carry several copies.

Cross-contamination

The dish itself may be fine; the problem is often the wok, the fryer or the chopping board. Shared frying oil is a classic risk. A tempura shop's oil, a hawker's deep fryer or a street vendor's wok will usually have cooked many different things. Busy street-food stalls and small kitchens may have no practical way to clean down between orders. In those settings, it can be safer to choose simple dishes, eat at quieter times when cooks have more attention to spare, or skip it altogether.

Where allergens hide

Some cuisines use common allergens as background seasoning rather than as obvious ingredients. They will not appear in the dish's name and often not on the menu description at all.

Thai

Fish sauce (น้ำปลา, nam pla) goes into almost everything savoury. Most curry pastes contain shrimp paste (กะปิ, kapi). Peanuts are ground into satay sauce and massaman curry and sprinkled over pad thai and som tam, which may also contain dried shrimp. Oyster sauce, made from shellfish, is common in stir-fries.

Vietnamese

Fish sauce (nước mắm) is the base of the dipping sauce served with spring rolls and rice-noodle dishes. Crushed peanuts (đậu phộng in the south, lạc in the north) are scattered over salads, noodles and rolls. Fermented shrimp paste (mắm tôm) appears in some northern dishes and dipping sauces.

Indonesian and Malaysian

Shrimp paste (terasi in Indonesia, belacan in Malaysia) is in many sambals and spice pastes, so a chilli condiment can contain shellfish. Peanut sauce (bumbu kacang) is central to gado-gado, satay and pecel. Prawn crackers (krupuk udang) arrive on the side of many plates, and sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) contains soy and usually wheat.

Japanese

Dashi, the stock behind miso soup, noodle broths and many sauces, is usually made with bonito (a fish) and kelp. Sesame turns up as seeds, oil and dressings. Soy sauce contains wheat. Soba noodles are made from buckwheat, and some soba shops cook other noodles in the same water. Tempura is often fried in shared oil with prawns.

Chinese

Peanut oil is a common cooking oil, and sesame oil is used for finishing. Oyster sauce and XO sauce (made with dried seafood) are everyday ingredients in stir-fries. Soy sauce and many noodles contain wheat.

Useful phrases

These are short and direct. For a serious allergy, use them alongside your card, not instead of it. Replace the allergen with your own.

私はピーナッツアレルギーです Watashi wa pīnattsu arerugī desu: "I am allergic to peanuts" (Japanese)

少しでも食べると危険です Sukoshi demo taberu to kiken desu: "Even a small amount is dangerous" (Japanese)

ฉันแพ้ถั่วลิสง Chan phae thua lisong: "I am allergic to peanuts" (Thai; men often say ผม, phom, instead of ฉัน)

ไม่ใส่น้ำปลา Mai sai nam pla: "No fish sauce" (Thai)

Saya alergi kacang tanah "I am allergic to peanuts" (Indonesian)

Tanpa udang dan terasi "Without prawns and shrimp paste" (Indonesian)

Tôi bị dị ứng hải sản "I am allergic to seafood" (Vietnamese)

我对花生过敏 Wǒ duì huāshēng guòmǐn: "I am allergic to peanuts" (Mandarin)

Be aware that "no peanuts" can be heard as "leave off the garnish" rather than "nothing containing peanut at all". Make the seriousness clear, and ask about the sauce and the oil, not just what goes on top.

How swap.menu can help, and where it stops

When you photograph a menu, swap.menu translates and explains each dish, and adds dietary hints where a dish commonly contains things like peanuts, shellfish, fish, dairy or gluten. That can help you spot a sauce or ingredient you would not have recognised from the dish name, and narrow down which dishes are worth asking about.

You can also add a note to your order, typed or spoken, such as "Severe peanut allergy: no peanuts, peanut oil or peanut sauce, please," and it is translated into the restaurant's language. Show the waiter the bilingual order, or let them scan a QR code to read it on their own phone, so your request reaches the kitchen in their words.

But be clear about what this is. The hints are based on how a dish is typically made, not on how this particular kitchen makes it. Menus leave things out, recipes vary from one cook to the next, translations can miss nuance, and nothing on a screen can see a shared fryer. Treat the hints as a starting point for a conversation with staff, never as confirmation that a dish is safe.

A simple routine for every meal

1. Check your medication is on you before you sit down.
2. Show your allergy card or translated note before ordering, not after.
3. Ask about sauces, stocks, oils and garnishes, not just the main ingredients.
4. If staff seem unsure, or the answer feels vague, choose something else or eat elsewhere.
5. Trust your instincts. Walking out of a restaurant is always an option.

With good preparation, most allergy travellers eat well and safely. The aim is not to avoid local food. It is to know where the risks are, so you can enjoy everything else with confidence.