gluten free travel
I am jetting off to the UK this very weekend, so it seems timely that I should talk about travel for the gluten free.
The first time we flew long haul we naively booked a gluten free meal for me and my son. We were treated to a fruit platter at every single meal. Guess what was for pudding? Yes – more fruit!
It was starvation provoking torture. Fortunately for us – we can bend a little on occasions such as these – and now we just have the normal meal, and just eat around the gluten (eating only the rice on the plate and salads, just to get a bit of savoury on the palate).
Those needing to manage allergies and coeliac disease do not have this luxury owing to the every present threat of cross contamination. So what can you do?
My advice is to book the gluten free meal, and ask the airline what that meal will comprise. (Don’t forget to reconfirm your dietary needs just before the flight and if you are coeliac ensure treatment is included in your travel insurance).
If you discover that a fruit platter is all you will have to look forward to when you are 10miles up in the air, then be sure to supplement your trip with safe and delicious options slipped into your onboard luggage.
Only liquids (and wet foods like yoghurt) are limited in carry on luggage so the only thing you really have to worry about is making sure you dispose of any opened packets of food before you hit customs at the other end. (Although very few countries are as strict as Australia is in this regard – its still better to be safe than detained and fined).
Possible onboard supplies to keep you sustained might include chips, crackers, breakfast bars, mini cheeses, bread sticks, dried fruit, packet soups, and even baby tins of beans or tuna if you want some variety (although these may count towards your liquids quota and would have to be under a particular size).
With the exception of the perishables like cheese, some of these foods may also be handy supplies to have with you at your destination if you are not sure what you might encounter at the other end – but again be sure you declare them – making sure anything you want to take with you from the plane is in its original sealed wrap.
Then foraging for food will the last thing you have to worry about when all you want to do is collapse on your bed.
Bon Voyage!
LH
This is a great article – I also learnt the hard way, booking gluten free meals for flights to the UK and all I got was dry rice cakes – not even some cheese or anything to put on them!!!! Definitely make sure you go prepared
Have to satisfy what we get or change the flight.
I’ve flown Qantas domestic on a number of occasions and always organised a gluten free meal before hand and have had much more than fruit! On the odd (or now twice) occasion that they don’t have any gluten free meals left or the order didn’t go through, I’ve always had on had a packet of gluten free crackers and dried/fresh fruits (that if uneaten are disposed of at my destinations quarantine area. Qantas label all their foods that contain gluten and Virgin Blue’s in-air menu stated what items are gluten free. So far I haven’t had a problem… but then again I’m yet to fly international and I really hope I get more than fruit as I don’t even like many fruits!