Travelling with Food Allergies

Love to travel and eat, but are not able to consume certain foods due to allergies or restrictions? Worried that this could be a potential problem if travelling to a country with a language you don't understand? Not sure how to tell your server you can't eat any wheat products? The website njoy-translations (http://www.njoy-translations.com/) offers an online translation service dedicated solely to special diets and food allergies. Translations can be done into 55 languages (and are said to be error-free), definitely important when talking about serious food allergies.

You can either print the translations in advance and take with you or access them through your mobile phone browser. This service costs $1 US a language, but there is a free trial you can test out for 30 days. There are ready-made translations of the more common food allergies such as peanuts, milk, shellfish, etc. There are also 14 ready made translations catered to specific diets including Kosher, Lactose intolerant, Vegan and Celiac Disease. The translations also have what they call "action-oriented" phrases to help the server get the vital information to the kitchen, for example, "please check with the chef and suggest options available to me".

According to the njoy website, their customer feedback has shown the best and safest way to communicate special food concerns is to give printed cards/translations to the server to pass on to the chef, thus avoiding anything being lost in translation. I totally agree. I know when I try to say something in a different language, I am probably muttering something completely different. It's so hard to know the proper pronunciation regardless if you have the word spelled out phonetically in front of you. If you want to try speaking the foreign language, I know that would be most appreciated, but it might be a good idea to have your printed translations as a back-up.

Happy Eating,
BikeHike