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Travel Day Meals & Snacks for People with Food Allergies: Your Stress-Free Guide
Travel Day Meals & Snacks for People with Food Allergies: Your Stress-Free Guide
Travel days can feel absolutely overwhelming when you or your child has food allergies.
For the past 24 years, we have been managing multiple anaphylactic food allergies for my daughter Katie.
Hi, I am Cindi Korpacz, Food Allergy Mom & CEO of a Travel Consulting Company we founded 8 years ago to help others travel and live more safely with food allergies.
As of writing this blog post, our company, An Easy Journey, LLC. has helped 1,000’s of people with Food Allergies travel all over the USA & World with 0 food allergy reactions.
Now, I can’t guarantee this but tell you so you know we take Food Allergies VERY seriously!
And if you don’t know our story, I watched my baby daughter almost die on our kitchen floor from an anaphylactic food allergy reaction to chocolate peanut butter ice cream.
So, our current food allergies are:
- Peanuts
- Legumes (including Lupins)
- Tree Nuts (Katie has since done OIT & can safely eat tree nuts now but many tree nuts are cross contact with peanuts)
- Shellfish
- Soy
- Dairy & Meat Intolerant
See why we always say:
If we can travel, you probably can too!!
Your Fears of Traveling with Food Allergies
From personal experience, I can probably guess most of your fears when traveling with food allergies.
Cause for years after our food allergy diagnosis, I was too scared to travel almost anywhere but trusted family & Disney World.
Yes, see more: Your Magical Guide for Disney World with Food Allergies • Travel • An Easy Journey
Especially now with unpredictable airport lines, food options & travel delays, it’s so natural to worry:
What will we eat?
Will there be safe food?
What if we get stuck somewhere?
The good news?
With the right planning from this Guide, you’ll be MUCH more relaxed & totally full. Promise!
Even if you get stuck overnight or extra-long travel day!
And if you’re trip involves flying, see our most popular blog post, updated yearly:
Flying With Food Allergies Guide • Travel Tips • An Easy Journey
Why Travel Day Food Planning Matters (More than You Think)
As you know, if you have food allergies, travel introduces some challenges:
- Unfamiliar restaurants, markets & food
- High likelihood of cross contact/cross contamination in planes & small spaces like onboard, boarding areas & even rental cars
- Delays/Cancellations that can dramatically extend your travel time
OK, we know the playing field, but we’ve got this!
Absolutely must haves:
24 years of managing multiple, anaphylactic food allergies & travelling the World (as well as helping 1,000’s of our Travel Consulting Clients for 8+ years now) & these are our absolute Must Have’s:
- “Our handy-dandy Backpack Cooler” – insulated, 1 we personally use for years, inexpensive.
- Insulated Stainless Steel Hydrapeak Food Container. Keeps hot foods warm for 10 hours, cold food for up to 16 hours. 1 per person, so everyone has their own & chose different colors so no risk of someone eating wrong container. Ask me how I know this! 😅
- Disinfecting wipes, plastic eating utensils & a small disposable garbage bag.
- Adding this Below Zero Stainless Steel reusable ice pack as a flight attendant messaged me that this is her go to for her safe food (she’s recently diagnosed with a food allergy). Note: she is often flagged for this item at security as it looks different from most ice packs, but she said it REALLY works!
- Our newest “Must Have”: Cerbonny freezable lunch bag built in removable gel packs. This is perfect for 1 person lunch/snacks.
These links are for our Amazon Store – we receive a small commission for your purchase. Our small woman owned business very much appreciates your support to help make this blog possible. 🙂
😎 From our Instagram An Easy Journey: Caribbean Lunch! You did FOLLOW US, right!
Our Food Allergy-Friendly Travel Food Plan
As we suggest to our traveling consulting clients, your expected travel time + 12/24 hours food plan.
24 hours for international or complicated domestic travel or 12-hour food allergy friendly meal & snack plan if domestic or less chance of delays trip.
Let’s do this!!!
We’re getting ready to fly to Paris soon. And if you’ve followed us, know this is a challenging place with our many food allergies.
So, need to keep this in mind for planning. We’ll use our upcoming Paris trip as example to help you with your Travel Food Plan.
24 Hours Food Allergy Travel Foods
On the Day of Departure:
As usual, will eat breakfast & lunch at home. Usually, we eat more protein dense foods day of travel with good balance of carbs & fruit.
Then, leaving for 2-hour drive to airport at 1:30 pm, will be arriving at the airport at 3:30 pm. Drop off luggage & get thru security.
And yes, as long as your ice packs are solidly frozen, they can go thru security per TSA rules.
Pro Tip: Bring a few Ziplock baggies & if your ice packs are taken, ask for ice at a fast-food restaurant past security.
Dinner from our Backpack Cooler. Some suggestions but as always, adjust for your specific food allergies:
- Warm Pasta with Tomato Basil Sauce & side salad with our safe garlic bread
- Warm Roasted Veggie Stew with Orzo Pasta
- Homemade Quiche, side salad & safe bread/rolls
- Pizza that you bring from home (NEVER try a food for 1st time at 35,000 feet!)
- Our delicious & can be Vegetarian Italian Gnocchi Stew
- Nicoise Salad with proteins like hard-boiled egg slices, salmon or tuna or chicken – whatever is safe for your specific food allergies
Alrighty, we should be aboard our flight & into our snacks! See, I told you we’re going to be fun travel buddies!!
Travel Day Meals & Snacks for People with Food Allergies: Your Stress-Free Guide is just getting started!
Snacks, Glorious Food Allergy-Friendly Snacks
As always, we try & bring more substantial snacks as travel makes everyone hungrier & can sometimes be helpful to extend our time between meals.
Now, everyone has different food allergies & food likes.
So, we like to bring @MadeGood protein balls, granola bars & cookies – A LOT of these!!!
Other yummy snacks include fresh fruit (just remember to throw away prior to landing if international flight), veggies with a little dip (less than 3.5 oz.), cheese/salami/ham, crackers, & sandwiches. My kids love to use homemade waffles to make a fun & delicious sandwich with Sun Butter & jam or any sandwiches you like & is #foodallergyfriendly for you. Most of these foods can also be a meal.
Also, we include individual bags of salty & crunchy snacks like pretzels, potato chips & goldfish crackers.
Onto the sweets!!!
We make ahead & freeze, my families absolute favorite Pumpkin Chip Bread. This is great because it makes 2 loaves, freezes well & is gone in a flash!!
Other sweet snacks/desserts that are food allergy friendly for us include cupcakes, Sweet Lorenz cookies & our homemade Cranberry Orange Grand Marnier Bread.
Of course, you can omit the Grand Marnier!
Still Traveling: Breakfast with Food Allergies
Our European flight will land in Paris, France early am, so a little breakfast is necessary to get thru customs/luggage & to our hotel or Airbnb/VRBO.
Easy to take & eat food allergy friendly breakfasts include:
- Our homemade Quiche with our rolls & any fresh fruit
- Made Good Mornings Oat Cups or Soft-Baked Bars
- Our defrosted apple sauce pouches (we freeze & use as ice pack in our Backpack Cooler) with a waffle sandwich
- Bagels we brought with us
- Leftover Pumpkin Chip Bread (Note: we never seem to have this option!)
Travel Delays: Food Allergy Meal Plan
As life is unpredictable, travel delays happen. So, we should be prepared as possible & depending on your trip type/expected time, allow 12 – 24 hours of additional travel time.
This is where I pack another Hydrapeak insulated container for my daughter.
In this container is a bowl meal.
Things like cold rice noodles/pasta salad with olive oil or with her #soyfree @PrimalKitchen sauces, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado and possibly some type of protein like hard boiled eggs.
Last year, my daughter Katie was flying to Italy to help with our Small Group Italy trip (Come with us! We go every Summer – yes, with food allergies) & her flight was delayed, causing her to unexpectedly spend the night in Paris. Well, this was the 1st time she didn’t bring her “handy-dandy backpack cooler” & she was struggling to find safe food, late at night, unexpectedly in France.
I finally got to hear the words every parent longs for:
You were right, Mom!!
Satisfying only when your child is safe and well-fed!
Easy, Travel & Food Allergy Friendly Meal Ideas
So, the Food Plan should be good to get us to our apartment rental in Paris. We also bring a package of spaghetti in our checked luggage in case we’re REALLY delayed & arrive when markets & grocery stores are closed. Ask me if this has happened to us! 🙂
And some additional ideas for your Food Travel Plan:
- Overnight Oats
- Muffins with Jam (if domestic trip, fresh fruits like apples, pears, oranges travel well)
- Bagel with safe spread
- Chicken & rice bowls
- Veggie Wraps/Turkey Wraps, etc…
Lastly, we always clean up our area so not to cause anyone else issues. Also, before opening our food, ask our neighbors if they have food allergies.
Travel Day Meals & Snacks for People with Food Allergies: Your Stress-Free Guide
As you can see, with a little pre-trip prep you can feel much more comfortable & confident, avoid potentially unsafe situations & enjoy your travel!
If you’re ready to make Traveling with Food allergies even easier, we share Travel Tips, Destination Guides & Real-Life Strategies inside our Community – Join Us Here:
Private Facebook Group, Food Allergy Travels and Life, & 
On our Instagram where our reels share our Food Allergy experiences – just know, you may laugh a lot!
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🧳 Grab our free Ultimate Packing List here specifically for Food Allergy Trips – all kinds of travels: long weekends, 3 weeks in Europe, Caribbean…click: Packing List.
- If you would like help planning your Food Allergy trip, our Travel Starter Guide is having your own personal travel agent/food allergy expert!
- & SUBSCRIBE to our blog so you never miss a Food Allergy post!
Corporations, Schools, Travel & Hospitality Companies: Schedule a Call Now
As states are adopting yearly training for Food Allergy Education, Contact Us now to schedule a call & see how we can help make your clients, students & employees SAFER!
We work with small groups through Big 10 Universities and often have wait lists.
It’s always better to mitigate your risk than manage a tragic accident. Leaders who see this as an opportunity to keep all of us safer will have loyal employees, customers and contribute to a better World.
#aneasyjourney #foodallergies #foodallergytravelsandlife #foodallergytravel #foodallergytraining #foodallergyadvocate
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