By: Gwen Smith, Allergic Living Editor

Hallelujah, we’ve been heard. If you ask a flight attendant on WestJet, Canada’s second largest airline, she or he will step to the microphone and ask fellow passengers to please not pull out nut or peanut snacks. The attendant will briefly explain that this is because there is a person onboard with serious allergies.

via WestJet Steps Up to the Mike | Allergic Living.

Of course this is HUGE news for the food allergic traveller our there. WestJet knows how to deal with the public, unlike Air Canada that gives you a buffer zone, IF you have filled in the required  form from your doctor and faxed to the medical desk and a call to Reservations to book the zone. At least they have something.

www.lonelyplate.org is  all about getting the word out on places to go and safely enjoy your time out without worry.

I went to Disney World a couple years ago and they were FANTASTIC! We’ll be going back sometime very soon to reproduce the trip, pretty much exactly. Land and sea cruise/park package. Stay at Animal Kingdom and just soak it all in.

Ok, I’m leaving.

Wait, Here’s the info in this press release. Check it out and participate! Make this the Go To place for this info!!

PRESS RELEASE: New Food Allergy/Celiac Restaurant and Travel Review Website

WASHINGTON – A new website catering to the food allergy and Celiac community, www.LonelyPlate.org, was launched in February by Sharona Schwartz, who up until a year and a half ago was News Coverage Manager at CNN’s Washington Bureau. While at CNN, Schwartz produced award-winning television reports with chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on food allergies.   She is also the mother of a daughter diagnosed with multiple food allergies, including wheat, peanuts, fish and more.

At LonelyPlate.org, individuals dealing with food allergies and Celiac can write reviews about restaurants, hotels, airlines and theme parks they visit.

“There are fantastic online resources reviewing restaurants and hotels, but because I couldn’t find any that consolidated our unique experiences in an easy, interactive, international platform, I decided to create an interactive database where we can review restaurants, hotels, airlines, and kid-friendly venues,” says Schwartz.

“Wouldn’t it be great to give a shout out to a place that did a great job helping you have a safe meal, or warn others of a place to stay away from at all cost?” Schwartz says.

Recognizing dining out for those with food limitations is an experience fraught with worry for many, Schwartz says the website will disseminate reports, both positive and negative, to families facing similar medical challenges. “This kind of information-sharing is crucial not only to keep each other safe but also can be a message to restaurants that we are a consumer community worth catering to,” she says.

The Examiner.com writes of the new site: “…what a great accomplishment for those of us on a restricted diet.  With so many people being diagnosed with a food intolerance, this type of website will help us feel more normal and stay safe when we are traveling and when we are at home.”

The web address is www.lonelyplate.org.

Contact information: info@lonelyplate.org

Link to The Examiner article:

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-15981-Gwinnett-GlutenFree-Food-Examiner~y2010m2d16-Lonelyplateorg-offers-national-consumer-reviews-for-those-with-food-allergies

Link to godairyfree review:

http://www.godairyfree.org/201002284124/News/Nutrition-Headlines/Lonely-Plate-Launches-as-Food-Allergy-and-Celiac-Restaurant-and-Travel-Review-Website.html

Allerglobal is offering a service to allergic travelers where they can print out an allergy awareness card in the language of your choice.

Example card, downloadable as PDF.

Qabiria introduces Allerglobal: A new website dedicated to travellers with food allergies

Qabiria Studio is proud to introduce Allerglobal (www.allerglobal.com). This new website is dedicated to people suffering from food allergies who travel abroad and need to explain their condition in a foreign language.

Allerglobal is a free on-line service that conveniently translates food allergies in almost all Central and Eastern European languages. It automatically creates a customized, accurate passport-sized card with the user’s allergy information in the chosen language. Users just need to print it, slip it in their wallet, and show it at restaurants, hotels, or wherever needed. This service is intended to contribute to a safer, more comfortable travel for people with food allergies and intolerances.

Built upon a database of almost 2000 terms, Allerglobal is the first food allergy translation tool that offers such a wide choice of languages: 7 source languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Catalan) and 27 target languages (English, Albanian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, German, Estonian, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian). Moreover, Qabiria Studio is planning to double the number of available languages in the future.

Qabiria Studio is a language service provider based in Barcelona, Spain. Besides offering translation, training and consulting for the translation industry, Qabiria strives to make a creative use of language and technology to find smart new solutions for everyone.

via Allerglobal.

Delta began serving peanuts in late March, when it substituted its snack, food and beverage offerings for those previously provided by Northwest.

The Memphis Commerical Appeal reported Saturday that Flinn said he’s not allergic to peanuts, but his grandson is.

“It’s been absolutely proven that if someone who is allergic to peanuts is exposed to peanuts, they’re going to have anaphylaxis,” he said. “This can cause trouble breathing, possibly even death.”

Delta spokesman Anthony Black said the airline’s policy is to create a buffer zone three rows in front and three rows behind a passenger with peanut allergy.

But Flinn said that’s not good enough because some allergy patients can be affected by airborne peanut particles.

He said Northwest not only provided that, but the airline also would make courtesy announcements asking passengers not to break out their own peanut-based snacks while traveling on a flight with an allergic person.

He said his family has been forced to make alternative travel arrangements with his grandson since the snack offerings changed.

“Peanut allergy is the most common cause of severe allergic reactions in the U.S. and it tends to be a lifelong allergy. Further, the entire family of an allergic individual usually changes their plans to keep that person safe, thereby making the market impact of food allergies three to four times greater than the 12 million patients,” said Anne Munoz-Furlong, founder of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network.

via Delta urged to stop offering peanuts – UPI.com.

We have come up with some standard questions we like to ask. Sometimes we feel the need to ask them all, sometimes we are satisfied if the management has a strong grasp without the need to ask all the questions.

It is especially wonderful when a staff member offers to give you a tour of a buffet or the menu outlining what is safe and what to stay away from. When someone suggests to stay away from something I also like to ask about the preparation of that dish, if it is prepared separately and safely from the safe dishes.

Do you have a standard list of questions different from what we have below?

The List:

Families with food allergic individuals make significant lifestyle alterations when it comes to vacation planning, according to a study presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI).

Stephanie A. Leonard, MD, and colleagues looked at how having a food allergic family member impacts the vacation planning process using a survey that was filled out by 410 participants.

The survey results showed that food allergies limit where and how families with food allergic members vacation. Among those who vacation, 68% limit the type of destination with 90% vacationing solely in the U.S. and only 0.3% traveling to a remote location.

Thirty-six percent of respondents reported limiting the type of transportation they take for vacations with 80% avoiding ships and 65% avoiding planes. Typical travel preparations included obtaining extra epinephrine injectors (67%), packing allergen-free food (94%), requesting special airplane accommodations (53%) and researching where the closest hospital is located (48%).

Japan, India, China, Africa and beach resorts in foreign countries were among the destinations that survey responders were least likely to visit.

Once at their destination, 51% eat most of their meals in their own room and 86% arrange for special meals if the destination is equipped to make those accommodations.

Overall, medical care was found to be the most common limit on choice of vacation destination, which prompts a call for resorts to have better access to medical care and the option to ask for special arrangements for those with food allergies.

The AAAAI represents allergists, asthma specialists, clinical immunologists, allied health professionals and others with a special interest in the research and treatment of allergic disease. Established in 1943, the AAAAI has more than 6,500 members in the United States, Canada and 60 other countries.

Notes

- These studies were presented during the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) on March 13-17 in Washington, DC. However, they do not necessarily reflect the policies or the opinions of the AAAAI.

via Food Allergies Limit Where And How Families Vacation.