Order Gluten Free & Special Diet Airline Meals

The following guidelines help you to order and receive gluten free, allergy friendly, diabetic, vegan and healthy meals while traveling by air.

1. Although most airline carriers offer special diet meals, it is still necessary to make airline personnel aware of your needs in advance
2. Airlines that offer healthy special meals typically need advance notification anywhere between 24 to 96 hours to ensure that your desired meal is ready at the time of your departure
3. Confirm your meal request directly with the airline or with your travel agent prior to your departure
4. Be sure to pack some snacks as a precautionary measure, just in case your flight is delayed, plans change or an error is made with your meal.
5. Long haul flights can be particularly difficult if you do not have anything to eat during your travels! For helpful hints on what you can bring, please visit the Snacks page.

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Gluten Free and Healthy Meal Availability by Global Airlines

Many global airlines cater to those who need special meals when traveling by air. The selection & quality of these meals significantly varies from airline to airline. When booking your flight, indicate that you would like to order a special meal and provide the standard special meal code.

Note: the majority of airline computer systems can only address one meal code as a requirement.  The standard meal codes used by the airline industry around the world for special dietary meals are as follows:

GFML (Gluten Free Meal)
Indicates no wheat, rye, barley or their derivatives

NLML (Non-Lactose Meal)
Indicates no milk, cheese, dairy or their derivatives

PFML (Peanut Free Meal)
Indicates no peanuts or its derivatives

FPML (Fruit Plate Meal)
Contains fresh fruits & possible bakery item

SFML (Seafood Meal)
Contains only seafood items

DBML (Diabetic Meal)
Indicates no refined sugars, syrups, jams, cakes, chocolates, etc.

VGML (Vegan Meal)
Indicates no meat, fish, seafood, eggs, honey, dairy products or their derivatives

RVML (Raw-Vegetarian Meal)
Indicates combination of raw vegetables and fruit

Some international airline carriers specify on their websites if they offer some of the more commonly requested meals to travelers including: glutenfree meals (GFML), non-lactose meals (NLML), peanut free meals (PFML), fruit plate meals (FPML) and seafood meals (SFML).

Below is a chart of global airlines indicating the availability of these five types of meals. Be sure to contact your preferred airline to order your desired special meal aboard your flight.