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Eat Gluten & Allergy Free in Restaurants Across the Globe

Even though more restaurants across the globe are offering gluten free menus and food allergy charts, there are times when you go to restaurants with regular menus or want to order something else based upon the ethnic restaurant that isn't on the gluten free menu. Arm yourself with information at your fingertips about foods, dishes, ingredients and food preparation!

Make sure your meal is safe from gluten, wheat, dairy, egg, soy, nuts, peanuts, fish and /or shellfish when dining in Chinese, French, Indian, Italian, Mexican, Steak & Seafood and Thai restaurants. Use ethnic restaurant menu helpers designed as an easy-to-use mobile app, books and ebooks based on your preferences to help you navigate your menu options.

Based on years of extensive research, accuracy testing and focus groups, rely on the best-selling Let's Eat Out series for the answers:

• Multi-award winning iEatOut Apple app

• Let's Eat Out Around the World paperback book or ebook

• Gluten Free Dining Out Toolbox and specific gluten free ethnic restaurant meal ebooks

How to Order Gluten Free and Allergy Friendly Restaurant Meals

Excerpted from Kim Koeller’s Interview with About.com

About.com Family Vacations: For dining out, your books and Apple app offer ordering guidelines for people with specific allergies and intolerances. Can you share a few examples of guidelines that would help parents or kids with an intolerance navigate a restaurant menu?

Kim Koeller: Based on global market research that we conducted, almost 90 percent of food service and hospitality professionals indicate that communication of special dietary needs when ordering is the top priority for gluten and allergen free guests.

Depending up on the desired ethnic restaurant meals, you also need to understand what ingredients and food preparation techniques are safe, what questions to ask the staff, where allergens may be hidden and what modifications can be made to easily accommodate the food allergy or intolerance.

So, parents or older kids first need to inform the restaurant wait staff of their food allergy or intolerance. Say, for example, "I’m allergic to gluten and wheat so I can’t eat any bread or flour." Or "I’m allergic to dairy so I can’t have any milk and butter."

Then, instead of simply asking, “Is this dish gluten free, dairy free or X allergen free?”, ask questions specific to the menu item based on ingredients and food preparation in restaurant terms.

For example, if they are gluten free, sample questions could be:

• Are your hamburgers and the flourless chocolate cake made with bread crumbs?

• Is your chicken flour dusted?

• Is the sauce made from a roux which includes wheat flour?

If they have a milk or dairy allergy, sample questions may include:/h4>

• Does your marinara sauce have parmesan cheese?

• Is your steak finished off with butter?

• Do you add milk to your omelette?

It is critical to understand what can and cannot be eaten based on ingredients and food preparation when navigating restaurant menus. Some tools to help ensure safe meals include our Let’s Eat Out book and iEatOut Apple app.

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