We are taking the entire family to Europe in a couple of weeks and we are considering our options for dealing with our youngest son's significant food allergies.

Because of the allergies, we must prepare all his food. Since we will be in countries where it will be difficult to read ingredients on packaging, etc. we feel compelled to bring some staples that we are sure he can eat. Specifically, I'm talking about things like dry pasta, cereal bars, uncooked rice, oatmeal, bread, cereal, peanut butter (go figure, one thing he's not allergic to), jelly, etc. We need to pack a two week supply of this stuff for him, which will amount to 1-2 packages of each.

In addition to this, we also need to pack prepared food for the 9 hour flight. We would expect this to be (for example) cooked chicken, vegetables, rice, and pre-packaged snacks.

Now, I'm certain we will be best served to pack things like jelly and peanut butter in checked luggage. However, we will feel safer if we take the other food on-board. For anybody with insight or experience taking food on-board in such quantities, I would love to know:

1. Are there any regulations or possible issues with packing a small carry-on with his packaged non-perishable food? Should we take any steps (doctor's note, etc) to help answer any questions?
2. Are there any clearly restricted foods we should avoid (e.g. I would assume fresh meat or vegetables might be tricky if not consumed on the plane because of customs)
3. Any possible issues regarding the prepared food he will eat while on the plane?

Instinct tells me none of this should be an issue, but instinct also tells me I shouldn't need to take my shoes off in security or show an ID to the TSA guy.

Any input or feedback would be much appreciated. Gotta make sure my little buddy can eat!

The dry goods will be fine, your problem will be with the peanut butter. That will be harder, even with a drs note.

The dry foods, no problem. The peanut butter and the jelly are issues. Would suggest putting them in a checked bag.

Dry foods will be no problem with security, and ditto for liquids or gels in the checked bag; customs rules may be tougher - even packaged processed meats and dairy products will generally be banned coming back into the US - including (IME) re-importation of US products. IME, packaged/processed fruit (jam, canned fruit) have been fine, although I've always declared them to be on the safe side.

I'm not sure how European countries handle these things; the US may be a bit stricter than most. Your best bet would be to look at the customs website for your first point of entry into Europe; once there, customs between countries is much less likely to be an issue.

'Europe' is really vague and not specific enough to comment; it is a continent, not a country, so rules differ from place to place (as do labelling practices)

If for instance you are landing at MUC or FRA there are options to purchase some of the items which may be of concern, rather than bring them through. Both of those airports have grocery stores (MUC has two in fact, and the MUC ones have a far broader range of products than the FRA store, and are easier to access for most travellers) Peanut butter is becoming more common, and English is very common in those airports. If landing in certain other countries however it will not be as easy (and then there are the unique challenges such as the flour in France for some allergy sufferers) Bringing food for personal use shouldn't usually be an issue, including the peanut butter, if it is in checked luggage. Be careful about rules regarding meat/animal products and dairy products.

Generally food labelling is most comprehensive in the UK. I understand that you may have already done research, but as there is some concern about some of the products you are considering, you may want to seek input about specific countries. For instance there is a recent thread on the German forum where we gave some advice to a poster and he reported back with results.

Thanks for the quick replies.

Regarding specific countries, I purposely referred to the continent as we are covering a lot of ground, but that point is well taken. We will be in Germany (landing at FRA, where I'm familiar with the supermarket there), driving to Bavaria and Austria, Rome, Venice, and Paris over a three week period.

We feel great about getting fresh meats and vegetables while we are there. The big concern is preservatives and spices which he has trouble with along with the major problems....dairy, eggs, and treenuts. We have specific brands here in the US that we know and are comfortable with. Since our German, Italian and French language skills are limited to getting around and ordering at the local bistro, we are a bit nervous about purchasing packaged and processed foods as we might miss a critical ingredient in translation.

The good news is there seems to be concensus around our ability to bring pasta, bread, cereal and the like. This combined with fresh fruits, vegetables and meats from local supermarkets will cover us for the most part.

Having said that, if we have posters who are knowledgeble about completely vegan brands of breads pasta, etc. that haven't been exposed to the items indicated (dairy, preservatives/coloring agents, spices, treenuts) and are readily available in Germany, Italy and/or France, we would love to know about them. I didn't even think to ask that question.

The good news is that Germany tends to be very good about avoiding preservatives in foods, even in brands such as Maggi and Knorr, which are filled with them in America. There is the food for internal consumption and the food for export, and sadly many of the international food companies produce food for export filled with preservatives. Maggi soups, Knorr soups, and Nutella (and even Nivea cream!) are just some examples of products which have 'extras' in them for export to the US market which are not found in the original product. The rules for food production and governing baked goods etc are very strict.

Being a veggie myself and also sensitive to dairy products in America and preservatives, I usually stock up on food in Germany to bring to America, not the other way around. A lot of products are marked 'Bio' and you will find large Bio sections and even Bio stores in Germany.

Feel free to PM me for more specific questions as we are not really talking safety and security anymore. I can also help with France to some degree having spent a great deal of time there.

Thanks, will do. You are right that the key security concern seems settled.

Some day historians will look back and try to investigate why the United States imploded and went bankrupt.

This will be their Rosetta Stone.

The TSA x-ray machine color codes the images according to density. Apparently peanut butter has the same density as C4, so TSA will see it on the x-ray, think they have The Big Catch�, and do a hand search on your carry until they find it. Then things start to get interesting.

In case the OP does not know, some TSA TSOs may or may not declare peanut butter or jelly as "gels", and thus high explosives suitable for tewwowist ebil things, and not allowed as carry on, as they Fight the War on Liquids and Gels and Water and Toothpaste and Pumpkin Pie begun in 2006.

Why is peanut butter a problem?

I thought TSA's definition of liquid/gel was that something would pour.

I can turn upside down an open jar of just about any commercially-produced peanut butter, and it will neither pour out nor release any "drops" of liquid.

(Some) Jellies I can see being a bit more of an issue under TSA's war-on-water rules, although again, I could turn upside down a jar of most commercially produced jelliles, jams, and preserves without any of it pouring out or forming droplets.

Does TSA really confiscate peanut butter?

Food items are very clearly labelled in Europe. There are very clear legal requirements in that respect.
Note you may get quizzed by customs if you bring significant amounts of food with you.

I've checked peanut butter on a number of flights and on every instance the box or suitcase has been opened by TSA. Don't know if you have seen this web site, or this one, and another, then another. If you haven't conducted an online search the preceeding links were returned doing a search for "vegan food in europe".

Good luck and travel safe.