rflor

I have an upcoming flight ORD--LHR in PP with waitlisted upgrade to Polaris, where my son has a peanut/tree nut allergy. It's ingestion, not close contact, so we don't have to worry about the nut ramekins...but I would like to order a special meal for him. Does anyone have guidance on what special meal I should order for him with least odds of having nuts? 1K Line couldn't answer, and I couldn't find anything on United.com.

WineCountryUA

UA does post ingredients for Choice Menu meals
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...gredients.html

but things are vague on special meals

rflor

Thanks! This is nice to have for domestic. Frustrating they don't have it for Polaris or International flights. We will probably end up bringing something on board in case everything is "nutty".

mlbcard

Flying Polaris for the first time with my kid, who's horribly allergic to nuts. How is the flight crew with knowing ingredients/allergens?

bocastephen

Most can't tell the difference between red and white wine, trusting your child's health with their culinary judgement is not a good idea.

mlbcard

Any place I could look to see ingredients of meals on flight beforehand? All I could find is allergen list for choice menu. Oh well, I could just bring him food.

HNLbasedFlyer

Many menus are posted in this thread - none that I've seen have nuts and I suspect airlines avoid nuts in meals simply because of allergies.

Bringing your own food is a good idea regardless.

mlbcard

Yeah. Except for the actual container of nuts they give you and possibly the desserts, the meals seem nutfree. It's nice to verify, though (wish they had an online list like they do for their choice menu).

bocastephen

<not medical advice> depending on the severity of your child's nut allergy, you should assume that the ingredients and containers in the flight kitchen may have come into contact with nuts or nut byproducts. If their allergy is severe enough, this cross contamination could be a problem, but for a very mild allergy, it may be nothing.

If they eat in restaurants without an issue, they should be OK on board. </not medical advice>

mlbcard

Thanks. Luckily, it's not so sensitive that we have to worry about micro-cross contamination. He's had airplane food before and we eat in restaurants where they serve dishes with nuts, but it's always reassuring to have an actual allergen list (especially when you're halfway across the Pacific).

mlbcard

Having the same issue. Contacting United hasn’t helped. Let us know once you’ve taken the flight if you had any luck figuring out allergen info.

mck9235

This is the best resource I've found on United's site -- https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...allergies.html

pseudoswede

(My comments are from a purely economy seat perspective, so mainly with TATL flights.)

Miss Swede is allergic to eggs, peanuts, almost all nuts (but avoid them altogether while in transit), and sesame seeds. While I'm sure catering kitchens do their best to avoid cross-contamination, plus we can't expect FAs to continuously change gloves when handling foods, we avoid any hot meals and bread baskets on any airplane, and we're mildly cautious with the pre-packaged items. We usually just bring a sandwich, a pre-packaged meat/cheese/cracker snack box, granola bars, and a few oatmeal packets.

On SK, they do have the ingredients listed on the foil of the hot meal.

Unitedloyalflyer

I've seen some of the Polaris menus listed in the Polaris thread include Cashews

Whyme

All flight attendants have access to United's European Union Allergen Information Sheet for premium cabin food on their Link device in the Content app under "Allergen Info". I doubt most flight attendants know that this is on their Link so you might have to direct them to it specifically by telling them, "On your Link, in Content Locker, click on Allergen Info". I do not believe any of United's food contains peanuts, although that is information I learned ten or twenty years ago that may or may not have changed over the years.

I'm editing this because I just read an email about the newly designed catering sheets...apparently there is now allergen information on the domestic catering sheets. It's listed in the same Content app on the Link under "Chef's Tips". Ask your flight attendant to check it for you.