Gluten Free Abroad
In case you didn’t know, I can’t eat gluten. I am gluten intolerant. This has been difficult to manage abroad, but I have found some great treats. You might be thinking, “Zach, how does being gluten-free abroad relate to the infrastructure in Europe?” It does, since in most European countries I have had the pleasure of traveling to countries with a European Union-regulated system that I know I can trust. This regulatory infrastructure is in place to help people like me navigate allergens even whilst not knowing the local language. In the EU, instead of just simply writing “Gluten-Free” on their menus, restaurants use this numbering system, listing each allergen number beside the dish. These numbers are not always correct, but restaurants do the best they can to label their dishes.
There is also the tourism and travel infrastructure that comes into play when being gluten-free, as many restaurants can use their gluten-free dishes as advertisements. This was most apparent while in Venice, with many restaurants advertising gluten-free pizza and pasta. We saw this at dozens of restaurants with these signs while walking around. With this, we suspected many of these restaurants were tourist traps, and we did some research to find the best restaurants we could with gluten-free options.
There were also several times I was surprised by the number of gluten-free options, especially when getting ice cream. At three locations, once in Venice, once in Copenhagen, and once in Prague, I got to eat my ice cream out of ice cream cones, which is something I hardly ever get to do in the United States.
While traveling, I also researched beforehand to seek out the best gluten-free restaurants I could find to try as much new food as possible. Other than the ice cream, I had gluten-free pizza in Amsterdam, gluten-free spaghetti and pizza in Venice, Czech food in Prague, a waffle in Belgium, gluten-free baguettes, eclairs, and cinnamon rolls in Strasbourg, gluten-free croissants in Copenhagen, and much more.
There are also great gluten-free options in grocery stores, each with its own gluten-free sections. I’ve seen these sections at almost every grocery store I have been to, and the options have been very plentiful. Schar, an Austrian gluten-free Brand, has a large presence in these sections and produces some high-quality gluten-free food. Most foods also have the number labels as well as a gluten-free sticker, making finding gluten-free options very easy. They even have these sections in health stores like dm, a store that is very common in Europe.
While you might be thinking, “Is this gluten-free food even good quality?” The answer is a resounding yes! Not only have there been gluten-free options, after researching, of course, but the food itself has been incredible. The food standards and laws are way stricter in the EU than in the United States, and it shows through the quality and taste of the food. This food infrastructure also leads to healthier people and longer lives. We should take a page out of the EU’s book and fix the food quality issues that we have in the United States.
-Zach R
Dongo, D. (2017, September 15). Allergens, guidelines. FoodTimes. https://www.foodtimes.eu/consumer-en/allergens-guidelines/
European Food Safety Authority. (2025, April 3). Food allergens. https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/safe2eat/food-allergens
