My Favorite Gluten Free Travel Snacks
When you have Celiac disease and you’re ready to travel, the #1 piece of advice I always give to fellow gluten free travelers is to make sure you carry food with you - no matter where you are! You’ll never know when you’ll need food because you can’t find safe options.
Look for Certified Gluten Free Snacks, Especially When You Travel
If you’re Celiac, you’ll want to look for and buy mostly certified gluten-free snacks or snacks that you’ve tried before and know are safe for you to eat. Don’t buy a new snack you haven’t tried before to bring with you when traveling unless the snack is certified gluten free or you have a gluten intolerance.
Certified gluten-free means that the product has been tested third-party (a testing lab outside of the company tests for gluten), and the snack or food you’re purchasing is certified to be under 20ppm, which is safe for those with Celiac disease.
Remember to stick with snacks you’ve tried before when you’re traveling! An airplane or road trip is not the time to try something new because you don’t know how it’ll affect you!
Carry Gluten Free Food With You on a Plane
When you’re traveling by air, depending on the airline, you may not be able to get gluten-free snacks. I recently traveled on American Airlines, and they didn’t have any gluten-free snacks available. They also didn’t ask me if I wanted a snack and handed me Biscoff cookies, along with my drink and napkin. To a regular traveler, this wouldn’t be a big deal; however, for a Celiac, this isn’t good. Why?
Wheat flour in the air of the factory can get on the packaging, then you touch the package and eat and drink your gluten free food, cross-contaminating yourself. It’s not good.
Delta, the airline I travel to most often, does have gluten-free snacks such as Kind Bar and almonds, but usually not many other gluten-free options.
You’ll need to remember that the flight attendants usually are not familiar with their gluten-free options unless they are, or they know, someone who is Celiac or gluten free. My daughter is an airline attendant, and since she is familiar with Celiac, she understands what we can and can’t eat and knows which options are safe to eat for her gluten free passengers.
Remember to carry snacks with you on the airplane and pass on eating airplane snacks or food. The number of snacks you take with you depends on your entire transit time. Remember - count the hours from when you leave your home to when you land. You won’t know what options you have to eat at the airport either!
My Favorite Gluten Free Snacks
I’m glad that many companies are now offering their products in single-serving snack bags. While a bit more costly, I find that carrying several single-serving snacks is much less messy and easier to travel with than repacking snacks into Ziplocs to take while traveling.
One of my favorite snacks to bring with me on the airplane is Sahale snacks! These are certified gluten free (which means we know they have below 20ppm of gluten and are safe for Celiacs), and they have amazing flavors! However, if you can’t eat nuts, this wouldn’t be a good choice for you as this is a nut-based snack.
Another snack I love to bring with me is Ka-Pop! Snacks. They have a variety of allergen-free snacks made with ancient grains, so they are also packed with nutrition! My favorite snack they make is their Vegan Cheddar KaPop! You’ll never be able to tell that they don’t have real cheese.
I really love bringing protein powder with me as it’s a nutritious snack and a great breakfast for red-eye flights. The company that makes single-serving packages that also have low-sugar and clean ingredients are Orgain. Another company that I frequently use when I need a good protein drink on the go - which is excellent to bring on road trips - is OWYN. Only What You Need is free from the top eight allergens, tastes excellent, and is made from pea protein, so it’s easy on your digestive system.
If you like sushi, try the seaweed sheets from SeaSnax! These are super-tasty and nutritious, and if you like salt or need salt after a long, sweaty hike, they are a good choice! However, I wouldn’t recommend eating these on an airplane as some people don’t like the smell of seaweed.
Do you like Thai food? If so, get your hands on some Jai Mix! The creator of this amazing brand was on a podcast episode, so you’ll want to check that out. Jai Mix is a wonderful snack, similar to eating curry in a bag. The blend of coconut, curry flavors, and nuts are super delicious!
Also, I’ve been hooked on eating Lesser Evil paleo snacks on my road trips lately. These are crunchy, corn free (because they are paleo, but I also can’t eat corn, so that takes out most chips and lots of snacks), and come in amazing flavors, including my favorite - gluten free, no cheese.
I’m also currently enjoying meat sticks - like beef jerky but without all the preservatives and bad stuff! Nick’s Sticks contain grass-fed beef and are certified gluten-free!
Although they don’t come in single-serving sizes, Simple Mills Almond Crackers are a super snack, especially if you’re craving crackers. Because rice crackers don’t hold up well in transport (think bag full of crumbs and spices when you get on the other side!) Almond crackers are a great choice when you’re looking for a cracker to travel with!
And as always, I recommend bringing your NIMA Sensor with you to test your food for safety. I was shocked at how many places which I thought were safe ended up serving me food with gluten in it. If you don’t know what a NIMA sensor is or want to find out more about it, check out Season 07, Episode 10, to listen in to Dave and me talk about how you can integrate a NIMA sensor into your gluten-free lifestyle!
Find out more about how to safely travel gluten-free travel with my complimentary ebook, the Ten Tips for Traveling Gluten Free! You can also find out more details about how to travel via cruise, road trip, or camping and learn the freedom you can have when you know how to travel with Celiac disease when you grab my Guide to Traveling Gluten Free.