You’re chilling at the beach café, enjoying a salad, and suddenly you can’t breathe anymore. For allergy sufferers, even the tiniest amount of a substance can cause a dangerous reaction. But could you name the most common allergenic substances in 25 languages?
Are you allergic to a particular substance and therefore need to avoid certain foods? But what do you call gluten in Bulgaria or nuts in Denmark? The Allergy Dictionary of the European Consumer Centre (ECC) Germany provides help when you need to find the relevant terms in a foreign language at a restaurant or when shopping. The dictionary contains translations of the names of 130 potential allergy-causing substances in 21 European languages as well as Turkish, Russian, Icelandic and Norwegian.
You can fill in a card entitled “I am allergic to…” before you go on holiday, and carry it with you. For a list of allergenic substances in 25 languages go to http://www.eu-verbraucher.de/de/verbraucherthemen/reisen-in-der-eu/vor-der-reise/allergie-woerterbuch. Choose your language – this will open a PDF document with translations into all other languages
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