Select Wisely - Help For Travellers With Food Allergies

This posting is--amazingly--not a political rant, poem, drawing, or warped story about my past. A couple of old friends in 'Jersey recently started an interesting niche business/web site [1] for travellers with food allergies. Jim and Pamela Ahlberg have begun a business selling pocket-sized cards in fourteen different languages, covering over 40 specific food allergies. These cards would come in handy in Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants right here in the U.S. and Canada. They have a wide variety of cards covering just about any contingency--including one for vegetarians [2].

Their daughter Meredith had been travelling in Europe, but had some serious food allergies and was unable to tell restaurant workers about her condition, or grill them about what exactly was in their food. So she

". . .stuck with what she knew: ice cream, bread and shish kabobs. No pastry in Vienna, no chocolates in Switzerland, and no local German cuisine. Wanting to help her and others with similar challenges, we have developed this unique product."

An article on them appears here: http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/0404/06allergycards.html

Nice work, guys! Sometimes the internet actually is about more than stealing music and downloading "adult entertainment." Click on the title of this entry, go to their web site, and buy some stuff! /jack

[1] Maybe not so much of a niche, since 2% of American adults, and 8% of children under three have food allergies.
[2] Vegetarians who have a philosophical food allergy, more or less...
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