Jerusalem - Post Report Question and Answers
What do people who suffer from environmental or food allergies need to know?
It is not as easy to be gluten-free here as in the U.S. Most restaurants do not have a "GF" option, but may be able to accommodate as requested. Grocery stores carry GF items, some more than others. - Sep 2024
If you have a serious sesame allergy, reconsider an assignment to anywhere in NEA. Tahini is in a lot of foods. Bamba is a staple here, so having a nut allergy would be difficult here. Israelis do not take food allergies as seriously as they should. There have been several instances of people dying after their server telling them that an allergen is not in their food. There are probably 2 or 3 people who die in Israel every year after eating at a restaurant where they were told that the food was safe. For example: https://www.haaretz.com/2011-07-21/ty-article/israeli-woman-dies-of-allergic-reaction-after-eating-nutella-at-tel-aviv-restaurant/0000017f-e47f-d75c-a7ff-fcff92b80000 and https://www.timesofisrael.com/23-year-old-dies-from-allergic-reaction-to-dairy-ice-cream-at-meat-restaurant/ - Nov 2022
Many, many people here seem to have allergies and a lot of allergy stuff that is OTC in the US seems to be prescription here, so bring your Benedryl and Claritin and the like. This is a GREAT place to be a Vegan or dairy or lactose intolerant, since Kashrut requires everything with dairy to be labeled, and Israelis have a lot of gluten-free everything around. More specific allergies, you'd want to be able to read Hebrew. - Oct 2019
Customer service in restaurants seems pretty terrible so even if you tell them you have an allergy it gets lost in translation between the table and the kitchen. - Aug 2018
Those with peanut allergies might need to be careful, especially at school. No one here has peanut allergies, so it's not common to ban them at schools like in the US. - Apr 2018
There are nuts in everything. Pay attention. But many of the restaurants have keys on their menus indicating as much. If you have allergies to olive pollen then beware.
Also if you can easily support a gluten-free diet here. Vegetarians are very happy here! - Dec 2016
Israel is a great place to be lactose-intolerant (you can just eat at the meat-kosher places) or lacto-vegetarian (avoid the meat-kosher). Plenty of vegan options. - Aug 2015
