Gluten-free on the road: motorway services, stations and trains

Motorway services, big stations and trains are where gluten-free travel days go thin. The report we hear most often from our community is a choice between a bag of crisps and one wrapped sandwich, if that. You can still eat well on a travel day, but the food mostly comes with you or from a supermarket shelf, not from the hot counter.

Before you leave: the road kit

Pack for the longest version of the day, not the planned one. Traffic, a cancelled train or a closed service area all stretch the gap between meals.

• One proper meal per person, packed at home: a filled gluten-free wrap, a rice salad, cold pasta made with gluten-free pasta.
• Two or three sealed snacks you already know are gluten-free, so you never have to read a label while hungry.
• A small cool bag with an ice pack if the day is long or warm. Many hotel rooms have a fridge for the evening, and if a microwave and a kettle are all you get, here’s how to eat gluten-free with no kitchen.
• Wipes or a small cloth for tables and train trays, where crumbs are the usual problem.

For children, pack more than you think. A tired, hungry child is how “just this once” happens.

At motorway services

Work down the list, and stop at the first thing that fits:

1. Packaged and labelled gluten-free. In the EU and the UK, a gluten-free label means 20 mg/kg or less. Check the date and whether the pack is sealed.
2. Naturally gluten-free and plain. Fruit, plain nuts, yoghurt, cheese, rice cakes, plain crisps. What decides is the ingredient list: no wheat, barley, rye or malt, and no oats unless they’re labelled gluten-free. A single-ingredient food needs no label at all.
3. The hot counter, last. Ask two questions: is it prepared away from bread and batter, and does the fryer only cook gluten-free food? Hesitation is also an answer. Chips from a shared fryer are not gluten-free, whatever the potato.

Watch the flavoured crisps: some salt and vinegar flavours use barley malt vinegar powder, and some seasonings contain wheat. The ingredient list tells you in a few seconds.

If the service area has a small supermarket or convenience shop, that is usually your best bet. It is often worth leaving the motorway for the next town: a supermarket five minutes off the junction tends to have far more choice than the services.

At big stations

The same order applies. A supermarket in or next to the station beats a kiosk, and a kiosk with sealed, labelled food beats a café counter. At bakery counters, anything sold loose near ordinary bread carries crumbs, even when it’s “gluten-free” on the ticket. Take the sealed version or leave it.

If you change trains with time to spare, a quick look at a map for a supermarket within a few minutes’ walk of the station often turns a thin day into a proper lunch.

On the train

Treat the trolley and the buffet car as a bonus, not the plan. If a meal comes with your ticket (first class, a sleeper), ask the operator in advance what it can prepare for coeliac disease, and keep the answer in writing so the crew on board can see it. Wipe the table before you unpack, and keep your own food in its bag until you eat it.

Road trips: plan the stops, not just the route

On a long drive, pick your food stops at home the evening before. Look along the route for towns just off the motorway with a supermarket or a place listed as gluten-free, and plan the breakfast too: hotel breakfasts vary, and a plan B for the first meal of the day saves the morning. Our Compass helps you look up gluten-free places in the towns along your way; confirm opening hours before you leave, since small places close on odd days.

On the road, at a glance

Keep reading

• Gluten-free at airports: the complete game plan
• Gluten-free travel tips for coeliacs
• Shared fryers and gluten-free chips
• Label Lab: check an ingredient list
• Restaurant cards and the free card tool

Sources: Codex Alimentarius (gluten-free = 20 mg/kg or less), EU Regulation 828/2014, Coeliac UK, NHS. We inform, we don’t diagnose: for medical questions, your doctor or dietitian has the last word.