Before you use a card

If a reaction is happening right now, stop reading. Call 911 in the US and Canada, or the local emergency number where you are. This page can wait.

The short version

1. Every translation in AllergyEZ is unverified. None has been checked by a qualified medical translator. Before you rely on a card, have someone fluent read it back to you in English.

2. Carry the prescribed medication anyway. A card has never stopped anaphylaxis.

3. Talk to the kitchen anyway. The card is there to start that conversation in the right words, not to end it.

If you read nothing else, that is the whole page. The rest is why, and what to do when a card lets you down.

We're a family, not a company. We built this after a trip that frightened us badly, and we would rather level with you than let you trust it too much. A card you over-trust is more dangerous than no card at all.

Getting a card checked

Do this at home, with time — not at a table with a hungry child.

Have someone fluent read the card back to you in English. A colleague, a friend, a neighbour, a local community group, the hotel or host you've already booked. Ask them what it actually says, not whether it looks right. A translation can be grammatical, confident and wrong.

Where the stakes are higher, ask someone official. A local clinic, a public health or food-safety office, an embassy, or the school or camp your child is going to. This matters most for long stays, school placements and medical settings.

Check the emergency number for the exact place you're going. We show the number for the country you picked, but numbers change, we're not always the first to know, we don't dial for you, and whoever answers may not speak the language on the card. Confirm it against a local official source before you travel, and again if you cross a border.

Read your own card back before you hand it over. It only ever says what you typed. We don't check your child's profile for anything — a missing allergen, a typo, an old profile from before a diagnosis changed. That part is yours.

Do it again for every new language and every new trip. A card checked for Spain is not a checked card for Peru. Ingredients, dish names and local practice all shift.

Until a fluent human has read a card back to you, treat it as a rough draft that might help — never as something to lean on.

What "edited by volunteers" means

Some cards say the translation has had some lines edited by volunteers. The card sends you here for what that means, so here it is plainly.

A volunteer is someone who reads the language and gave us twenty minutes. They went through real card strings, marked each one right, wrong or too soft, and wrote what they thought a line should say. It is the fastest way we have of finding a phrase that is polite where it should be frightening, and we are grateful for every minute of it.

It applies to some lines, not to the card. The wording sits on a whole language pack; volunteers edit individual strings. The line you are reading may never have been looked at by anyone.

It is not a check. An edit means a change was made. It does not mean the result is right. Nobody stands behind it, we do not test whether a volunteer speaks the language, and two volunteers who disagree do not cancel out. Only a qualified medical translator going through a whole pack changes what a card says about itself, and none of our thirteen languages has had one yet.

Nothing you have to do changes. Have a fluent speaker read the card back to you, talk to the kitchen yourself, and carry the prescribed medication — exactly as if no volunteer had ever seen it. That is why the instruction on the card is word for word the same either way.

Where a card can fail you

We'd rather you heard these from us than discovered them at dinner.

• Nobody really reads it. Glanced at, nodded at, face-down on the pass. This happens more than anyone admits — including with the warning we print on the card itself.
• The reader isn't the cook. The waiter understands perfectly. The line cook never sees it.
• A word is subtly wrong. A related ingredient, a broader or narrower category, a word that means one thing on a menu and another in a kitchen. This is the failure we worry about most, because the card still looks completely fine.
• Something is missing. Our hidden-ingredient lists are incomplete, and always will be. A local sauce, a regional stock, a substitution made that morning — none of it is on the card.
• The kitchen means well and still can't do it. Shared fryers, shared grills, shared knives, flour in the air. A card can't change a kitchen's layout.

And sometimes there's no card at all. Phones die, links break, QR codes won't scan, sites go down, printed copies don't update. Never let the card be your only plan.

What a card can never replace

Talking to the kitchen yourself. Hand it over, then stay in the conversation. What's in the dish. Whether the pan is clean. Whether someone can check with the chef.

Prescribed medication. If your child has been prescribed an adrenaline (epinephrine) auto-injector, carry it, in date, every single time. Nothing on this site is a reason to leave medication behind.

Real medical care. Your allergist, your paediatrician, your emergency plan. We're parents who learned some things the hard way. We're not clinicians, we've never met your child, and we can't advise you.

Small things that help

Show it early — when you book, not when you sit down. Use the "Copy as text" button to message it days ahead, when someone has time to read it properly. If you send a card to a school, host or restaurant, tell them the translation is unverified, so they check anything that surprises them rather than trusting it.

Add your child's name. Staff treat a named child differently from a dietary request.

Use the words your allergist uses. Not softer, not louder.

Print one and keep it in a bag.

If something is wrong, tell us

Write to info@allergyez.com. Truly — this isn't a formality.

You don't need to be a translator or be certain. "My mother-in-law says the Greek word for sesame here is the wrong one" is exactly the kind of message we want. So is "this dish should be on the hidden list", "this phrase sounds rude", and "this emergency number isn't right for where I live".

If you can, tell us the language and roughly where on the card it appears. Please leave out your child's name and your card link — we don't need them, and we'd rather not hold them.

We read everything that comes in, and we're not defensive about it. We can't promise a reply, or a date for a fix. And a correction sent to us can't change a card you've already printed, shared or screenshotted — check any physical copy against a fresh one before you hand it over.

The legal part, in plain words

We have to say some of this. We'd rather say it in language you can actually read. The full version is in our terms of use.

Not medical advice, not a medical device. AllergyEZ is a phrasebook. It isn't intended to diagnose, prevent, monitor, predict, treat or relieve any disease or condition. It doesn't detect allergens, check menus, assess risk or contact anyone on your behalf. Using it creates no doctor–patient or other professional relationship between you and us, and nothing here substitutes for professional assessment, diagnosis, treatment, or an emergency plan agreed with your child's doctor.

The translations, hidden-ingredient lists, emergency numbers and phrases are unverified. They may be inaccurate, incomplete, ambiguous, culturally wrong or out of date, and they may change without notice. Before you rely on anything here, it's your responsibility to check it independently — with a fluent native speaker and, where appropriate, local health or food-safety authorities.

Provided "as is" and "as available", with no warranties of any kind, express or implied, including any implied warranty of accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability or non-infringement. We don't warrant that any translation is correct, that the site or a card link will be available when you need it, or that a card will be read, understood, believed or acted upon by anyone.

You accept the risk. By making, sharing, printing or presenting a card, you acknowledge that food allergy management carries serious risk, that this tool can't remove that risk, and that you use it on your own judgement.

To the maximum extent the law allows, we accept no liability for any loss, injury, illness, allergic reaction, death or other damage arising from your use of, or reliance on, AllergyEZ — including anything caused by an error, omission or mistranslation in a card. Nothing in this notice excludes or limits any liability that can't lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud. Where the law where you live gives you rights we can't take away, you keep them in full.

It's free, and we store nothing. Your child's details live in the link itself, after the #, which browsers never send to a server. That also means we can't recover a card for you, and can't correct one you've already printed or shared. A link or QR code can be forwarded, saved or scanned by anyone who ends up with it — share it the way you'd share anything about your child. More in our privacy notice.

Our written pages are in English only. If English isn't your first language, please ask someone who reads it well to go through the short version at the top with you. That's the part that matters.

We built this from a place of love, not expertise — parents who wanted to help protect the most vulnerable people at the table, and who couldn't find anything good enough for our own child.

Please get the translation checked. Please carry the medication. Please talk to the kitchen anyway.

Corrections, questions, or anything at all: info@allergyez.com

Last updated 2 August 2026. Everything on this page, including "none has been checked by a qualified medical translator", was true on that date. If that ever changes for a language, we'll say so here and on the card.