Kampala - Post Report Question and Answers
What do people who suffer from environmental or food allergies need to know?
There is a limited variety of gluten-free things available in some shops. I would not trust most local restaurants to be able to accurate determine if something was GF as there is not a local awareness here and cross contamination is rampant. Our son has a variety of food allergies and I have felt safe here and he's had no incidents but we are careful. As far as environmental allergies, we take Zyrtec daily, but we likely would anywhere, as we have a lot of environmental allergies. We have had no specific issues here. - Jun 2022
Food - There are different things available at the market, such as rice flour, cornmeal, chick pea flour, etc. Ordering food at a regular restaurant could be very tricky. Nice hotels usually can accommodate your restrictions. Asthma - it will be hard to manage it. - Dec 2021
I would not want to suffer from food allergies here. Even though Ugandans speak English, I would not have any confidence eating at a restaurant even if I told them I had an allergy. If you're OK eating at home all the time you'll be fine. - Aug 2020
I think it could be a challenging post for folks with food allergies. - Nov 2019
Air pollution and peanuts (ground nuts) are common in some food items/snacks. Also watch out for aflatoxin issues in milk (its a problem with the feed supply for animals). Might want imported milk or powdered milk, especially if you have young children. - Oct 2019
Bring a nasal spray or neti pot to keep sinuses clean. Food allergies are not really an issue. You can get gluten-free products here, or order them online. - Mar 2019
Peanuts are everywhere. The air quality will impact anyone with environmental allergies. - Feb 2019
While there are plenty of folks here with allergies, I would think twice if I had a serious peanut, sesame, or egg allergy. Restaurants and locals aren't tuned into allergy problems and likely won't know or won't care about hidden allergens in the food. - Jan 2019
A staple food of Uganda is the ground nut, which is similar to the peanut. One should be aware that this product is used extensively in local foods. - Dec 2018
I would not trust eating out if you have serious or life-threatening allergies. - Oct 2018
You can basically never eat out because places aren't accommodating of that kind of issue. - Sep 2018
Usual precautions. We get two times a year where pollen is intense. - Aug 2018
Some who are sensitive to certain pollen, yes, but nothing that's really specific to this country. - Jun 2018
Lots of dust and there are ground peanuts in a lot of Ugandan food (relatively easy to avoid once you know). - Jun 2018
