What are airline special meals and how do they work? What do vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and child-friendly airline meals look like?
Special meals can be requested in advance, typically at least 24 hours before departure. To pre-order a special meal for your flight, you can usually reach out to the airline’s reservations department, or contact your travel agent.
Below you’ll find the most common special meals and meal codes used by airlines. Each meal code explains the meal type and what the meal will and won’t contain.
IATA Code: ALML
Allergen free meals are generally free of seafood, wheat, buckwheat, dairy, eggs nuts plus other ingredients. Airlines in Japan such as JAL and ANA offer these meals whilst Singapore Airlines offers a nut-free meal which does not contain peanuts and tree nuts (including almonds, Brazil nuts, cashew nuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts, pecans and macadamias), and their derivatives.
The AVML Asian Vegetarian Meal is a vegetarian meal that normally includes spices and flavours from India. It will usually contain vegetables, fresh fruit, dried fruits, legumes, dairy products, tofu, cereal, grains and vegetarian gelatine.
The BLML or Bland Meal should be ordered by those who suffer from stomach or intestinal problems. These special meals will normally contain foods that are easily digested, soft to eat and with limited spices.
The BBML or Baby Meal can be ordered for infants under 2 years of age (depending on the airline, some airlines will only supply the BBML to an infant up to 10 months only) and will normally consist of pre-packaged baby meal products.
The DBML or Diabetic Meal should be ordered by those who suffer from diabetes (high sugar levels). It's a low sugar meal that contains minimal salt, low-fat products, grilled white meat, high fibre fruits and vegetables, cereals and diabetic friendly products like sugar-free jam.
The FPML or Fruit Platter meal may be ordered by people who are fasting, or perhaps vegan/gluten-free options are not available and this special meal fits the requirement. Generally, the FPML will contain fresh seasonal fruit only, and it may contain dried fruit without sulphites.
The GFML or Gluten-Free meal is designed for those who suffer from celiac disease or can't tolerate gluten in their diet. Grains such as wheat, rye, oats, bran and barley are eliminated from these special meals as well as flours starches and semolina.
The MOML or Muslim is a meal that is prepared in accordance with the Islamic tradition and custom. No Haram (forbidden) products will be used in these meals including pork products, gelatin, alcohol, extracted flavouring from alcohol and non-halal prepared meats.
The HNML or Hindu Non-Vegetarian is a meal for people who follow Hindu custom. Meals are non-vegetarian and cooked Indian style. It's one of those special meals that confuses a lot of people, people assume because it's called Hindu that it's vegetarian but the N stands for non-vegetarian.
The KSML or Kosher Meal is a meal where the food is chosen, prepared and served in accordance with Jewish religious guidelines. The meals are packaged in double wrapping which allows the meals to be heated in the aircraft oven that is non-kosher.
The LCML or Low-Calorie meal is a meal of low levels of calories and suited to people who are on a low-calorie diet. Some airlines aim to have no more than 400 calories per meal, but this will vary from airline to airline.
The LSML or Low Salt meal is suited for people with high blood pressure, heart disease, fluid retention or kidney problems. No salt will be used during the preparation of food, and airlines try to avoid using food that contains added salt.
The NLNL or Non-Lactose meal is a lactose-free meal for people who are allergic or intolerant to milk and milk products, or those suffering from low lactose levels.
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