Allervibe
Eating with a food allergy in Vietnam
Vietnamese cooking is fresh, fast and largely unlabelled. Most meals are assembled at a stall or table from components — herbs, sauces, crushed peanuts, fried shallots — so it is easy to leave something out if the cook knows, and impossible if they do not. A card in Vietnamese closes that gap.
What labels and restaurants will tell you
- Pre-packaged food follows a labelling decree (Decree 43/2017) that requires an ingredients list, but allergen emphasis is not enforced the way it is in the EU; read the full list and expect Vietnamese only.
- Restaurants and street vendors have no allergen-information duty. Written cards work better than spoken English almost everywhere outside hotels.
- Fish sauce (nước mắm) is the base seasoning of the cuisine and appears in dipping sauces served with dishes that look allergen-free, such as spring rolls and grilled meats.
Where the common allergens hide
- Peanuts are crushed over noodle salads, bún dishes and spring rolls, and ground into dipping sauces.
- Shrimp and shrimp paste (mắm tôm) appear in bún, hot pots and fillings; dried shrimp is a seasoning.
- Egg: fried into bánh mì fillings and fried rice; egg noodles (mì) are common alongside rice noodles.
- Wheat hides in soy sauce, bánh mì bread, and many noodles labelled only as "mì".
How to use the card
Hand it over before you order, not after the food arrives, and wait for the person who cooks — not just the one who takes the order — to read it. If a dish is doubtful, the safest answer is a different dish, not a modified one. For packaged food, scan the barcode with Allervibe: it reads the ingredient list in the local language and checks it against the same allergens on your card.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Vietnamese allergy card free?
Yes. Pick your allergens, add a name if you want one, and print. No account, no app, no email.
Who translated the card?
The allergen names and the card wording are the same translations used inside the Allervibe app, reviewed by native speakers. They use the legal allergen terms, not slang, so a cook or waiter recognises them at once.
What size is it?
Credit-card size (85.6 × 54 mm), so it fits a wallet or phone case. Print two and keep one in your passport.
Can I make one in a language other than Vietnamese?
Yes — the language picker on this page offers fourteen languages, and you can print a card in each.
Cards in other languages
Japanese · Thai · Greek · Turkish · German · French · Spanish · Italian · Portuguese · Dutch · Polish · Croatian · All languages
