• Find out precisely which kind of food you are allowed to eat and which kind you are not allowed to eat.

• Some countries serve food that is less suitable for a gluten-free diet than others, for instance, because they traditionally serve food with various (thickened) sauces and breadcrumb coatings. If in doubt, decide upon the low-risk alternative.

• Check out tested restaurant tips provided by other coeliac sufferers in literature, internet (e.g. on the pages of various coeliac disease societies – see below -, special websites or in coeliac disease communities); thus, you can be relatively sure that you don’t take risks when selecting a restaurant.

• Be sure to call up the restaurant before you visit, in order to ensure that gluten-free meals are really served there.

• If possible, always try to speak with the chef personally; then you can be sure that your concern reaches the right person in the right place, and you will get a pretty clear idea of whether or not and to which extent your request can be met.

• You could also make use of cards for the kitchen (can be downloaded from internet for free, also see our rubric: “Gluten free holidays – the easy way” – please link with our page!!). This particularly applies to holidays in countries of which you don’t speak the national language.

• Select your meal of preference and discuss your choice with the waiter or – even better – with the chef. Thus, you can avoid the risk of eating food that may unexpectedly have gluten-containing ingredients. A further source of risk, which should be eliminated, is contamination due to joint preparation of gluten-containing and gluten-free food.

List of tested restaurants in which gluten-free food is served can be obtained, for instance, from numerous European coeliac societies, among which are the German coeliac society known as Deutschen Zoeliakie Gesellschaft, the Austrian coeliac society known as Österreichischen Arbeitsgemeinschaft Zoeliakie, the coeliac society in the German speaking region of Switzerland known as IG Zoeliakie der Deutschen Schweiz, the coeliac in the Italian speaking region of Switzerland known as Gruppo Celiachia della Svizzera Italiana, the Italian coeliac society known as Associazione Italiana Celiachia, the British coeliac society known as Coeliac UK and the Spanish coeliac societies known as Associación de Celiacs de Catalunya and the Federación de Asociaciones de Celiacos de España (FACE).

A list of gluten-free restaurants around the world is available at www.celiachandbook.com/restaurant-guide.html and www.glutenfreeonthego.com. The websites www.glutenfreerestaurants.org/find.php and www.glutenfreetravelsite.com/restaurants provides information about eateries in North America where you can order gluten-free food, and details of British restaurants especially for people with coeliac condition can be found here. Find tips on eating out in Germany − cafés and restaurants with gluten-free dishes on the menu at www.glutenfrei-essen.com.

The DS Pizza Point restaurants in Italy are a safe place to go. DS Pizza Points are pizzerias and restaurants that are spread throughout the whole of Italy, which serve their guests with gluten-free meals and pizzas that are both harmless to the health of celiac disease sufferers and made from top-quality ingredients. This service is provided thanks to DS, a company belonging to the Schär group. DS not only provides the restaurants with special kitchen equipment, but also always with fresh, first-class, gluten-free ingredients and products, as well as organising the necessary training for the operators, so that they are able to prepare gluten-free food in a correct and safe manner. There are currently 199 active DS Pizza Points to  in Italy.