In her latest industry article, our Head of Travel Nutrition, dietitian Melissa Adamski APD, contributed to a piece in the latest issue of Onboard Hospitality called Growing Pains, which explores how airlines (and the wider travel industry) can help be more inclusive when catering to passengers who are travelling when pregnant.
Pregnancy and onboard catering
Special meals make travel more inclusive for people with dietary requirements. Meals catering for people with food allergies, religious requirements etc are currently a focus of special meal catering. However, one significant group of the population with specific dietary requirements remains largely uncatered for – pregnant travellers. While exact numbers of how many people are pregnant at any one time is hard to establish, in 2022 there were 297,725 births in Australia, 3,667,758 births in the US, and 605,479 births in England and Wales (according to the respective Governments). To put that into context regarding special meals it is estimated 0.5-1% of the population in the USA have a tree nut allergy (~1.5-3 million people). While there are some restrictions around flying during the later stages of pregnancy, these numbers give us an idea of the potential number of passengers that could travel at some stage during their pregnancy. I myself flew many times while pregnant (including from Australia to Europe), and each time it was difficult to find foods (in particular nutritious foods) to eat in both airport lounges and on the plane. So why should airlines consider pregnant travellers in their special meal strategies?
Dietary requirements while pregnant
There are many changes to dietary and food requirements during pregnancy; the body requires more nutrients to support foetal development; there are many foods that are advised to be avoided due to potentially fatal risks to the unborn child; and finally nausea, heart burn and gastrointestinal issues are common during pregnancy, often leading to a decreased appetite and aversion to certain foods. Wow if you think this seems like a lot – it is!
To read the rest of the article please visit page 116, Issue 101 of Onboard Hospitality magazine.
If you are interested in more information on food and travelling while pregnant please see our article offering food tips.
For more industry articles by Melissa Adamski, Travel Dietitian, see articles on
