Only help I can offer is this link which I blundered into a few days ago whilst trying to find out whether the famous cheese roll will still be availble on the Manchester -Basel route when BMI take it over!

If you scroll down there is the list of all the special menus airlines offer and their IATA codes and ordering deadlines. Not much but it's a start.

http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/flight-and-airport-info/what-to-expect-onboard/meals.aspx

I can only offer advice and help from my 'proxy' experience as the organiser of an international academic conference and I have to say that the situation is bleak. Most Jewish and Muslim delegates solve the problem by asking for a vegetarian diet but I have had battles over being able to guarantee even this for them - providing halal and kosher diets is next to impossible. Problems stem from there not being an agreed definition of what 'vegetarian' means. Yes, I know it sounds simple but the problems I've encountered range from the chef whom I eventually told through gritted teeth and steely smile that under no circumstances was anything that had once had a face ever to appear on the vegetarian table at the lunchtime buffet to the delegate that had requested a vegetarian diet and then complained loudly and vociferously when she wasn't served the salmon at dinner because she'd have eaten that - she just didn't eat meat. This problem of when is a vegetarian meal not a vegetarian meal after all makes things difficult for Hindu delegates too.

The easiest one to solve was the very orthodox Jewish delegate who simply arranged to bring all his own food with him. The laws of kashrut governing what is and isn't kosher are complex and almost impossible for anything other than a specialist kosher caterer to comply with. For example, strict kashrut requires complete separation of meat and milk right down to having two completely separate sets of utensils etc. The are a few kosher caterers who can provide chilled ready meals that meat these requirements and that just needed to be microwaved. I assume that any airline that offers kosher meals uses just such suppliers.

After this experience I naively thought that this might be a way for forward for Muslim delegates especially for the formal dinner. I then discovered that the reason why you see so few Muslims eating out even in Asian restaurants is that few of them actually serve halal meat. I'm not talking corner takeways here - even quite pricey restaurants serving Pakistani food were not willing to guarantee that they could provide food which was halal. This raised all sorts of questions for me about why they couldn't guarantee no cross contamination- but probably best not to go there.

Given that this all relates to the UK where we have ethnic minority communities of longstanding, the situation is even worse in more mono-cultural countries or where the concept of vegetarianism is not well understood. I still remember the dilemma I faced when I realised that the fried egg a Muslim student had been served in Berlin as the ‘vegetarian' option had almost certainly been fried in bacon fat. As I was debating in my head whether to raise this with him - after all they might have cooked his separate to those they'd served the rest of us - he remarked on how the egg tasted ‘odd' so I decided that I had to tell him and ask for his entire meal to be taken back and for him to be allowed to supervise the preparation of a fresh one for him.

And whilst I know that you asked the original question with regards to UK nationals going on holiday, it poses problems for visitors to the UK too. A Muslim colleague was only recently telling me about the problems she had whenever members of her husband's family visited from Pakistan because their kids were always wanting to go and eat in McDonalds as they did at home. But of course McDonalds in Pakistan serves halal meat but they don't here She confirmed that my experience with trying to find a restaurant that could deliver a halal meal was not unique - they found it just as difficult without making prior arrangements and hence why it was so much easier to eat at home rather than eat out apart from big celebrations where they would use a specialist caterer too.

SM

Thank you for the information. It is an interesting topic and I am pleased that he has to do this as a project as it does raise awareness. Hopefuly though I wont be the one doing all the homework,lol!!

Subway do Halal

http://www.subway.co.uk/menu/halal.aspx

luci

My husband is a muslim and so if we go anywhere on holiday apart from Turkey, where he comes from, he wont eat meat as it is not halal, although he does eat chicken. He also eats fish and anything vegetarian. To be honest he doesn't find it too much of a problem but he isn't so strict.

Dor a strict Muslim there could be problems with all kinds of things though, such as what things are cooked in, the ingredients other than meat etc. also Jewish kosher food is very complex and I would think would be even more difficult.

Personally speaking though for my husband, who isn't a strict muslim, we don't have much problem with holiday eating.

I hopes this helps a little.

Kedi

Our local mc donalds and kfc is halal- noticed a small sign up whilst in there last sun (KFC), couldn't finish my meal- as its not my belief/.religion to eat halal meat.- and think there should be a bigger sign up advertising this

Belly

belly

I agree. I knew there was a reason I never eat KFC or McD. Joking apart, there should be a big sign up if they are serving Halal.

Thank you for the information...this all helps alot (although now I cant help feeling Im doing more of his work then he is,lol!!)

although now I cant help feeling Im doing more of his work then he is,lol!

I think that if you check your contract you'll find that this is Clause 1 in the job description for 'Parent' these days

SM