The Vegetarian Student’s Guide to Eating Abroad

Studying abroad is exciting until you stand in a foreign grocery store with a tight budget and no idea which foods are vegetarian. The good news is that the problem is solvable with a small toolkit, and the staples that work everywhere are also the cheapest.

Key Takeaways

• Learn the few animal-derived words in the local language, then use the allergen section on labels.
• Lean on the cheap, universal staples: rice, beans, lentils, oats, pasta and fresh produce.
• Cook for yourself when you can, since it is cheaper and safer than guessing at restaurants.
• Use a scanner app to translate and flag foreign labels, even offline.

TL;DR: A vegetarian student abroad needs three things: a short list of animal words, a handful of universal staples, and a way to check foreign labels. A scanner app handles the third one.

The three problems, named

A study-abroad guide frames the vegetarian student’s challenge clearly: you are managing a new language, a new food culture, and a budget, all at once (CIEE, retrieved 2026-08-25). Each one is solvable on its own, and together they are just three habits.

1. The language: you cannot read the labels.
2. The food culture: you do not know which dishes are secretly meat or fish.
3. The budget: eating out every meal is expensive and error-prone.

The universal staples

The easiest fix is to build meals from ingredients that are plant-based in every country. These are cheap everywhere and need no label-reading:

• Rice, oats and pasta
• Beans, lentils and chickpeas (dried or canned)
• Potatoes and sweet potatoes
• Fresh fruit and vegetables
• Peanut butter, nuts and seeds
• Basic breads (check for milk or egg)

A guide to vegan grocery shopping for students makes the same point: sticking to simple staples removes most of the decision-making and the cost (Guiltless To Go, retrieved 2026-08-25).

The word list and the allergen section

For the packaged foods you do buy, learn the few animal words in the local language: milk, egg, meat, fish, gelatin and butter. Then read the allergen section, which usually bolds milk, egg and fish. These two habits catch most animal products without fluency.

The scanner shortcut

The fastest tool is a scanner app. Point your phone at a label, and it reads the text, translates it, and flags the animal-derived ingredients against your diet. It works offline after you download a language, which matters when you are in a dorm kitchen or a store with no signal.

Dining halls and eating out

• Ask the dining hall which dishes are vegetarian, and learn the word for “vegetarian” in the local language.
• In restaurants, ask specifically about meat stock, fish sauce and lard, not just “is this vegetarian.”
• When in doubt, choose the obviously plant-based dish: a grain, a legume, and vegetables.

A simple routine

1. Stock the universal staples each week.
2. Learn the five or six animal words for the country.
3. Scan anything packaged before you buy it.
4. Cook in batches so you always have a safe meal ready.

The bottom line

Eating vegetarian abroad is a set of habits, not a language exam. Learn a short word list, stock the universal staples, and scan what you do not recognize. That turns a foreign semester into a solvable, budget-friendly routine.

Check before you eat. The Verify Veg app scans a barcode or reads an ingredient list from a photo and flags ingredients against your diet (vegan, vegetarian, halal, kosher, Jain and more). Download on the App Store - Android is coming soon.

Written by Samir Narain, founder of Verify Veg. Verify Veg helps people check packaged food against their diet by scanning barcodes and reading ingredient lists from photos.

Note: Verify Veg provides ingredient-based compatibility checks, not certification. Recipes and preparations vary by restaurant, region and cook, so always confirm with the restaurant, brand or vendor.