Indonesian Allergy Card: How to Say Your
Food Allergy in Bahasa Indonesia

The exact sentences on an Indonesian allergy card

AllergyPass prints five fixed lines on every Bahasa Indonesia card — not free-form translations, but the same strings the card builder uses for every Indonesia-bound traveler. Each is paired with its English meaning:

The allergens to flag first for Indonesia

These are the terms travelers most often need for Indonesia and Bali specifically — the allergens behind satay sauce, sambal, and shared kitchen equipment. The complete list of 71 tracked allergens and dietary terms follows below.

What other allergens and dietary terms does an Indonesian allergy card cover?

Direct answer: Beyond the destination-specific allergens above, the AllergyPass card builder includes additional allergies, medical conditions, sensitivities, intolerances, and dietary rules in Bahasa Indonesia. The complete list, grouped by category:

Allergies

Medical conditions

Sensitivities & intolerances

Dietary preferences

Religious dietary rules

Ingredients to avoid

These terms are communication aids. Before relying on any translation, compare it with the label, recipe, or medical wording relevant to your situation, and ask the restaurant how the food is prepared.

Hidden allergens in Indonesian and Balinese cooking

Peanuts show up constantly in Indonesian and Balinese food, most visibly in satay's dipping sauce and in gado-gado, a vegetable dish built on a peanut dressing rather than finished with one. In both dishes, peanut sauce (bumbu kacang) is the point, not a garnish, so asking for it to be left off doesn't solve the shared-prep and shared-utensil risk underneath. A less visible risk is terasi, fermented shrimp paste, which is stirred into the bumbu (spice base) at the start of cooking for many curries, stir-fries, and sambals; by the time the dish reaches the table it has cooked into the sauce and disappeared, making it a hidden shellfish allergen for anyone who assumes a dish is plant-based because it looks that way.

Coconut milk (santan) is easier to spot: it's the base of many Balinese curries and braises and usually appears on menus by name. Candlenut (kemiri), by contrast, is ground into spice pastes as a thickener for dishes like rendang and sayur lodeh, leaves no visible nut in the finished dish, and is often not recognized by kitchen staff as a tree nut at all. For a deeper look at how these ingredients move through Balinese kitchens, see our peanut allergy in Bali guide and the wider Indonesia food allergy hub.

Does Indonesian food have peanuts? What about tree nuts?

Yes — peanuts are one of the most common allergens in Indonesian cooking. Satay's peanut sauce, gado-gado's dressing, pecel, and many sambal condiments are all peanut-based. The AllergyPass card's Indonesian term for peanut is Kacang tanah, and it's worth using that specific two-word term rather than a shorter one: the Indonesian word for peanuts sits inside a broader family of words for beans and legumes, so specificity on a written card matters more here than it would in English.

Tree nuts are a separate line on the card — Kacang pohon — and cover almonds, cashews, walnuts, and similar nuts as a category. Indonesian cooking's most distinctive tree-nut risk is candlenut (kemiri), discussed above: it's ground into sauces rather than served whole, so flagging the general tree-nut category on your card is the first step, and asking specifically about kemiri in any sauced or curried dish is the second.

What to ask before you order in Indonesia

Recipes vary by warung, region, and stall. Ask about the specific dish rather than assuming a category is safe or unsafe:

Frequently asked questions

Does Indonesian food have peanuts?

Yes. Peanuts are common in Indonesian cooking, especially in satay's peanut dipping sauce (bumbu kacang), gado-gado, and many sambal condiments. The AllergyPass card's exact term for peanut is Kacang tanah, and it is worth using deliberately: Indonesian groups peanuts with a wider family of beans and legumes, so a written card with the specific term is more reliable than a shorter, general word.

What does an AllergyPass card say in Indonesian?

It opens with the heading Kartu Alergi Makanan, states your allergy in the sentence Saya memiliki alergi makanan serius. Mohon pastikan makanan saya TIDAK mengandung bahan-bahan berikut., and lists every allergen you flag using the Indonesian terms in the tables on this page, each shown next to its English name so kitchen staff can read it directly.

How many allergens can I flag on an Indonesian allergy card?

71 of AllergyPass's 71 tracked allergens and dietary restrictions currently have an Indonesian translation; any not yet translated fall back to English on the card until they are.

Is Indonesian the same as Malay?

No. Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) and Malay (Bahasa Melayu) are closely related languages with shared vocabulary, but they are not interchangeable — spelling, common words, and everyday usage differ enough that a Malay card is not a substitute for an Indonesian one. This page and the AllergyPass card builder's ID destination use Bahasa Indonesia specifically, for Indonesia.

What about tree nuts like candlenut (kemiri) in Indonesian food?

Candlenut (kemiri) is ground into spice pastes used in curries, sambals, and braised dishes across Indonesia and Bali, and because it is blended in, there's rarely a whole nut to spot on the plate. The AllergyPass card's general term for tree nuts is Kacang pohon; travelers with a tree-nut allergy should flag that category on their card and separately ask kitchens whether kemiri is in the dish, since staff don't always think of it as a nut.