The Royal family has restrictions on what they can eat, for more than one reason.
HIGHLIGHTS
Royal heirs are not allowed to travel together to ensure their safety in case of an accident or incident.
Royals are prohibited from signing autographs to prevent the misuse of their signatures.
The Royal Family avoids eating shellfish, onions, garlic, and foie gras to prevent food poisoning, honor the late Queen’s preferences, and prioritize animal welfare.
Being a member of the Royal Family comes with having to uphold many rules and standards, which they have to keep up with both in public and behind closed doors. Even down to curtseying in front of senior Royal Family members, such as the King, they still have to do this in both formal and informal settings, whether the public’s eyes are on them or not.
However, what many people might not realize is that these rules go right down to which foods they are and aren’t allowed to eat. While most people might be able to sit down and enjoy a good meal with these foods, the Royal Family has to make sure to avoid them at all costs.
What Rules Do The Royal Family Have To Follow?
Many families might have rules, such as eating all their vegetables or helping to do the washing up, but the Royal rules are a lot more strict, and many of them have been around for centuries. While some might seem to make perfect sense, others are a bit more out of the ordinary.
One is that royal heirs are not allowed to travel together in fear that something might happen to them. For example, if King Charles and Prince William were heading to the same destination, they would have to travel separately in case something happened to one of the planes they were in.
Another example is that Royals aren’t allowed to sign autographs. If some people happen to meet their favorite celebrity they might ask them to sign something, people aren’t allowed to do this with the Royals. If they do, their request will be refused due to the worry that people might use their signature for something they shouldn’t.
While these might seem like reasonable rules to have, there are some other rules that the Royal Family must follow that are a little strange. For example, when hosting a Royal dinner, the monarch must start by talking to the person on their right first.
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The guest of honor at these events is always put on the monarch’s right side, and they will talk to them first. Once the first course is done, they will then turn to talk to other people.
For example, Lewis Hamilton was once sat to the left side of the Queen and tried to engage in conversation with her, but as she was yet to speak to the person on her right, she politely told him to stop and said that she would speak to him once she had spoken with the person on her right.
The Royal Family Aren’t Allowed To Eat Shellfish
One food item that might surprise people that the Royal Family isn’t allowed to eat is shellfish.
The actual reason behind the banning of them being able to eat shellfish is actually quite reasonable. The reason is that shellfish carries a risk of causing someone who eats it to get food poisoning and become very ill from it.
Members of the Royal Family often have very busy schedules, having to visit many different places and people from all over the world and leaving very little room to rest. Because of this, it’s not really ideal if they get ill, especially if it’s over a few days or even weeks.
If they do get ill, then this inevitably will have to lead to the cancellation of some of these engagements. While in many cases this is unavoidable, there are some cases where it can be avoided, which is by not eating foods that carry a risk of giving them food poisoning.
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What Foods Are Royals Not Allowed To Eat?
Aside from shellfish, there are a few other foods that Royals are forbidden from eating. If shellfish was thought of as a strange food to be banned from eating, then the other foods they aren’t allowed to eat, while they have logical reasons behind them, seem to appear in most dishes so might feel a bit odd to some people to not be allowed to eat.
For example, a couple of food items that are banned from the Royal household are onions and garlic. While shellfish is banned due to food poisoning, onions and garlic are banned for the simple reason that the late Queen didn’t like them, a fact confirmed by Queen Consort Camilla when she appeared on MasterChef Australia.
However, as the Queen passed away in September 2022 and King Charles is now on the throne, it’s currently not known whether onions and garlic are allowed back on the menu or if Royals continue to not eat it purely in memory of her.
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Another food that Royals don’t eat is a lesser-known food, which is foie gras. It was King Charles who decided that these shouldn’t be served in the Royal household back in 2008.
Known for his concerns about the environment and wildlife, Charles was concerned about the animal welfare of the ducks and geese used to make the dish, as they are force-fed to make their livers swell.
