Hard cheeses - unpasteurised milk?

[LittleOne76]

Are these okay or not? I get confused - is hard cheese okay if it's made out of pasteurised milk only?

[Eskarina]

Should be fine if pasteurised

[FeralGirlCambs]

I am choosing to believe they are ok. I expect you'd like some actual information - sorry!

[Smiler80]

Hah I've got exactly the same question! Have found a delicious hard cheese, which I assumed would be fine to eat, only to find out it was unpasteurised which reignited all my doubts.

NHS says this about which cheeses to avoid: "Soft and blue veined cheeses, such as camembert, brie and stilton. There?s no risk of listeria from hard cheese such as cheddar or from cottage cheese or processed cheese."

They don't actually make any pasteurisation distinction. I therefore choose to believe it's fine, but may not stuff myself with it for 9 months ;)

[faverolles]

You can get unpastuerised hard cheese - I think these are to be avoided.

[faverolles]

Ah. Unfortunate x-post

[LadyBiscuit]

As a rule of thumb, most British hard cheese is pasteurised whereas French/Italian cheese is less of a sure thing

[DirtyMartini]

Unpasteurised hard cheese is fine. Just avoid any threads of blue - you sometimes get the odd bit of this in artisan hard cheeses that aren't actually blue cheese, eg cheddar.

I used to work in a cheese shop and the owner's wife was pg while I worked there, so we were all made aware of this by osmosis - but most people seem to think they cannot eat any unpasteurised cheese at all, which is not the case.

[Smiler80]

DirtyMartini that's just the answer I was hoping for!

Still unclear on the whole soft yet pasteurised cheese issue myself. Pasteurised brie for example? Maybe you know this as well?

[DirtyMartini]

I think it is a little trickier to say on that one. Personally, I think it is fine - the chances of picking up listeria from badly washed salad/fruit are probably greater than the vanishingly small likelihood of listeria in supermarket Brie. I ate it.

But the risk is still unacceptable to some people, and that is fair enough. I would look up old threads on here to see what the spread of opinion is amongst sane people :)

Something like feta is fine btw, although US sites say otherwise -- guidelines hrere say officially OK on that.

[DirtyMartini]

Sorry, just to be extra clear, by supermarket Brie I do just mean the pasteurized variety.

[EauRouge]

It's not whether or not the cheese is pasteurised, it's how it is ripened that's important. Mould-ripened cheese is a no-no, so pasteurised brie is off limits if you stick to 'the rules' but unpasteurised parmesan is fine.

Any cheese is OK though if it's cooked thoroughly so you can still have baked camembert etc.

[MrsMogwai]

We had a cheese board over the New Year. One of the hard cheeses was unpasturised and had a label on saying it wasn't suitable for pregnant women. Personally, I avoid unpasturised things.

[MainlyMaynie]

There's a good guide to this in an NCT magazine I picked up at the hospital. Unfortunately I can't remember what it said, but it's worth picking up if you see it!

The one thing I do remember is that things like brie have to be both cooked thoroughly and served piping hot.

[DirtyMartini]

EauRouge has put it more sensibly than I did.

I do think, though, that your bog-standard non-special Brie from Tesco or wherever is really unlikely to contain listeria, even though it is mould-ripened. This is something I have actually read up on in the past, although I can't recall the info in any meaningful way right now.

I guess the thing is that the consequences are so horrible that even though it is a tiny risk, some people are fearful about taking it, which I get. But then, the same people often are a bit cavalier about, say, haphazardly washed salad at a restaurant, which is (I have been told, but cannot honestly say for sure) apparently much more likely to be a listeria risk than a chunk of Brie.

I got a bit OCD about washing fruit and veg when I was pg but I was pretty cavalier about cheese. We all have our irrational quirks, I guess