Does anyone know why its now considered OK to eat rare beef & lamb steak??!

[icravecheese]

During my last 2 pregs, I understood that any undercooked / raw meat was a no-no. I got myself in a SERIOUS stress during my first preg because I'd eaten parma ham and a rare venison steak whilst preg, and hubby marched me down Dr's after many weeks of worrying myself sick about it (I was a slightly neurotic 1st time mum!). Had a toxoplasmosis blood test - turns out I'd never had it before, so all was fine, but also noted that I had no immunity so had to be careful in future with any toxo risk.

I'm just slightly surprised to read in the NHS book that comes free at booking (only been given it for my 3rd preg, never read it before) that apparently now the DoH says its ok to eat rare beef & lamb steak so long as its seared all round the edges....how is that different to having slightly undercooked mincemeat / cured meats?

I find all the changing advice so confusing....can anyone throw any light on this??

Mince meat has the surface much more broken up, so there is much more area for bugs to grow on, so it goes off more quickly in general.

It's the surface of the meat that gathers bacteria so minced meat needs to be cooked through as there's lots of potentially dodgy surface meat, however good fresh steak should be fine if seared. That said, most of my books say don't eat rare meat.
I think the cured meat problem is down to how it's stored, often left out in open fridges that may not always be at the right temperature.
I'm being on the safe side and cooking things through, although a tiny bit of pink in the middle of a steak is probably ok.
Hope that's useful.

oh ok, that makes sense, thanks for that ladies.

I'm guessing in a few years time the advice will have changed yet again as more research is done! Sometimes I wish I was having babies back in the 70's when my mum did - she said they had absolutely NO advice like this at all, along with no scans either. Life was alot simpler & less worrysome!

This confuses me too because I thought the meat had to get to a certain temperature throughout to kill the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis (if it is present), and that this parasite can be found within the muscle (ie throughout the steak)? Is this not the case?

I thought the same too about the parasite being throughout the meat tissue, hence why I'm slightly confused! I read somewhere that beef is apparently much lower risk than pork or other meats, so maybe that explains some of it....
I also read that the parasite can be destroyed if the meat is frozen before use...whether thats really true I have no idea! However plenty of women on this forum seem to have enjoyed rare steak thought out pregnancy and lived to tell the tale so I guess times change, new research is done and pink lamb & beef steaks are now considered low risk. I just like to understand the science behind it cos I'm a science geek at heart!!

I'm guilty of eating rare beef steak with salad once every couple of weeks (and I'd probably eat more if I could afford it!). I know a lot of MNers would probably faint at the idea! Thing is, with my first pregnancy I did EVERYTHING by the book. Absolutely everything. And I miscarried at 9.5 weeks. With this one I've just eaten how I usually eat (including eggs, rare steak etc) and so far I've reached 34 weeks without even catching a single cold. My iron level is fab too. So maybe just eat what you like, within reason. Just make sure you have the best quality you can lay your hands on though. My steak comes from my lovely local butcher, not the bargain bucket at Lidl!

Hi J,
I'm so sorry to hear of your previous miscarraige (but VERY happy to hear you're now 34 weeks!). I think your attitude to pregnancy is totally fab - I was a very paranoid 1st time mum (didnt enjoy pregnancy at all because I worried SO much about everything that could go wrong), was much better 2nd time around, and strangely, now I'm preg for 3rd time, I seem to be worrying SOoooo much more again, which is really annoying, I just want to enjoy pregnancy like I did 2nd time & stop worrying about what I can/can't eat. However your post has made me chill out lots, lovely & refreshing. Thanks!

Thanks! Was expecting to get shot down for my irresponsible devil-may-care attitude...! Good luck with no.3!