Going to France can I eat cheese

[littlemisssunshine3]

Hi,

Off to France for a few days to visit FIL and love to eat cheese. I know I am not supposed to have soft cheese and blue cheese but do pregnant French ladies eat these?

I was over there in April eating all sorts of cheeses, pate and drinking lots and lots of wine and beer not realising I was knocked up and everything is all ok.

I will not be drinking this time.....not even a small glass of wine......because just the thought of it makes me sick :(

Just looking for a bit of advise as I know if I google it, I would never eat anything ever again for fear of catching the plague :)

Thanks x

My totally laissez faire GP said "if you've always eaten french cheeses, you'll probably be fine"

It's up to you to consider the risk. It's just unpasteurised cheeses and mould ripened cheeses which are recommended to be avoided - pasteurised soft cheese is fine, as is any hard cheese without a mould ripened rind. Although I guess that doesn't leave much choice in France

The risk is of listeria, which is also the risk with pâtés.

Have a look at this NHS page and decide for yourself what you think is ok and what isn't

As I understand it, lots of French cheese is unpasteurised, and pregnant French women continue to eat all sorts of cheese during their pregnancies. So you'd probably be met with a confused look if you asked whether a particular cheese was pasteurised or not.

If you aren't eating blue cheese and unpasteurised cheese here, then surely you wouldn't eat it in France, even if French people do something different? It's not like it's the law in France to eat cheese if you are pregnant?!

It's the same with practically all sorts of risks - you need to weigh it up: if you eat all the "forbidden" cheeses, you may well be fine. In fact you are highly likely to be fine. But doing so carries a small chance of something going horribly wrong with your pregnancy, and it depends on whether you think the pleasure of eating the cheese is outweighed by the (small but real) risk of losing or damaging the baby.

As already said the risk it's listeria. This can be found in all sorts of food, it is not specific to certain types of cheese. poor general food preparation and storage hygiene for all sorts of pre prepared food, eg sandwiches, cold meats, can lead to contamination.

As I understand it, if soft cheese is contaminated it's a good medium for it to increase to a more dangerous level. These days, certainly within the UK, production is carefully monitored to prevent contamination. I don't know if that's the same in France.

Personally I'm eating pretty much all types of cheeses. I'm being more cautious about general food hygiene and picky about where I but things like sandwiches

Plenty of French cheese is pasteurised. On the wrapper it will say 'lait pasteurise'.

I spend lots of time in France and eat any cheese that says it is pasteurised.

Your gp is wrong. You may have eaten unpasteurised cheese before but not when you were pregnant. Your immune system is lowered when you are pregnant so you are more likely to catch listeria/toxo etc.
I'm not sure about listeria but certainly French women are tested regularly for toxo because of their diet and treated if found to be positive.

...there is also too much vitamin A in pate, but as long as you're not eating a lot of it regularly, it should be ok.

hey i live in france and actually it's a myth that most french woman continue to eat all cheeses when pregnant, most of my french friends didn't.

But someone said, some of the cheeses are made with 'lait pasturisé' so that's fine (although i did read on one website that they advised cutting the rind off anyway).

You are not supposed to eat the ones made with 'lait cru'.

THat's funny Nancy - all the ones I know ate all sorts of cheese and pate, some even smoked (such a cliche - one lady even claimed her MW said it was OK not to give up as the shock to the system would be detrimental to the baby!), but don't know of any wine drinkers though . For OP - as everyone else suggested

I totally understand where you are coming from. DH and I went to Italy for a long weekend just before 12 week scan. I love Italian food, but couldn't eat mozzarella or all the other really tasty unpasteurised cheese as just didn't want to risk it before scan. Don't know what I would do now, but think I probably wouldn't risk it. Waiters did look at me as though I was mad when asking about whether cheese was pasteurised or not! Just focus on all the delicious food you can have rather than the stuff you can't. And have a wonderful holiday.

le bfg - yeah the people i know here tend to only eat pasturised when preg.

however, i agree with you on the smoking!!! lots of my friends continue to smoke the odd cig when preg which i find quite surprising! and lots of them say the mw says the shock to the system thing!!!

The way I always saw it was that I had never had listeria from chess (even ripe, smelly unpasterised blues). I've never even heard of anyone getting it so the risk is rather negligible relative to getting my car everyday.

Packet salads are one of the biggest causes of salmonella but no one ever worries about them.

It's all relative and how much risk you're prepared to take

Thank you all for responding.

I think I will just read the labels of everything to make sure they are all pasteurised and make sure that the other half buys me lots of brie and stilton to go with the bottle of wine I intend to drink once bump shows its self :)

I was in Spain recently and had dinner with loads of people amongst them another pregnant lady who was horrified that i had a bit of mozzarella and some paella (seafood) but she drank three glasses of wine and smoked
I have cut out coffee, still have some tea, havent touched alcohol, but have had some mozzarella and some seafood...I think you have to be careful and know the risks and then you can make up your own mind accordingly

I think your approach is correct OP! Do what you feel comfortable with, after weighing up the risk.

I've tried to avoid unpastuerised cheeses while pregnant in particular, and have generally avoided shellfish. However while in Italy last week I think I ate my weight in cured meats, and at least a kilo of proscuttio in particular (I really love my deli meats and have been eating them throughout pregnancy!!). I also ate plenty of shellfish there, other soft cheeses, and had quarter to half a glass of wine each night (as in, around half to three quarters a standard 150ml drink, I know what the measurement is, not half a big glass!). And whenever I've had steak pregnant I've always had it rare, just like I always have. As far as I and my GP/midwife know baby is fine, and he certainly enjoyed all the food I was eating in Italy if his vigorous kicking all hours of the day and night was anything to go by!

My midwife told me that really you had to be careful if you don't know where the food has come from - so she gave me the example, a ham sarnie from the dodgy deli down the road is not a good idea (but when is it ever?); but me making mayonnaise at home with raw eggs is probably not really that risky. Obviously there is the lowered immune system issue.

I think women hear a lot of conflicting advice on this topic from HCPs, books, the interwebs and friends. It's very very confusing. Exercising common sense, as with anything pregnancy-related, seems to be best!

Not to mention my smoked salmon cravings... I get through a 200g packet no problem each Sunday brunch . And I have cats too and occasionally change their litter (but that's DH's job mostly).

I think I'm going to hell....

Just back from France - didn't find a single cheese in the supermarket that wasn't pasteurised. Bliss. Didn't buy any from the markets as my french isn't that strong but there was a huge selection at Le supermarche :)

You can eat unpasteurised cheese as long as its hard and not mould ripened ie no Brie camembert and the like. Hard cheese with unpasteurised milk is fine

Interesting mama I didn't know that. In any case, I don't understand the appeal of unpasturised cheese. At the moment, the strong smell turns my tummy. Anyone else like this?

I read this as "Going to France so I can eat cheese..."