Can we make a list of foods to avoid in pregnancy?

[cupcakes]

I've always avoided the obvious ones (liver, soft cheese) but there now seem to be so many others that the midwife hasn't told me about. Without scaremongering it would be interesting (for me at any rate) to compile a list of dodgy foods. Please feel free to correct if misinformed!

Soft cheese
liver
peanuts (if risk of allergy)
unpasteurised food
Mr Whippy Ice Cream
parma ham - what about reg ham or smoked salmon??
pre washed bags of salad
sushi
pate
uncooked meat
soft eggs
seafood?
tuna? - because of the mercury.

Please, please correct if any of these are wrong and please add others I've forgotton.

Also, if you can think of anything I can est please let me know.

I have listed foods you DONT need to avoid which is from the Food Standards Agency website. The same page also gives a list of foods to avoid (p.s. shellfish is ok as long as it is cooked and part of a hot meal and tuna is ok as long as you limit to no more than two tuna steaks a week (weighing about 140g cooked or 170g raw) or four medium-size cans of tuna a week (with a drained weight of about 140g per can)

Foods you don't need to avoid

It can be confusing trying to work out which foods you can eat and which foods you should avoid when you're pregnant. You might find it helpful to look at this list of some of the foods you don't need to avoid:

Shellfish, including prawns – as long as they are part of a hot meal and have been properly cooked

Live or bio yoghurt
Probiotic drinks
Fromage frais
Crème fraîche
Soured cream
Spicy food

Mayonnaise, ice cream, salad dressing – as long as they haven’t been made using raw egg. Generally, mayonnaise, ice cream and salad dressing you buy in shops will have been made with pasteurised egg, which means it’s safe to eat. But it’s better to avoid home-made versions if they contain raw egg. If you're not sure about any of these foods when you're eating out, ask staff for more information

Honey – it’s fine for pregnant women but honey isn’t suitable for babies under a year old

Many types of cheese including:
Hard cheese, such as Cheddar and Parmesan
Feta
Ricotta
Mascarpone
Cream cheese
Mozzarella
Cottage cheese
Processed cheese, such as cheese spreads

\link{http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/agesandstages/pregnancy/whenyrpregnant/\Foods to avoid/not avoid}

" pre washed bags of salad " never heard of this one before.

jamieleigh... I think it has a "nitrate wash" for preservation purposes. Something like that anyway. I heard you are supposed to avoid nitrates in pregnancy (but the bacon still called my name from the fridge...)

bacon??

it has annoyed me that twice recently I have asked staff on the fish counter and cheese counter in Waitrose if a particular product is suitable for pg women, and both times they didn;t know. really annoyed me.

bacon and sausages have high levels of nitrate in them I think cupcakes. In all honesty,I don't know what the issues of nitrates and pregnancy are though - may be totally irrelevant!

hatty - that's supermarkets. I enquired at our local independent deli about whether the cheese in the quiche was pasteurised and he was very informative indeed! (he wouldn't let me buy them ).

squarer - is that all sausages? What if I got posh Jimmy's Farm ones?? We're having toad in the hole today...

Never heard the prewashed bags of salad one before, been in many factories that wash these types of things and there isn't a nitrate washed they are washed in chlorine or an equivalent. IMO they are far safer than getting a lettuce and washing it yourself.

Senora, what are we told to avoid in Spain, just out of interest?

this is what I read about pre packed salad:

Nowadays, many pre-prepared and packaged salads are available in bags from supermarkets, but you should avoid them during pregnancy unless you can wash them again thoroughly because they may contain listeria, salmonella or campylobacter bacteria. Avoid ready-made dressed salads such as potato salad and coleslaw for the same reasons. In addition, salad leaves that have not been well-washed may carry the toxoplasmosis parasite. Wash thoroughly all fruit and vegetables under running water, including those which have come pre-packaged from a supermarket.

ooooh, I am eating lots of no-nos, occasionally. But don't do as I do

I'm pg with bump no 3, and I thought I was doing ok until I read this thread. Oh well dry toast for the next 6 months then.... yum yum.

seafood is okay if it's cooked so you can't eat raw prawns but they should be fine in a seafood pie for example. Same goes for cheese. Brie is a no no but deep fried brie is fine because by cooking it all the bacteria is killed. Not sure about smoked salmon though. I wondered about runny honey because babies can't have it under a year old but the link on here says it's fine - hurrah!

You aren't supposed to eat food with sodium nitrate in it, apparently it hasn't been tested enough to ensure that is is safe during pregnancy. So no bacon, or ham... but I am assuming that they mean having the stuff everyday not just once in a while.

Tuna I think is okay, just not loads of it.. oh and you are supposed to wash all salad including the pre-washed variety.

Isn't it strange how things change. When I was last pregnant way back in 1977 my iron levels were very low and I was told to eat liver. Never did 'cos' it is disgusting. Ended up with iron tablets.

awayfromhome - as I read your post I was eating a ham sandwich!

sorry cupcakes - I have eaten ham in my 1st pregnancy and in this one... just think that they mean don't have loads of it.

Oh, it's chlorine on the bagged salad is it? Knew it was some chemical that makes me wonder why it has to be there.

Nitrate isn't in all sausages cupcakes (I'm not sure of its function? Is it a preservative?) I asked at my local farm shop what was in theirs and they said just plain meat and seasonings. They did taste a hell of a lot different to most other sausages too! Mind you, that said I never turned down a sausage off anyones barbeque if offered. Like awayfromhome suggests, in moderation should be fine. Enjoy your toad in the hole!

smoked salmon(and all smoked foods) contain sulfites or something that you shouldn't have loads of in pg. It's not like the food poisoning risk. It's a too much of a bad thing risk, like tuna really.

i celebrated my first pg with smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels and ds is groovy.

does organic salad avoid the chemical wash?
I had a salad crisis yesterday. I ate pre washed salads in last pg, DS fine. I've got an organic box this time. Salad is coated in soil. I obviously wash it, but it's got lumps of clay on it to start with. Which is the bigger risk? Muddy organic or chemically rinsed pesticide containing lettuce?

As my home,mattress, DH deodorant,make up and DS (prob) are also leaching chemicals, where do I draw the line?

I am not being flippant at all about this. More this time than last , I've become so aware of potential threats to Bean. I think slightly because I was so cautious last time and this time half my brain is saying it'll be OK and the other half can't remember what I'm supposed to be avoiding.

I think it's just to cover them! In South Africa,you can eat ANYTHING! and half the allergy's to everything are less!!!! I think as unborn babies are not exposed to these things, thats why the risks and illness rates are so much higher here!!!!

I would rather eat prepacked salad than homewashed salad having seen inside the factories that wash them, they are washed in very low dose chlorine systems that are like big jacuzzi's, then are rinsed with clear water. All the dosing is checked regularly and the chlorine levels are tested to prove they will kill Salmonella, Listeria etc much more controlled than washing it under a running tap at home.

As for organic fresh produce washes, these are no where near as effective at killing bacteria as chlorine and I personally have found Salmonella in a number of these (last case traced to lizards in the fields) so you can either have the chemicals or go organic!

TBH as a food microbiologist I are whatever I wanted during pregnancy.

I totally forgot and had a spoonful of uncooked cake mixture Please tell me that small amount of raw egg won't be harmful!!

I wouldnt have though it would have done you any harm at all. Aren't the hens in the UK vaccinated against salmonella anyway? I have been having fried eggs with runny yolks on occasion and I've been fine (naughty me!!)