What not to eat???

[muldoon01]

Hi all, I am 18 wks pregnant and attended my works Christmas meal recently.
I ate cured Salmon for my starter and Venison for my main which was slightly undercooked for my liking! I was unsure whether what I ate was safe so when I returned home I made the fatal mistake of looking on the net. Certain sites warn of listeria in Salmon and Toxoplasmosis in Venison! I'm really worried as the Venison was pink in the middle and not fully cooked... What do people think? Should I be worried?

surely you would have been ill by now if you went out a few days ago, so no I wouldnt be worried.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/foods-to-avoid-pregnant.aspx#types - says smoked salmon is ok

Cured/ smoked salmon is fine. The overwhelming likelihood is that all is well, enjoy the nutrition :)

I was more concerned about the venison to be honest, with toxoplasmosis you reportedly do not always display symptoms!

You can ask to be tested for toxoplasmosis, although the results are often tricky to interpret. Most pregnant women come back with antibodies indicating past exposure to toxoplasmosis but if it were to show current infection at least they could do further checks?

I bet your venison came from frozen meat, it is pretty rare meat and most restaurants by far source staff like that in frozen form. Frozen food poisoning you'll be reassured to know is pretty unheard of. Can you ring the restaurant and ask how they prepare their venison? Restaurants are not keen on giving anyone food poisoning of any kind and usually the food is very safe. The restrictions on pregnant women are in fact way over-cautious and relate to cooking and meat-processing practices that no longer happen (=very little of the meat and seafood we eat these days is fresh, it is mainly transported and imported frozen). It is just easier to give blanket advice on avoiding lots of foods to cover the exceptions as well.