Carluccios chicken liver pate

[PilauMice]

I'm 17 weeks and we're going out for lunch tomorrow. I need this chicken liver pate. Would it be massively irresponsible to eat it? I haven't had anything livery all pregnancy.

The NHS advises against both liver and paté. Only you can decide if it's worth the risk. It also advises against runny eggs, and I choose to ignore that one.

Well ultimately it's your decision but the risk is very low.

I would. But I pay little to no attention to what I shouldn't eat, the only thing I don't do is drink alcohol or eat mussels.

Sorry pilau but I think you should probably skip it. I'm fairly relaxed about a lot of the rules which relate to food poisoning as I think they're a bit ott but the liver thing is about vitamin A. That means you're definitely having something evidence has shown to be harmful not just taking a calculated risk.

I really fancy pâté too right now and might add some to the shopping list for when I'm done (2 weeks to go!)

Is it a food poisoning risk mainly? The liver thing is vitamin A overdosing but I doubt one pot of pate will do that.

Hmmm maybe you are right. Massive disappointment!

Sorry! I'm not even that mad about it usually but its been on my mind a lot the last 8 months!

How much Vit A for an overdose? In other countries (Norway I think) liver is recommended for pregnant women. If you really want some then why not share a pot? You get to satisfy your taste buds without over doing it.

NHS website advises not to eat liver or liver pate more than once a week.

Isn't that for normal people Deadcert?

At normal people!

Might be wrong, it's because it "may" contain listeria. Same with runny eggs, you "may" get salmonella.

Up to you OP. You can only inform yourself of the risks and make a judgement.

I personally wouldn't due to the listeria risk (I wouldn't eat any pate, would be fine about liver in small amounts). And I say that as someone who will happily eat soft boiled eggs, drink coffee and the occasionally small glass of wine. I work in food safety and make an informed choice about most of the recommendations, and the recommendations related to risk of listeria are the only ones I stick to strictly.

While listeria is very rare, the consequences for the baby can unfortunately be servere. The issue is it's hard to detect, taking up to 30 days for symptoms to show, so you may not even know you've got it in time to be treated (unlike other types of food poisoning where youd definitely know about it!)

If you are really desperate to have some, have a look at the scores on the doors website (www.scoresonthedoors.org.uk/) for the Carluccio's you are visiting. If it's a good recent score (4 or 5) you may be confident the listeria risk is so small it's worth it. If it's a low score - i.e. their hygiene practices aren't great - I'd avoid it.

I was too very relaxed about stuff like this in pg, but avoided liver for the Vit A risk. I wouldn't. I craved pate too!

I'm so relaxed that I would just go for it. I wouldn't have thought you could overdose from one bit!