Help please!!

[Narabug764]

I ate at Prezzo today, and stupidly forgot to ask if the cheese that was served on my risotto was safe, until after the event. There were 3 slices of Bella Lodi (a type of unpasteurised parmesan) on top of my warm food - i just took them off - but I made the mistake of asking if they were safe to eat during pregnancy and the waiter said 'no they are dangerous for pregnant women.' Cue my preg-induced neurosis which i thought was long gone now that I am on preg no3. Anyway it has reared its ugly head and now I am all panicky about the fact it was even on my food. I know the nhs says parmesan and hard cheeses in general are safe even if unpasteurised, but I can't understand why the waiter and Prezzo would have a policy of stating 'it is unsafe for pregnant women'. Some input of the sensible variety would be great as I am now imagining listeria and all sorts...

I really wouldn't stress too much about this. There's so much conflicting advice about what is and isn't safe in pregnancy (especially cheese) that the chances are your waiter isn't the ultimate authority on this

Also, speaking as one who adores all the bad cheeses (or what I think are bad cheeses) I didn't avoid them much st all in either pregnancy, and no problems so far. The advice differs in every country so I figured as the risks are incredibly small and not definitively proven that the calories and eating something I actually fancied with lots of nutritional value in it was probably OK. (Had horrendous morning sickness and barely ate for the first four months.)

If you're really stressing, give your midwife a call and I'm sure they will reassure you.

It's a hard cheese, so although made with unpasteurised milk, it's ok

I'm pretty sure any hard cheese is fine. Also the not-recommended ones aren't 'dangerous' - they pose a very small risk, but because the consequences would be bad then avoiding them is deemed the safest option. So if it was a 'banned' one, the risk would be very low even if you'd just eaten it - you didn't eat it, it just sat on your food for a minute - and hard cheese is okay. So you're good!

I've been told to avoid " stinky cheese"

thanks for the reassuring advice everyone. I called Prezzo earlier and they said it was company policy to advise pregnant women not to eat this Bella Lodi cheese as it was deemed unsafe. From what i can see online it is just a hard parmesan-type cheese - but Im just a bit freaked out in case there is something else i'm not aware of that makes this cheese higher risk.

They are probably being over cautious and just have a blanket statement. You will be fine don't worry. You didn't eat it and even if you did it was one time rather than craving and eating mountains of it every day
I did the same - also dc3 with goats cheese in ask or somewhere - didn't think whether it would be ok or not and ate it all - I was fine and it was a one off. Try not to worry

I'm pregnant and eaten bella Lodi cheese (on a risotto) at Prezzo.

Bella Lodi is a hard Parmesan - which is deemed to be safe. I also eat tonnes of Parmesan at home too.

They're probably deemed it unsafe as its from unpasteurised milk. Without taking into account that the unpasteurised is irrelevant as the cheese is hard.

Thank you - feel much more balanced about it now. But now I am worrying about another food faux pas from today - I went into greggs (can only blame hunger and hormones as it is not somewhere I would usually go), I was desperate for a bacon roll, but alas they had none, so went for a cheese and onion pasty. I didn't realise it was pretty much stone cold until I ate it a minute later and now I'm worried about it being cold and lying about in the cabinet etc. Also I didn't realise it has soft cheese in it - which I'm hoping just means Philadelphia type cheese. Oops I think I better steer clear from these places as they just bring out my demented worrier side. If anyone has actually stuck this out and and read this till the end then thank you in advance as I think I just need to know I've not done any harm x

A mass produced greggs pasty will be fine! They sell millions a day so will use quite processed ingredients - which is why they taste so 'bad for you delicious' !!!
Have you read the nhs guidelines so you are clear on what is ok to eat?
Please try not to let eating worry you so much
I think if you were dipping raw prawns in blue cheese with a bottle of red wine then you may need to worry but hard cheese and a pasty is honestly ok

Anything from Greggs will be so irradiated and thoroughly chemically-treated there's no chance anything nasty could survive. And Prezzo are not medical experts - they don't know what they're talking about but don't want the responsibility of advising you wrongly, so will have a policy of just saying 'no, don't' to everything because it's easier for them than training all their staff in the real guidelines. You're honestly fine!

Thank you so much - I just seem to go into this zone where I worry and get overly anxious during pregnancy. Im sure its not good for me or the baby but it's like i can't get the worry out of my mind. Thank you for the reassurance.

That sort of stuff will be fine, and if it makes you sick, you'll know about it and can get to the GP and ask to be tested for listeria. The most likely thing (which is still really bloody unlikely!) to happen is you'll get food poisoning, in which case the biggest risk to baby is you getting dehydrated.

I really feel for you op anxiety is awful. I'm not sure how reassuring this is but for my first pregnancy I wrapped myself up in cotton wool and did everything by the book. I lost that baby. This pregnancy I've had little bits of what I fancy and if it's something I shouldn't be eating I've weighed up the risks and often just had a little. Eg I decided not to have a bbq but have had a little pate.

This pregnancy is going well and it has shown me that I can't really influence the outcome no matter what I do obviously I won't have gallons of forbidden stuff. It's weirdly reassuring and mostly I'm just avoiding any medicines and alcohol with everything else in moderation

I think listeria is scary because I read that you can be symptom free and not even aware you have it. Anyway I am trying to be rational - hard cheese is fine and the pasty won't do any harm.