Just bit into a date with brown powdery stuff in it...

[badg3r]

Ok MN, talk me down. Someone at work brought in a box of dates from Israel. I took a bite of one and there was brown stuff inside it that looked like soil. I spat it out and rinsed my mouth out several times. I'm 12 weeks pregnant and now super worried I'm going to get lysteria or some sort of fungal infectoi nthat will harm the baby. This is my second pregnancy and I thought I would be more relaxed this time round... turns out I'm not.

It's unlikely it was infected with listeria, but even if it was, you spat most out and rinsed your mouth. If any did manage to get to your stomach, the stomach acid will kill it.

I think it is probably just the date. I had some manky ones recently and one was as you describe, the skin was tough and the inside - what there was of it - was powdery. I similarly spat it out, I am fine and I am sure you will be too.

Are you sure they weren't stuffed dates?
www.jewishjournal.com/tag/stuffed+dates

Dates are generally harvested in nets or bags suspended in the palm, so I'm not sure how you'd get soil inside one as they don't hit the floor. It could've been a manky one. They taste pretty dirty if they've turned.

Yeah it wasn't a stuffed date, I had eaten a couple earlier and they were fine (actually they were pretty amazing). I think it was just manky but the consistency was much more like soil than mould. Thank you for the reassurance!

I had some battered fish that tasted of soil when I was pregnant. God knows what was in it or what was wrong with it. Nothing happened and no harm to me or the baby.

Ew, that's an odd one age!

Yes it was horrible! I just binned it but should have kept for environmental health really.