Frozen berries when pregnant

[Dontcarewhatmyusernameis]

Is it true you’re not supposed to have frozen berries when pregnant? It seems to be the advice in some places and not in others. It’s not something I ever heard from the NHS but I’ve since read it in other places. I was going to make myself some smoothies this week and throw in some frozen berries along with kale etc. I guess I’ll err on the side of caution but it’s easier especially when winter is properly here in a couple months to use frozen berries when you can’t get them fresh as easily

Why couldn’t you? They’re just berries?
I follow NHS, if it’s not on there it’s going in my mouth.

Lol never heard this in my life whare did you hear that from

Never heard of that one.

Follow the NHS advice. Much advice on the internet is from the USA and does not apply in the uk because we have different food standards.

As long as they were picked before the 13th October and then frozen.

After that the Devil will have peed on them or coughed on them or maybe looked at them. Can't remember which or if, in fact, I made it up. Possibly but who knows?

Eat the berries and blow the Devil. I don't mean actually blow him as that would be wrong on so many levels but also a bit kinky.

Just eat the berries.

Surely freezing would kill the bacteria too? I haven't heard this, I would just stick to the NHS advice.

There can be a problem with frozen berries. Hepatitis possibly, I can't quite remember. It's definitely a real thing!

Don't go on bonkers websites while pregnant!
They are not in the nhs list to avoid

Fruit and vegetables

Aim to eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. Fresh, frozen, canned, dried or juiced can be part of your daily allowance – try to avoid anything with added salt or sugar.

Honestly just stick to the NHS website or you won’t eat anything.

Ok good! - I’ll stick to what the NHS says!
Yes I wasn’t going out my way to look for weird advice, I promise ... I just saw someone mention on a pregnancy forum that they’re avoiding frozen berries and I was surprised and when I googled it yeah some random websites say there’s risk of contamination or whatever. I think though that you can end up avoiding all sorts of things unnecessarily, and I’m sure the NHS sticks to the advice that has good research behind it, whereas maybe some of the others don’t.
It’s ages til my next midwife appointment so thought I’d ask here. Thanks all!

I'v never heard of this either. The only thing I did differently with fruit when pregnant was wash it well when ordinarily I might not of even bothered washing it at all.

There has been outbreaks of hepatitis A and norovirus linked to imported frozen Berries across Europe. Going on for years. It is advised to boil imported frozen Berries prior to eating them. This is for everyone not just the pregnant. It can be difficult to tell country of origin with frozen Berries. So if its not clearly stated I'd presume they are imported. Its a food safety alert - I'm Irish so I've seen it on our hpsc website. But imagine supply chains are similar in UK. Anyways I work in food safety and always boil them to be sure. But as you're pregnant I'd be very cautious on origin of frozen berries.

they've been linked to norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships too.

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6916a3.htm

If though you are buying ones that are sold specifically for smoothie recipies they might have been blanched first?

Surely freezing would kill the bacteria too?

Freezing doesn't kill bacteria. That's why it's really important to properly defrost risk foods (like chicken) and heat them really thoroughly.

OP, you will be fine to have frozen berries!

Norovirus resists freezing, as do lots of things, such as listeria which has been linked to frozen veg eaten uncooked, rare but it happens

I also second/third/fourth only listening to the NHS.
And also cook things thoroughly until they're piping hot.

I have all the frozen berries in the world in smoothies.
13weeks and never had an issue...

I eat them daily!