Listeria risk - hummus

[graciesmammy]

Im nearly 32 weeks pregnant and I've just been helpfully alerted to the fact I shouldn't be eating hummus when eating it for my lunch today. Google has scared the hell out of me... yet no sign to avoid hummus on nhs website? Is this common knowledge as I'm not starting to freak out about the listeria risk

I’ve had this thought a few times! Love hummous but have decided to avoid it as I feel there are often product recalls from supermarkets for listeria in hummous. I didn’t look anything up, just felt for me a conclusion I was happy with. 36wks now tho so will be back on it soon 🥳

I remember coming across this in my first pregnancy. If I remember rightly it’s possibly advice on Australia?

Anyway, from then on I decided to get my pregnancy info only from the NHS website or the Tommy’s website. Advice differs around the world because food risks and supply chains are so different in different countries. And I ate a lot of hummus in that pregnancy and I intend to in this pregnancy too 😊

It's common advice on American sites and in American groups. There were some cases in the USA of hummus having issues in shops a few years ago.

I've seen NHS websites recommend hummus as a good snack in pregnancy.

I'm still eating it. Had it today. You could get really unlucky and get listeria from a salad or really lots of things.

I agree with the previous poster that it is the advice in Australia to avoid hummus. I lived there before I was pregnant, and based on what my pregnant friends said, the official advice there is incredibly paranoid about listeria.

The problem is that listeria can be in almost anything, it's just hugely unlikely. The NHS approach is to advise you to avoid just the most common sources of listeria (I think the food safety laws are stricter here too, which helps). The Australian approach is to advise you to avoid entire food groups - chopped fruit and veg, salads, most cheeses and meats, dips, etc etc etc.

It's quite ridiculous, to the point where pregnant women struggle to eat anything at all. I was at a conference with work and the couple of pregnant women could barely eat anything in the catered lunch, so they just went hungry.

If we all followed dr Google’s advice on what can’t be eaten during pregnancy then pregnant women would starve. Just follow NHS guidelines and ignore the rest.

Like @ElderMillennial I am very cautious and I have eaten a lot of hummus this pregnancy. I Google a lot and have never heard of this one! Just had a quick check now and off the first ten sites that come up 9 say it’s safe and one says it’s a listeria risk. I think many many things are a very low listeria risk including many pre prepared items like sandwiches and salads. I think I just decided that you’ve got to eat something as if you avoided every food item that had a tiny tiny risk then you would not be getting a balanced diet which is also very important for baby! I just go with the NHS list now. The nhs list includes contains the foods which have the highest risk of listeria on it - such as unpasteurised milk, unwashed vegetables etc.

Anyone else really craving hummus now or just me?! 😂

@Ameteurmum I bought some today because of this thread!

The only reason I can think to avoid hummus in pregnancy is it gives me chronic stomach ache due to the chickpeas... and I don't think I can deal with that! I generally go by the NHS website for a common sense approach to what to eat and what to avoid.

I really fancy some roasted onion hummus now!!!