Can you eat Brie in pregnancy

[Motherof1and2dogs]

NHS website says not to but I know things have changed with what you can and can't eat these days and it gets confusing. Has anyone eaten Brie cheese is pregnancy? Would love to be able to have some included in my lunch today 😫

I don’t think you can due to the listeria risk

I think you can if you cook it.

Only if it’s cooked to piping hot.

You can, you can eat anything. But it remains on the list of things recommended to avoid. The NHS guidance is up to date.

If it's pasteurised (will say in the ingredients list) or cooked to piping hot then it's ok.

Even if pasteurised it should be avoided unless heated. It's to do with the moisture content. Conversely you can have unpasteurised hard cheeses as they have a low moisture content e.g. parmesan

Also I'm pretty sure the NHS page gets updated, there were things on there for my second pregnancy that I didn't remember from my first (less than 4 years apart).

Most of the time eating things that are not recommended will be fine, personally I wouldn't want to risk it unheated though as there's a risk of bacteria reaching baby.

Looking online as long as it's pasteurised and you heat it so it's piping hot it's safe. Myself & friends who've all been pregnant have all done the same, I guess it just personal preference as to how strictly you want to follow the advice x

Down to personal risk attitude. I've eaten Brie my whole life and never had listeria, I ate it through both pregnancies too. I wouldn't eat unpasteurised soft cheese though, I'm not that maverick

You can theoretically eat what you like. But if you get a serious tummy upset it could harm or even kill the developing baby. The chances of getting food poisoning from a fresh piece of brie that you can be confident has been kept properly (hasn't been mouldering at the bottom of the cheesebox for weeks/been regularly left out at room temperature on a cheeseboard for hours then put back in the fridge) is very very low. But it's difficult to be 100% sure and most women choose to avoid foods that carry a higher risk.

What to avoid

• any other foods made from unpasteurised milk, such as soft ripened goats' cheese
• pasteurised or unpasteurised mould-ripened soft cheeses with a white coating on the outside, such as brie, camembert and chèvre (unless cooked until steaming hot)
• pasteurised or unpasteurised soft blue cheeses, such as danish blue, gorgonzola and roquefort (unless cooked until steaming hot)
• unpasteurised cows' milk, goats' milk, sheep's milk or cream

In the end I took the view that I have never caught listeria in my life before, and that the risk of catching it from things like cheese is so small, that I was just going to crack on.

The last listeria outbreak in the UK was from, I think, bags of frozen vegetables. Yet no one has ever suggested that pregnant women should not eat those.

It's just about minimising the risk of getting very ill basically. Because if you get really ill and you're pregnant it could cause problems for you and the baby.

Well said.

My thinking is exactly the same.

My midwife is quite pragmatic and knows I have a history of eating disorders, so a sudden ban on certain foods could be triggering and lead to a spiral of restrictive eating. Her advice was if I didn't worry about listeria/toxoplasmosis etc before being pregnant, no need to worry about it now.

I ate whatever I wanted during pregnancies but I know I'm a natural risk taker. I felt the risk to me was so small, given I was brought up on unpasteurised milk and have eaten shellfish and unpasteurised cheese all my life and never got ill.

But, it's your choice, you do what feels right for you.

I’ve eaten pasteurised Brie and not concerned, down to personal preference. X

Same as pp's, I continued to eat brie and pate, ate my steaks bloody, ate salami, seafoid and charceuterie, drank coffee and tea. I don't drink or smoke, was very slim, went to the gym and swam up to 38 weeks. It's all a risk, but a very, very, small one.

You are just as likely to get listeria or ecoli from bagged salads, or cucumbers.

The only thing I was really careful with was gardening, which I do every day. Wore gloves, and washed my hands frequently.

I eat deli meat. Medium rare steak and pate still. The risk is low

The risk is tiny but if you prefer to avoid any added risk like me, just heat it up and enjoy with warm crusty bread

I think with pate it's a different risk actually. It might be the vitamin A content perhaps rather than the risk of illness. I still ate it though, I just didn't eat tonnes of it.

When you are pregnant you have a higher risk of getting food poisoning.

It's still quite a low risk, but you are more likely to get ill than someone who is not pregnant, because your immune system is weakened during pregnancy.

Most people who aren't pregnant won't have a problem with a bit of bacteria in an unpasteurised cheese or a cheese rind, however, as you are pregnant, it's different.

It's not only that there is a risk to the baby if you do contract listeria/ food poisoning - it's also that you are much more likely to get it in the first place, because your pregnant body cannot deal with that bacteria as easily.

When you are pregnant your immune system is weakened and you are more at risk of contracting listeria/ food poisoning than when you are not pregnant.

It's not really relevant that you hadn't caught it when you were not pregnant. You are much less likely to.