homemade pate

[tanmu82]

a friend has brought some of her famous (and very delicious) homemade chicken liver pate to work and I am sooooo tempted. Would it really be that risky to have just the teensiest bit on a piece of toast???

ooohhh! I love Pate too but I figure it's not worth the worry to eat when I'm pg. I had some very late on in my first pg but tbh you never enjoy it as much as you normaly would. x

I kinda knew that really, but was hoping....I've made her promise to make a batch just for me around November time

The risk of listeria is very, very tiny. Personally, I have eaten homemade pate during pregnancy but obviously some people prefer to take no risks at all. The other thing with liver is if you eat loads of it the vitamin A can be harmful, but you'd have to eat it at every meal to be a problem.

I am craving pate on Ryvita's soooo badly!

mmmm, sounds too good.....

a sPP said the risk of listeria is small IF you are sure that the pate (or indeed any cooked, chilled meat, or smoked fish etc) has been handled, cooked and stored properly. Unfortunatly Listeria keeps breeding in cold temps in a way most food bugs can't, so from that point of veiw, any uncooked product that's eaten raw (Sushi, smoked salmon etc) is more risky than Pate.
But small portions only - too much Vit A is bad.

I crave pate, but Tesco does a good subsitute,

"Roast Mushroom Pate", they keep it with the meat pates, but it's Veggie and is just mushrooms and soft cheese (philly type cheese).
It's really, really good. It has a very satisfiying rich taste, and I'm addicted to it now

We don't have a Tesco's here - but next time I'm passing one I may have to try that mushroom one out....sounds yum!

I thought any type of pate, including veggie pate, had the same listeria risk?

now you mention it, I just read that too....shame, I was thinking that maybe the mushroom one or a smoked mackerel one would do the trick. Maybe not

TBH, I ate pate regularly throughout my last pregnancy and this one (am 30 weeks). I didn't go mad with it, as I was concious of the risk of having too much vitamin A, but didn't suffer any ill-effects.

Everyone feels differently about these things but I feel that a little of what I fancy does me good....

Anything that's been pasturised (ie has a long shelf life, or is in a can or jar), should be safe from listeria and other bugs - unless the packaging has been opened or damaged.

Things like Philly cheese and many pates have to be pasturised/heat treated or they would have a shelf life of 4 or 5 days, not several months.....

Sadly I just checked the mushroom pate and it's got a fairly short shelf life of a couple of weeks, but I'd say pretty low risk given it's just cooked mushrooms and Philly.

Very litle info given here in the uk about these matters - in the USA, preg women advised to avoid ALL deli meats and products which are sold from the counters (ie big hams that they slice stuff off, or salad bar with big bowls of stuff) (deli counters being a great way to spread contamination), and to avoid cold smoked fish and raw fish. Closed small packets of cold meats are regarded as being less of a risk.

wow, now that seems a bit overboard....I mean, there's risk in anything you eat - if it hasn't been handled/stored/cooked correctly....and how do you know that for everything you put in your mouth???