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Maintaining Food Safety During Pregnancy
Navigating Food Safety During Pregnancy: Offers a comprehensive guide for expecting mothers on maintaining food safety during pregnancy, including dietary recommendations and potential risks.
Foods to eat or avoid when pregnant
Use this handy guide to help make decisions about what to eat and what to avoid during pregnancy.
It highlights some foods that are not recommended for pregnant women.
Foods to avoid are listed for a range of reasons, but in most cases there is a higher risk those foods may contain harmful bacteria such as listeria or salmonella.
Meat, Poultry & Seafood
Food | Form | What to do |
Processed meats | Ham, salami, luncheon, chicken meat etc. | DON'T EAT unless thoroughly cooked to at least 75°C and eaten soon afterwards |
Raw meat | Any raw meat, raw chicken or other poultry, beef, pork etc. | DON'T EAT |
Poultry | Cold chicken or turkey, eg. used in sandwich bars | DON'T EAT |
Hot take-away chicken | Purchase freshly cooked and eat while hot. Store leftovers in fridge to reheat to at least 60°C and use within a day of cooking | |
Home cooked | Ensure chicken is cooked thoroughly to at least 74°C and eat while hot. Store any leftovers in fridge to reheat to at least 60°C and use within a day of cooking | |
Paté | Refrigerated paté or meat spreads | DON'T EAT |
Seafood | Raw seafood | DON'T EAT |
Ready-to-eat chilled peeled prawns | DON'T EAT | |
Cooked fish and seafood | Cook thoroughly to at least 63°C and eat while hot. Store leftovers in the fridge to reheat to at least 60°C and use within a day of cooking | |
Sushi | Store-bought | DON'T EAT |
Home-made | Don't use raw meat or seafood, eat immediately | |
Cooked meats | Beef, pork, chicken, mince | Cook thoroughly to at least 71°C (medium), eat while hot |
Dairy & Eggs
Food | Form | What to do |
Cheese | Soft and semi-soft cheese, eg, brie, camembert, ricotta, fetta, blue etc. | DON'T EAT unless thoroughly cooked to at least 75°C and eaten soon afterwards |
Processed cheese, cheese spreads, cottage cheese, cream cheese etc. | Store in the fridge, eat within two days of opening pack | |
Hard cheese, eg, cheddar, tasty cheese | Store in the fridge | |
Ice-cream | Soft serve | DON'T EAT |
Fried ice-cream | DON'T EAT | |
Packaged frozen ice-cream | Keep and eat frozen | |
Dairy | Unpasteurised (raw) | DON'T DRINK OR USE |
Pasteurised, eg, milk, cream, yoghurt | Check 'best before' or 'use-by' date. Follow storage instructions | |
Custard | Store-bought | Can be eaten cold if freshly opened. Store in fridge to reheat to at least 60°C and use within a day of opening. Check 'best before' or 'use-by' date |
Home-made | Cook thoroughly to at least 71°C and eat while hot. Store in fridge. Always reheat to at least 60°C and use within a day of making | |
Eggs | Cooked egg dishes, eg. fried eggs, scrambled eggs, quiche | Cook thoroughly to at least 71°C. Don't use cracked or dirty eggs |
Raw in food, eg. home-made mayonnaise, aioli, chocolate mousse, cake batter, pancake batter | DON'T EAT | |
In non-refrigerated commercial products, eg. mayonnaise, aioli | Check 'best-before' or 'use-by' date. Follow storage instructions |
Vegetables & Fruit
Food | Form | What to do |
Salads | Pre-prepared or pre-packaged salads including fruit salad, eg. from salad bars, smorgasbords | DON'T EAT |
Home-made | Wash salad ingredients well just before making and eating salads, store any leftover salads in fridge and use within a day of preparation | |
Fruit | Rockmelon | DON'T EAT |
Whole fresh fruits | Wash well before eating | |
Vegetables and herbs | Fresh vegetables and herbs | Wash well just before eating raw or wash before cooking |
Frozen vegetables | Cook, don't eat uncooked | |
Bean sprouts | Alfalfa sprouts, broccoli sprouts, onion sprouts, sunflower sprouts, clover sprouts, radish sprouts, snowpea sprouts, mung beans and soybean sprouts | DON'T EAT raw or lightly cooked |
Other Foods
Food | Form | What to do |
Leftovers | Cooked foods | Store leftovers covered in the fridge, eat within a day and always reheat to at least 60°C |
Canned foods | Tinned fruit, vegetables, fish etc. | Store unused portions in the fridge in clean, sealed containers and use within a day |
Stuffing | Stuffing from chicken or poultry | DON'T EAT unless cooked separately and eat hot |
Hummus, tahini and any other sesame paste | Store-bought or home-made | DON'T EAT |
Soy | All soy products, eg, tofu, soy milk, soy yoghurt etc. | Check 'best before' or 'use-by' date. Follow storage instructions |
Sandwiches | Pre-prepared or pre-packaged sandwiches and wraps | DON'T EAT |
Pregnant women often call the NSW Food Authority asking why we list certain foods as ‘foods to avoid’.
Certain foods are regarded as having a higher risk of containing the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes which can be harmful to pregnant women and their baby or other bacteria such as Salmonella, which also causes food poisoning.
The common foods we advise women to avoid during pregnancy are:
- soft and semi-soft cheeses (unless thoroughly cooked to at least 75^o^C and eaten soon afterwards)
- processed meats (unless thoroughly cooked to at least 75^o^C and eaten soon afterwards)
- cold cooked chicken
- pre-prepared vegetables and salads
- pre-cut fruit
- paté
- soft-serve ice-cream
- raw seafood.
Pregnant women are at a higher risk of becoming infected with Listeria than an average healthy adult and the outcomes for their baby can be fatal.
Hormonal changes in the body during pregnancy lower the immune system, making it harder to fight off disease and infection.
One in 10 cases of listeriosis infection in Australia occur in pregnant women and although cases in Australia are relatively rare, the consequences are dire with 1 in 5 cases of listeriosis in pregnant women proving fatal for the developing foetus.
We put the risks in context and explain the science behind the recommendations on why you should avoid certain foods.
We want you to have the right information so you can make informed, sensible choices about what you eat during pregnancy.
In addition to some foods that should be avoided in pregnancy there are certain drinks that also present a higher risk. Fermented drinks like kombucha, kvass, kefir and ginger beer can contain residual alcohol as a by-product of the fermentation process.
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