Can you eat mozzarella cheese while pregnant

You may be craving cheese during pregnancy, too, but is it safe to eat? Dr Meenakshi Sahuhta, director of obstetrics and gynaecology, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals, Gurgaon, told Express Parenting that the kind of cheese mostly available in India is good for pregnant women.

There are varieties of cheese available. Of these, pregnant women should avoid any cheese that is made from unpasteurised milk. Indian paneer and Indian tofu is absolutely safe to eat during pregnancy because it is made from pasteurised milk, which means it is heated usually to less than degrees Celsius. Unpasteurised dairy products, on the other hand, may cause a condition called listeriosis, a bacterial infection, explained Dr Sahuhta.

Food cravings are sudden urges to eat a particular type of food. They are a real phenomenon and affect many women during pregnancy. Many women experience food cravings or a food aversion during pregnancy. Find out how to ensure you continue to eat healthily if this affects you. Foods you should avoid, listeriosis information, mercury in fish, weight gain in pregnancy. Read more on NT Health website. If you're pregnant but exposed to a small amount of chemicals, it's unlikely to harm you or your baby.

Listeria bacteria can cause serious problems during pregnancy. Listeria can be transmitted by eating contaminated food, but there are steps you can take to avoid infection. Read more on myDr website. Find out how to recognise, avoid and treat indigestion and heartburn during your pregnancy. Pregnancy, Birth and Baby is not responsible for the content and advertising on the external website you are now entering. Video call.

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But I said nothing, instead imagining what every other pregnant woman was hearing and how confused she must be. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists agrees with their recommendations and so it is standard for ob-gyns, family physicians, and midwives to direct patients to avoid certain foods that might bear a higher risk for Listeria. This higher risk is precisely why the FDA has very clear national laws about the production, importation, and sale of cheese: If a cheese is less than 60 days old, it must be made of pasteurized milk.

If a cheese is more than 60 days old, certain varieties may be made of pasteurized or unpasteurized often called raw milk, because the raw milk cheese has aged long enough to kill any potential harmful bacteria. Pasteurization is the process of heat-treating milk with the express purpose of destroying potentially harmful pathogens, such as Salmonella , that the milk may contain.

FDA rules promulgated in determined that should these pathogens be present in milk, they died off in cheese during 60 days of aging, hence the day rule for cheese. So what does this mean for us cheese eaters? In the U. It also means that 99 percent of soft, creamy, spreadable cheeses are pasteurized. Longer-aged cheeses which will be firmer in texture, potentially even hard, dry, or grainy may or may not be pasteurized.

The CDC has linked some listeria infection outbreaks to Mexican-style soft cheeses made from pasteurized milk but under less-than-reliably sanitary conditions, with contamination most likely taking place during the cheese-making. Still, with pasteurized cheese so easy to find, why eat it raw? Does the soft cheese stand alone when it comes to listeria? No — as you may have heard, deli meats , smoked fish, uncooked sprouts and unpasteurized milk and juice also carry that small but significant risk.

Looking forward to the arrival of your baby bundle? Breastfeeding and brie and feta and quesos of all kind do mix — without worries about listeria. The educational health content on What To Expect is reviewed by our medical review board and team of experts to be up-to-date and in line with the latest evidence-based medical information and accepted health guidelines, including the medically reviewed What to Expect books by Heidi Murkoff.

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