Foods to avoid during pregnancy

There are some foods that you should not eat when you are pregnant because they may make you ill or harm your baby.

Cheese to avoid during pregnancy

Don’t eat mould-ripened soft cheese, like Brie, Camembert and others with a similar rind. You should also avoid soft blue-veined cheese, like Danish blue. These are made with mould and they can contain listeria, a type of bacteria that can harm your unborn baby. Although listeriosis is a very rare infection, it is important to take special precautions during pregnancy because even the mild form of the illness in the mother can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth or severe illness in a newborn baby. You can eat hard cheeses such as cheddar and parmesan, and processed cheeses made from pasteurized milk such as cottage cheese, mozzarella and cheese spreads.

Avoid Pâté during pregnancy

Avoid all types of pâté, including vegetable pâtés, as they can contain listeria.

Avoid raw eggs during pregnancy

Make sure that eggs are thoroughly cooked until the whites and yolks are solid. This prevents the risk of salmonella food poisoning. Avoid foods that contain raw and undercooked eggs, such as home-made mayonnaise.

Avoid raw meat during pregnancy

Cook all meat and poultry thoroughly so that there is no trace of pink or blood. Take particular care with sausages and minced meat. It is fine to eat steaks and other whole cuts of beef and lamb rare, as long as the outside has been properly cooked or sealed.

Why avoid liver in pregnancy

Don’t eat liver, or liver products like liver pâté or liver sausage, as they may contain a lot of vitamin A. Too much vitamin A can harm your baby.

Vitamin a high dose in pregnancy

Don’t take high-dose multivitamin supplements, fish liver oil supplements or any supplements containing vitamin A.

Fish to avoid when pregnant

Don’t eat shark, marlin and swordfish, and limit the amount of tuna you eat to no more than two tuna steaks a week (about 140g cooked or 170g raw each) or four medium-sized cans of tuna a week (about 140g when drained). These types of fish contain high levels of mercury, which can damage your baby’s developing nervous system. Don’t eat more than two portions of oily fish per week.

Oily fish includes fresh tuna (but not canned tuna), salmon, mackerel, sardines and trout.

Avoid raw shellfish during pregnancy

Eat cooked rather than raw shellfish as they can contain harmful bacteria and viruses that can cause food poisoning.

Eating peanuts healthy during pregnancy

If you would like to eat peanuts or foods containing peanuts (such as peanut butter) during pregnancy, you can choose to do so as part of a healthy balanced diet, unless you are allergic to them or your health professional advises you not to.

You may have heard that some women have, in the past, chosen not to eat peanuts when they were pregnant. This is because the government previously advised women that they may wish to avoid eating peanuts during pregnancy if there was a history of allergy in their child’s immediate family (such as asthma, eczema, hayfever, food allergy or other types of allergy). But this advice has now been changed because the latest research has shown that there is no clear evidence to say if eating or not eating peanuts during pregnancy affects the chances of your baby developing a peanut allergy.

Pregnant woman should avoid unpasteurized milk

Drink only pasteurized or UHT milk which has been pasteurized. If only raw or green-top milk is available, boil it first. Don’t drink unpasteurized goats’ or sheep’s milk or eat certain food that is made out of them, e.g. soft goats’ cheese.