Pregnancy is a truly special time in your life. And, despite popular belief, you don’t actually have to sacrifice all the foods you love during those nine months. Read on to learn about Listeria monocytogenes, raw milk and Greek PDO cheese, Feta. And find out if you can eat Feta while pregnant.
SEE ALSO: Our complete guide to which cheeses you can eat during pregnancy →
What type of cheese is Feta?
Undoubtedly, Feta is Greece’s most popular and famous cheese. Indeed, this brined cheese’s history goes back a few thousand years and it first appeared in Homer’s Odyssey. Since 2002, Feta has carried a PDO status which exclusively reserves the use of the name to cheeses that are made in Greece.
Historically, Feta producers have used a mixture of sheep’s and goat’s milk (60/40%) and aged their cheese in barrels filled with brine. Traditional Feta is made with raw milk but most commercial versions will be pasteurised.
Why are some foods unsafe during pregnancy?
Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that can survive and grow on certain high-risk foods. In humans, it can cause an infection called Listeriosis and the range of symptoms can include fever, muscle aches, nausea and diarrhoea. In rare cases, it can cause blood poisoning (septicaemia) and inflammation of the outside of the brain (meningitis).
The symptoms tend to be mild in most affected people but can be more severe and, sometimes, life-threatening in the elderly, pregnant women (and their unborn babies) and people with a weak immune system.
What foods are high-risk when you’re pregnant?
Some examples of high-risk foods include raw seafood and fish, cold meats, pre-packaged fruit and, yes, some cheeses. You can read more about which cheeses to avoid during pregnancy here.
What is raw milk?
Raw milk is milk that has not been heat treated in anyway. Moreover, it is also not refrigerated, fermented or cultured. It is freshly milked, kept at its natural temperature and not homogenised.
Due to its nature, raw milk is only safe to drink if the strictest of farming practices are adhered to. Usually, this involves maintaining the highest standards for animal and teat/udder health. Consequently, the farmer is able to minimise the presence of pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria and E.coli in the milk.
Benefits of raw milk cheese
Across continents and generations, raw milk has been the foundation of traditional cheesemaking. Having said this, the reason why raw milk cheese is so important to this day goes well beyond the preservation of traditional methods. Indeed, raw milk carries the microbial fingerprint of the region it comes from.
Besides, any heat treatment (pasteurisation and even gentle heating like thermalisation) partially erodes or even completely erases that identity.
The term used in the industry to describe this unique identity is terroir. While terroir also includes human practises and animal/human interactions, it all starts with the soil qualities, local flora and the milk. You can read more about raw milk cheese here.
Is Feta safe to eat if you’re pregnant?
Since it has a relatively low moisture level and does not have a rind, Feta is usually deemed safe to consume during pregnancy. Actually, the only exception to this rule is for raw milk Feta. This particular type of Feta is made with unpasteurised goat and sheep milk.
Overall, the authorities in Aus/NZ and the USA advise against the consumption of cheeses that are made with unpasteurised milk. Hence, raw milk Feta is not recommended during pregnancy. The main reason for this is the potential increased risk of Listeria.
Can you eat cooked raw milk Feta during pregnancy?
This is where it gets really interesting. Thoroughly cooking any type of cheese until steaming hot will actually destroy any harmful pathogens that may be present in it. Indeed, most harmful bacteria like Listeria do not survive temperatures above 75°C/165°F.
What does all this mean? Well, if you are unsure whether the Feta you’ve bought is made with raw or pasteurised milk, you can actually cook it to render it safer.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading our post on Feta in pregnancy. As you can see, most versions of Feta are safe to eat if you’re pregnant. The only exception to this rule will be raw milk Feta. With the latter, you will have to be a bit more careful. Indeed, you can still eat it cooked.
As always, if you’re unsure of what you can eat safely when pregnant, we recommend that you have a conversation with your doctor.
References
Safety in Pregnancy
All the advice relating to what cheeses you can eat during pregnancy in this article is based on the recommendations by health authorities in Australia, the UK and the USA. If you are unsure about what you can or cannot eat, please consult your doctor.
Australia – FSANZ, United Kingdom – NHS and United Sates of America – FDA
Nutritional content
The nutritional content of cheese in our table comes from the USDA Food Data Central Repository and cheese manufacturers. We realise that there can be variations between different brands and producers. Hence, the numbers we have used are averages.
Fat
Our fat RDI data comes from Cleveland Clinic’s Healthy Fat Intake resource.
Type of fat in cheese as per Harvard T.H. Chan’s The Nutrition Source.
Protein
Our protein RDI data comes from Harvard Medical School’s Harvard Health Publishing.
Sabine is the creative force behind Cheese Scientist. She is a sustainable living advocate, a climate change protestor and is pro-choice. And, most relevantly, she is also a lactose intolerant cheese lover.
