Foods to avoid

Take care with some foods

There are some foods you should not eat when you're pregnant because they might make you ill or harm your baby. Make sure you know the important facts about which foods you should avoid or take extra care with when you're pregnant. You can read this whole page or click on the links below to go directly to the topic you want to know about.

Some types of cheese                         Pâté

Raw or partially cooked eggs                Raw or undercooked meat 

Cold cured meats                                Liver 

Supplements containing vitamin A        Some types of fish                      

Raw shellfish                                      Sushi

Peanuts                                             Unpasteurised milk

Foods with soil on them                      Caffeine

Some types of cheese

Don't eat mould-ripened soft cheese, such as brie and camembert, whether it's made with cows' or goats' milk. You should also avoid soft blue-veined cheeses, such as Danish blue, gorgonzola and roquefort.

This is because soft cheeses like this are less acidic than hard cheeses and they contain more moisture, which means they can be an ideal environment for harmful bacteria, such as listeria, to grow in.

Although infection with listeria (listeriosis) is rare, it is important to take special precautions in pregnancy because even a mild form of the illness in a pregnant woman can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth or severe illness in a newborn baby.

You can eat hard cheeses such as cheddar, parmesan and stilton, even if they're made with unpasteurised milk. Hard cheeses don't contain as much water as soft cheeses so bacteria are less likely to grow in them. It is possible for hard cheese to contain listeria, but the risk is considered to be low.

Many other types of cheese are OK to eat, but make sure they're made from pasteurised milk. These include cottage cheese, mozzarella, feta, cream cheese, paneer, ricotta, halloumi, goats' cheese and processed cheeses such as cheese spreads.

Thorough cooking should kill any bacteria in cheese, so it should be safe to eat cooked mould-ripened soft cheese, such as brie or camembert, or dishes that contain them. It's important to make sure the cheese is thoroughly cooked until it's steaming hot all the way through.  

Pâté

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

Raw or partially cooked eggs

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 homemade mayonnaise. If you wish to have dishes that contain raw or partially cooked eggs, you should consider using pasteurised liquid egg.

Raw or undercooked meat

Cook all meat and poultry thoroughly so it is steaming hot and there is no trace of pink or blood. Take particular care with poultry, pork, sausages and minced meat, including burgers.

Avoid rare meat. The Department of Health previously advised that it was fine to eat whole cuts of beef and lamb rare, as long as the outside had been properly cooked. As a precaution, this advice has now been removed while a food safety committee (The Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food) looks into the issue of toxoplasmosis.

Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by a parasite that can be found in meat, soil, cat faeces and untreated water. If you are pregnant the infection can damage your baby, but it's important to remember that toxoplasmosis in pregnancy is very rare.

If you feel you may have been at risk, discuss it with your GP, midwife or obstetrician. If you are infected while you're pregnant, treatment for toxoplasmosis is available. Treatment can reduce the risk of the baby becoming infected. Where the baby is infected, treatment may reduce the risk of damage.

Wash all surfaces and utensils thoroughly after preparing raw meat. It's also important to remember to wash and dry your hands after touching or handling raw meat. This will help to avoid the spread of harmful bugs such as salmonella, campylobacter and E.coli 0157 that can cause food poisoning.

Cold cured meats

Cold cured meats include salami, parma ham, chorizo and pepperoni. Some countries advise pregnant women to avoid eating cold cured meats or smoked fish as there is a small risk of these foods harbouring listeria or the toxoplasma parasite that causes toxoplasmosis. Currently in the UK pregnant women aren't advised to avoid these products. However, you might choose to avoid cured meats and smoked fish while you are pregnant if you are concerned about these risks.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is reviewing its toxoplasmosis and listeria advice to vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, and we'll post the reviewed advice on this page as soon as it's available.

Find out about healthy eating in pregnancy, including healthy snacks.

Liver products

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

Supplements containing vitamin A

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

Some types of fish

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 that can damage your baby's developing nervous system. Don't eat more than two portions of oily fish a week. Oily fish includes fresh tuna (but not canned tuna), salmon, mackerel, sardines and trout.

Raw shellfish

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

Sushi

It's fine to eat sushi and other dishes made with raw fish when you're pregnant as long as the fish used to make it has been frozen first. This is because occasionally fish contains small parasitic worms that could make you ill. Freezing kills the worms and makes raw fish safe to eat.

Lots of the sushi sold in shops is not made at the shop. This type of sushi should be fine to eat, because if a shop or restaurant buys in ready-made sushi, the raw fish used to make it must have been frozen at minus 20ºC for at least 24 hours. If you're in any doubt, you might wish to avoid eating the kinds of sushi that contain raw seafood such as tuna.

The safest way to enjoy sushi is to choose the fully cooked or vegetarian varieties, which can include:

• cooked seafood, for example fully cooked eel (unagi) or shrimp (ebi)
• vegetables, for example cucumber (kappa) maki
• avocado, for example California roll
• fully cooked egg

Fresh, raw seafood is potentially risky because it can contain parasites, although freezing and cooking kills the parasites.

If a shop or restaurant makes its own sushi on the premises, the fish might not have been frozen. If you're concerned, ask the staff.

If you make your own sushi at home, freeze the fish for at least 24 hours before using it.

Some raw fish used to make sushi, such as smoked salmon, doesn't need to be frozen before it's used. This is because smoking kills any worms in the fish.

Foods with soil on them