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What cheese can I eat?

I'm a bit confused about the whole cheese thing. I've been mostly sticking to cheddar but I'm sure I can be eating other cheeses. I know I about the obvious blue cheeses and soft cheeses, but what about mozarella? Or feta? Or parmesan? Or all the other hard yellow cheeses?

My m/w said check whether it's pasteurised or not but it doesn't always say on the packaging.

I nearly bought some gorgeous looking Caerphilly cheese (a hard cheese) in a posh organic shop yesterday but I checked with the owner and it took her 15 minutes to find out from the manufacturers that it WASN'T pasteurised. It seems the trend with these posh cheeses is not to pasteurise them these days.

I also made a blunder last night but putting parmesan on my pasta only to discover on the packaging half way through my meal that it wasn't pasteurised. Ahhh!! I scraped the rest off I hasten to add!

Replies

  • caerphilly is fine i ate through my preg, feta is also ok (im addicted!), i think mozarella is aswell i wud asume parmesan is aswell. i havent read anywhere that they are not safe, u can eat all the 1s like red leister, double gloucester, edam etc hope this helps
  • Hi. It's so difficult to know what you can and can't eat!!
    I asked a question last week about smoked salmon (which is OK to eat!).

    From the Food Standards Agency...

    Are hard cheeses safe in pregnancy?
    The scientific literature has shown that listeria is present in very low numbers (less than 1 bacterium per gram of cheese) in these types of cheeses and they are therefore not considered a risk to health during pregnancy.

    Is it OK to eat goats' cheese when I'm pregnant?

    There are different types of goats' cheeses available. The type that is probably most common in the UK has a white rind similar to Brie and Camembert. This type of goats' cheese is sometimes called Chevre and is often served in restaurants, for example in a goats' cheese salad. You should avoid this when you are pregnant. However, other types of goats' cheese that don't have this kind of rind should be fine to eat, particularly hard cheeses.

    Can I eat Brie and blue cheese when I'm pregnant if it's cooked?
    Pregnant women are advised against eating these types of cheese because of the risk of listeria. However, thorough cooking should kill any listeria, so it should be safe to eat food containing soft mould-ripened or blue-veined cheeses, provided it has been properly cooked and is piping hot all the way through.

    Foods you don't need to avoid

    Many types of cheese including:
    Hard cheese, such as Cheddar and Parmesan image
    Feta
    Ricotta
    Mascarpone
    Cream cheese
    Mozzarella
    Cottage cheese
    Processed cheese, such as cheese spreads


    So you could have enjoyed your parmesan after all!!! image

    Hope this helps.

    George, x


  • It is a bit of a minefield. I've been eating feta, mozerella and parmesan throughout, along with other hard cheeses like cheddar. Also been eating lots of smoked salmon and prawns, which I believe some people have been avoiding too. Thanks George35 for the above post - it's useful to know that cooked brie & stilton is OK, as I had been wondering about this myself. Can't beat a nice juicy steak with blue cheese sauce - though I know I'm supposed to have the steak well done!
  • yea thanx 4 info didnt know bout cooked brie etc, i love the stuff and the oh wont let me eat it, he have to now lol!!
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