Can you have queso while pregnant

Guide to Inspections of Dairy Product Manufacturers. Iowa Department of Public Health. The secret to serving size is in your hand. Join now to personalize. Photo credit: iStock. Can pregnant women eat cheese? Which cheese is best when pregnant? Cheese to avoid when pregnant. The following soft commercial cheeses are generally always made with pasteurized milk and considered safe: cream cheese cottage cheese processed mozzarella These common soft cheeses are sometimes raw, so look for the "pasteurized" label on: goat cheese blue cheese feta cheese camembert brie ricotta cheese If you're at a restaurant and can't check the label, know that it's safe to eat any cheese that's been heated until it's steaming hot — for instance, cheese on a pizza or in a grilled-cheese sandwich.

Cheese to avoid when pregnant When you're pregnant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC recommends avoiding unpasteurized soft cheese, raw milk, unpasteurized yogurt, and unpasteurized ice cream. Sources BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world.

Colleen de Bellefonds. Featured video. Is it safe to eat meat while pregnant? Is it safe to drink raw milk during pregnancy? Foods and beverages to avoid during pregnancy. Can pregnant women eat sushi? Listeria infection listeriosis during pregnancy. Where does that leave your next Greek salad, spoonful of blue cheese crumbles, plate of fresh mozzarella? Play it safe. Same goes for cottage cheese, ricotta, cream cheese, and processed cheese most of these cheese products are pasteurized.

As a general rule, imported cheese is more likely to be unpasteurized than domestic cheese. Want to play it extra, extra safe? 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.

It can also be made into a thinner consistency with the use of white cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese. Other recipes can also use yellow or aged cheddar cheese.

The ingredients used in making queso dips also vary. Some contain green chiles, jalapenos, or both. Queso can also be spiced with cumin or chili powder. Still others add meat, such as ground beef or spicy sausage, to the melted cheese. Lastly, queso makers can mix and match their own recipes from any of the ingredients mentioned above, and they can even add their own twist. Latin-style soft cheeses like queso fresco are typically fresh not aged , have a short shelf-life of about 2 weeks, and have a high moisture content up to 59 percent.

These characteristics all contribute to increased risk of pathogen growth that may cause disease to humans Lusk et al. From to , 90 outbreaks that were linked to cheese consumption have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC. Of these outbreaks, 42 percent were attributed to ingestion of cheese made with unpasteurized milk, 49 percent were from cheese made with pasteurized milk, while 9 percent were cheese with no report of pasteurization status Gould et al.

Queso fresco was the most common cheese reported, with 18 outbreaks due to unpasteurized and 1 outbreak due to pasteurized cheese. Majority of the outbreaks that were caused by pasteurized cheeses occurred most commonly in restaurants, delis, or banquet settings, where cross-contamination was the implicated contributing factor Gould et al.

Raw milk can be contaminated by pathogens that are present in animals or the environment. Pasteurization is known to be effective in eradicating these organisms from milk. However, cheese can become contaminated after pasteurization during the subsequent cheese-making process through contact with contaminated equipment or handling by infected workers Gould et al. The most common cause of the outbreaks related to cheese consumption reported between and were related to Salmonella contamination of unpasteurized 10 outbreaks and pasteurized 6 outbreaks queso fresco or other Mexican-style cheese Gould et al.

In , Plumb et al. Infections were found to be caused by consumption of soft cheese and queso fresco obtained in Mexico and beef obtained in the United States. Brucella species cause the infection called brucellosis. It is an endemic zoonotic disease that causes up to approximately thousand cases worldwide.

However, in the United States, it is considered a rare illness with only about to cases reported every year Pappas et al. The most common route of transmission of Brucella species to humans has been found to be the ingestion of unpasteurized dairy products Mantur et al. Of 60 officers at the station, 16 were identified to have the disease.

A local Peruvian cuisine that was prepared with unpasteurized goat white cheese was implicated as the most probable source of infection. In , Krause et al. The case was that of a male who was 22 years old and regularly consumed queso fresco from Mexico. He developed low back pain, fever, chills and weight loss, and was initially managed for osteomyelitis, but was later diagnosed as a case of lumbar and sacral brucellosis.

Listeria monocytogenes is a ubiquitous pathogen found in the environment. Queso can mean lots of things, incuding dips, sauces or fresh cheeses. Queso fresco — or queso blanco — is safe for pregnant women to eat as long as it has been pasteurized to avoid any risk of listeria Source: APO.

When milk has been pasteurized, it has been heated to a high enough temperature to kill listeria and other germs Source: CDC. Cheese made in unclean places, or that has been stored improperly, can still get contaminated with listeria even if the milk has been pasteurized Source: CDC.

Raw milk is pasteurized in two common ways. The first is low temperature pasteurization, in which the milk is heated to at least degrees Fahrenheit 63C for 30 minutes or more. The second method is by high-temperature pasteurization in which milk is heated to degrees Fahrenheit around 72C or more for at least 15 seconds, and then rapidly cooled Source: HGIC.

This means that most Mexican restaurant queso is safe for pregnant women to eat, incuding queso dips.