Cooked/Refridgerated Meat while pregnant

GavMan

Hi all,

My wife is pregnant and I've seen some confusing information around eating cooked and chilled meat while pregnant.

I get that you should avoid stuff like deli meats sitting on a chilled counter. But does this apply to home cooked meat and stored sealed in the fridge. The missus would usually bring salad and cooked chicken breast that she'd cook on a Tuesday.

Is that out of bounds now?

PhoenixParker

GavMan wrote: »

Hi all,

My wife is pregnant and I've seen some confusing information around eating cooked and chilled meat while pregnant.

I get that you should avoid stuff like deli meats sitting on a chilled counter. But does this apply to home cooked meat and stored sealed in the fridge. The missus would usually bring salad and cooked chicken breast that she'd cook on a Tuesday.

Is that out of bounds now?

No and the deli meat thing is a bit of a myth too.
Read the nhs guidelines. They're evidence based and have a light touch.

GavMan

PhoenixParker wrote: »

No and the deli meat thing is a bit of a myth too.
Read the nhs guidelines. They're evidence based and have a light touch.

Thanks. We tend to avoid processed stuff anyway so its not much of an issue.

spottybananas

It's fine, if you could only eat meat when freshly cooked it'd be ridiculously limiting!

Gatica

The thing with the deli meats is that you don't know how long it's been cut and sitting out. This of course gives one risk of getting food poisoning which is a lot more serious in pregnancy. Nowadays, I'd imagine supermarkets and the like would be very careful with their food handling policies that the risk would be minimal. As with any risks during pregancy, one weighs up the likelyhood of it happening, the seriousness of the risk posed vs the benefit or convenience.

There were other threads here before discussing eating eggs with runny yoke. Another example of a recommendation that probably came from an era when you'd no idea where your eggs came from. Nowadays, supermakets vet their suppliers and the eggs are stamped for traceability...

PS: and of course your own home cooked meals should be fine, presuming you exercise the general common sense in how long you keep it etc...

Wesser

Yes of course you can. You can eat deli meats too.

Beanybabog

I asked someone I know whose job it is to inspect supermarkets / food premises about all the different "banned" pregnancy foods (and those that there's conflicting information on). In relation to cold meats they advised home cooked and properly stored cold meats are fine, as are prepacked supermarket meats as they's carefully prepped and usually flushed with something to stop bacteria. They said there's an increased risk from eating deli food (not just meat) because it's sitting out, and there's lots of handlers, but make your own decision - i.e. its probably ok to get stuff from a proper reputable supermarket, but avoid a dingy corner shop deli. They also said avoid the salad counters that are self service totally as the food is sitting out and hundreds of people could be sticking their dirty fingers in, and poor handling is one of the biggest causes of food poisoning.

I didn't know coleslaw was on the bad list until someone else told me recently.. is this the "Irish" advice?? I swear I ate loads on my last pregnancy!!! I thought raw egg coleslaw was a no no but not regular stuff. Anyway I asked about this too and they said there's a chance of listeria in it from the veg, but a small chance. They said if you really want to eat it make your own or buy a supermarket pre packed one (NOT from the open deli) as they tend to rinse their veg in chemicals anyway (which apparently is the case with prepacked lettuce too, which I suppose is concerning in its own right) and root through the packs for the longest best before date.

They said the biggest no-no is pate, and avoid that totally. I knew this, but it still upsets me

lazygal

Once I passed the puking all day every day phase I ate what I felt like. Pate included! I made it myself and I wouldn't have eaten loads of it. Everything in moderation, as it's more likely you'll get sick and possibly dehydrated rather than harm a foetus.

Neyite

It's mostly about food hygiene practice rather than any particular food being harmful (some, like blue cheese or pate are best avoided for a few months).

Unfortunately people are just as likely to get food poisoning from poor food hygiene in the home rather than shop bought stuff, with things like not storing food properly, cross contamination from other foods, or pets or hands, or not reheating foods thoroughly. Even stuff like not wringing out your kitchen cloth properly and using it to wipe down surfaces can spread more bacteria than a deli where the hygiene standards are excellent.

http://www.safefood.eu/Food-safety.aspx

GavMan

Thanks folks