Foods to avoid during pregnancy, without the panic list.

Raw or undercooked meat, seafood, and eggs

Raw or undercooked meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs can carry germs that cause foodborne illness. Cook food thoroughly and use a food thermometer where the official guidance gives a target temperature. Foods such as homemade Caesar dressing, tiramisu, mousse, or raw batter need extra attention when they contain raw egg. Pasteurized egg products are the safer route for recipes that will not be fully cooked.

Unpasteurized milk, cheese, and juice

Check the label for the word pasteurized. Unpasteurized milk and foods made from it can carry harmful bacteria. Pasteurization lowers that risk, but it does not erase handling risk after a product is made. The CDC gives specific caution for queso fresco-type cheeses and for cheese sliced at a deli, so check the exact food rather than relying on the word cheese alone.

Deli meat and refrigerated ready-to-eat foods

Refrigeration slows many germs, but it does not kill Listeria. CDC guidance lists unheated deli meat, cold cuts, hot dogs, and fermented or dry sausages as riskier choices during pregnancy. Its safer choice is reheating them to 165°F or until steaming hot. Refrigerated pâté, meat spreads, smoked seafood, premade deli salads, and deli-sliced cheeses also need a closer look.

Sprouts during pregnancy: cook them thoroughly and check recalls

Raw sprouts are not just another fresh vegetable in pregnancy guidance. CDC lists raw or undercooked sprouts as a higher-risk choice for pregnant people because bacteria can be hard to wash away once they are inside the sprout seed or growing sprout. The safer route is to cook sprouts thoroughly, including alfalfa, bean, clover, radish, and mixed sprouts.

Current recall context matters here. In its August 2026 sprouts investigation, FDA linked recalled Calco and Everything Sprouts products to E. coli and Salmonella concerns. The later expansion added Robust Radish Mix. If you have sprouts at home, compare the brand, product name, lot, barcode, packing date, and product photos with the FDA notices. Do not decide from memory or from the food name alone.

If you already ate a recalled sprouts product, do not panic, but do not keep eating it. Save or photograph the package. FDA says people who ate the recalled alfalfa sprouts and have symptoms resembling E. coli or Salmonella illness should consult their healthcare provider right away. If you feel sick, are unsure about your risk, or need advice for your pregnancy, contact your care team or the appropriate urgent service.

Read the FDA sprouts outbreak update · Read the FDA alfalfa sprouts recall · Read the FDA radish sprout mix recall expansion

Other produce still needs ordinary food-safety steps. Wash produce under running water and keep it separate from raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs. CDC also currently says people at increased risk for Listeria, including pregnant people, should not eat raw mushrooms during enoki mushroom outbreak investigations. When you buy or order enoki mushrooms, cook them thoroughly and check the package against FDA recall notices if there is a product alert.

Hummus and tahini are a good example of why local guidance matters. Australia names hummus, tahini, and other sesame pastes more cautiously than many U.S. and U.K. pages, so check the country rule before treating a chilled dip as an ordinary snack.

Follow storage directions, use-by dates, and local rules for leftovers. A clean-looking package can still be recalled, so compare the package with the appropriate USDA or FDA notice when you know about a product alert.

Foods that carry rules of their own

A few things sit outside the categories above, because the reason to be careful about them is different. Filing them with soft cheese or deli meat would hide the part that actually matters.

Liver, and anything made with it. NHS says liver and foods containing liver have high levels of vitamin A, which can be harmful to a baby. That is a dose question rather than a contamination one, so cooking does not change it and neither does buying a better brand. The same reasoning covers vitamin A supplements and liver pâté and cold cured meats, which NHS treats separately again because cured meats can also carry listeria. NHS additionally notes that game meats may contain lead.

Raw shellfish, but not cooked shellfish. NHS puts raw fish and raw shellfish on the avoid list, because raw shellfish can contain bacteria or toxins. Cooked shellfish is a different matter entirely, and NHS names prawns, crab, lobster, squid, mussels, scallops, clams and cockles as safe to eat once cooked. Cold pre-cooked prawns are the awkward middle, and NHS says those must be heated until steaming hot. The shellfish guide takes each of those one at a time.

Raw dough and batter. The instinct is to worry about the egg, but flour is the part people miss: it is a raw agricultural product and has been linked to E. coli. That makes tasting cookie dough, cake batter or homemade play dough a question about two ingredients rather than one, and it is why raw dough gets its own guide.

Rice, where reheating matters more than cooking. Rice is unusual because the spores that cause the problem survive normal cooking and only become an issue if cooked rice sits at room temperature. So the question is not whether it was cooked properly but how it was cooled and stored afterwards. The rice guide covers the timings.

Herbal tea, and kombucha. NHS advises drinking no more than four cups of herbal tea a day, and avoiding teas containing liquorice root, noting there is not much research on herbal teas in pregnancy. Kombucha raises different questions again, since it is often unpasteurised and can contain alcohol. The kombucha guide separates those two concerns, and the caffeine calculator handles the 200mg daily limit that applies across coffee, tea, cola and energy drinks.

Enoki mushrooms. Worth knowing because it surprises people: NHS lists enoki mushrooms under foods to be careful with and says they must be cooked thoroughly before eating, while most fruit and vegetables need only thorough washing.

Protein powders and supplements. These are not regulated the way food is, and a single scoop can carry added vitamins, caffeine, creatine or botanicals that nobody mentions when they recommend it. Reading a Supplement Facts panel is a different skill from reading a food label.

US, UK, and Australian advice is not identical

Food production and labeling rules differ by country. The NHS, for example, gives UK-specific advice for eggs with the British Lion mark and sets its own limits for tuna and oily fish. Australia uses a 150-gram serving in its pregnancy fish guidance and sets separate intervals for some higher-mercury fish. Use the guidance for where you live, especially when food is produced, caught, or prepared under a local system.

Sources reviewed

• CDC: Safer Food Choices for Pregnant Women
• FDA: Dairy and Eggs (Food Safety for Moms-to-Be)
• FDA/EPA: Fish Advice Questions and Answers
• FDA/EPA: Advice About Eating Fish chart
• ACOG: Healthy Eating During Pregnancy
• NHS: Foods to Avoid in Pregnancy
• NHS: Fish and Shellfish
• NSW Food Authority: Mercury and Fish
• NOAA Fisheries: Ahi Species Names
• FoodSafety.gov: Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures
• FDA: Safe Food Handling
• USDA FSIS: Food Thermometers
• FDA: Avoid Queso Fresco-Type Cheeses if You Are in a High-Risk Group
• FDA: June 2026 Soft Cheese Listeria Outbreak Investigation
• FDA: Selecting and Serving Produce Safely
• CDC: Leafy Greens and Ready-to-Eat Labels
• CDC: Symptoms of Listeria Infection
• CDC: Preventing Listeria Infection
• FDA: HH Fresh Trading Enoki Mushroom Recall
• FDA: July 2026 Iceberg Lettuce Cyclospora Outbreak Investigation
• CDC: July 2026 Cyclospora Outbreak Investigation
• FDA: August 2026 E. coli and Salmonella Sprouts Outbreak Investigation
• FDA: Everything Sprouts Alfalfa Sprouts Recall
• FDA: Everything Sprouts Robust Radish Mix Recall Expansion

Sources checked on 31 August 2026. Open the linked source for its latest version.