Foods to avoid during pregnancy

Food and drink to avoid

Healthy eating during pregnancy is as much about which foods to avoid as which foods to eat. Some food may harm your baby as well as making you ill, so food safety needs to be a priority. Now that you’re pregnant, you should really leave the following foods out of your diet:

• Undercooked or raw eggs, or foods likely to be made with them, (including home-made mousses, ice cream and mayonnaise, all of which may be made with raw eggs). Eggs should be cooked until hard.
• Undercooked or very rare meat and fish – there should be no pink bits left (even if that’s the way you usually like it!)
• Raw fish or meat in dishes like sushi or steak tartare, and smoked salmon or oysters
• Unpasteurised milk, cheese or yoghurt
• Soft cheeses like brie, camembert, ricotta, or blue veined cheeses (ordinary cheddar cheese and cottage cheese are fine, as long as they are pasteurised – check the labels)
• Liver pâté
• Some prepared foods such as shop bought salad or coleslaw
• Check that any ready meals or reheated foods are piping hot all the way through before you eat them.
• Take care at barbecues where meat is often allowed to rest for a period of time before serving
• Alcohol– excessive alcohol intake has been associated with many foetal problems, and even moderate alcohol consumption may effect the development of your baby’s brain

For further guidelines, please refer to www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au