Food Safety During Pregnancy

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Food Safety & Pregnancy New Information Web Site
Bub Hub E-Newsletter, June 2007, Issue 58 - Article 1

Pregnancy is one of the most remarkable, challenging, daunting and ultimately rewarding experiences in any woman's life.

Apart from the very obvious physical changes (chiefly an ever expanding tummy!) there are also a raft of weird and wonderful (some not so!) hormonal changes that alter the way we feel and behave.

A woman's first pregnancy is often a leap into the unknown, and it comes as no surprise that, with all these strange and new things happening, we also need to be very careful about what we eat.

Food Poisoning Risk

When you're pregnant, hormonal changes in your body also lower your immune system which can make it harder to fight off illness and infections. Therefore preventing food poisoning and protecting yourself from other food risks is extremely important.

Unfortunately, many pregnant soon-to-be-mums are unclear about what they should be eating, what they should be tucking into in moderation and what they should be avoiding altogether.

Some foods are brimming full of goodness and are greatly beneficial for your unborn child, while others can carry dangerous bacteria that is harmless to nearly everyone else but can be fatal to your unborn child.

Credible Advice

Then there's the problem of getting credible information. One of the wonderful things about pregnancy is nearly everyone wants to give you advice - unfortunately what worked for the sister-in-law of the woman who works at the fruit store might not work for you.

Importantly, how can you be certain the advice you're given is accurate and reliable? It seems everyone has advice about what to eat and what not to eat, and then there are the thousands of web sites, some with conflicting and contradictory information. Little wonder finding accurate information you can trust is difficult.

That's why the NSW Food Authority developed a new "Pregnancy Portal" on our web site that features pretty much everything you need to know about food safety.

Listeria

Listeria is a type of bacteria found in some foods which causes a serious infection called listeriosis. It can take up to six weeks for the symptoms to occur and if transmitted to your unborn baby can lead to miscarriage, infection of your newborn and stillbirth. The best way to avoid this is through hygienic preparation, storing and handling of food.

Ideally, you should eat only freshly cooked food and well-washed, (freshly prepared) fruit and vegetables. Leftovers can be eaten if they are refrigerated promptly and kept no longer than a day.

So what foods should you steer clear of? That's easy! Simply avoid the following chilled, ready-to-eat foods during the course of your pregnancy:

Soft and semi-soft cheese
Cold cooked chicken
Cold processed meats
Prepared salads
Raw seafood
Soft serve ice-cream
Unpasteurised dairy products
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Gastro

There are other food safety risks you need to be aware of as well. As mentioned, pregnant women need to avoid food poisoning at all costs. While a bout of gastro is unpleasant at the best of times most healthy adults will recover without too many problems.

But food poisoning can be a nasty proposition when your immune system is already lowered, as is the case with pregnancy.

One of the chief nasties you need to avoid is our old friend Salmonella. Most of us are familiar with its common symptoms; nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, fever and headache. Being pregnant doesn't increase your chances of contracting this nasty bacterium, but it can, in very rare cases, trigger a miscarriage.

Therefore it's best to avoid foods that contain raw egg and make sure you always cook meat, chicken and eggs thoroughly, and remember to wash fruit and vegetables and store them in the fridge.

In addition, the NSW Food Authority recommends pregnant women do NOT eat any type of sprout (including alfalfa sprouts, broccoli sprouts, onion sprouts, sunflower sprouts, clover sprouts, radish sprouts, snowpea sprouts, mung beans and soybeans) either raw or uncooked!

Mercury in Fish

Mercury in fish is another food issue that confuses many pregnant women. Two years ago the Food Authority launched a Mercury in Fish campaign that featured a "pink wallet card" so women could take the correct dietary advice with them when buying fish.

Fish is something you should definitely have on your shopping list. That's because fish are rich in protein and minerals, low in saturated fat, and contain Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids are important for the development of the central nervous system in babies, before and after they are born.

While it's really important you eat fish during pregnancy and breastfeeding, you also need to be careful about which fish you choose, because some fish may contain mercury levels that may harm an unborn baby or young child's developing nervous system.

You should be eating two to three serves (each serve = 150 grams) of any type of fish per week apart from shark (flake), billfish (broadbill, marlin, swordfish). If you want to eat these fish that's fine, just make sure you only eat one serve per fortnight with NO other fish during that two weeks.

Likewise, you can have one serve of Orange Roughy (Deep Sea Perch) or Catfish per week, as long as you don't eat any other fish during that week.

For more information of these and other food safety issues visit our web site and enjoy a healthy and safe pregnancy!