By Claire Rifkin, MS, RDN, LDN
You can eat a lot of the foods people tell you to avoid during pregnancy. Honey is fine. Peanut butter can stay. You can still order sushi with fully cooked seafood or vegetables. Other foods need a little more attention to how they’re prepared, stored or served.
I’m a registered dietitian who works in women’s health, and I’m also pregnant. I take pregnancy food safety seriously. I also think the advice needs to be specific enough that you can actually use it. Being told to “avoid cheese” doesn’t help you figure out whether you can put mozzarella on your sandwich.
This guide explains the foods from my Instagram post in more detail, along with the foods to skip and the kitchen habits that reduce your risk. It follows U.S. food safety recommendations unless otherwise noted. Individual advice from your prenatal care team takes priority.
Why Some Foods Need Extra Caution During Pregnancy
Pregnancy changes your immune defenses, making you more vulnerable to certain foodborne infections. Some infections can also affect your baby even if your own symptoms are mild. That’s why food safety recommendations become more cautious during pregnancy. FoodSafety.gov explains the pregnancy-specific risks here.
The useful question is often how a food was prepared. A cold turkey sandwich and a sandwich with turkey heated until steaming hot have different safety considerations. So do raw salmon and fully cooked salmon.
Honey During Pregnancy
You can have honey during pregnancy. The recommendation to avoid honey applies to babies younger than 12 months. NHS Inform includes honey among foods you can eat while pregnant.
Honey can contain the bacterial spores that cause infant botulism. In a young baby’s intestines, those spores can grow and produce toxin. That’s the reason to keep honey out of your baby’s food during the first year. CDC’s botulism prevention guidance explains this restriction.
For you, adding honey to yogurt, oatmeal or tea is an option. You don’t need to remove it from your kitchen because you’re pregnant.
Deli Meat During Pregnancy
Deli meat can fit into pregnancy meals when you reheat it to 165°F or until steaming hot before eating. This applies to cold cuts and hot dogs, including products labeled precooked. Heating kills Listeria that may be present. See the FDA’s reheating guidance.
I’ve personally been loving paninis during pregnancy. The detail to pay attention to is the meat inside: toasted bread alone doesn’t tell you whether the filling got hot enough. At home, you can heat the meat separately before assembling your sandwich. At a sandwich shop, ask for the meat to be heated until steaming throughout.
Reheating reduces risk. It doesn’t make food immune to contamination afterward, so use clean utensils and eat it promptly.
Coffee and Caffeine During Pregnancy
You don’t automatically have to give up coffee. A practical approach is to keep your total caffeine below 200 milligrams per day, consistent with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ guidance on moderate caffeine intake. ACOG’s caffeine guidance.
That number includes caffeine from tea, matcha, soda, chocolate and other sources. The NHS also recommends limiting daily caffeine to 200 milligrams and notes that coffee-shop drinks can contain more caffeine than instant coffee. NHS guidance on caffeine in pregnancy.
“One cup” isn’t a reliable measurement. Check the caffeine information for your usual drink and size. If your coffee contains 150 milligrams and your afternoon tea contains 60, you’re at 210 for the day. A smaller coffee, half-caf or decaf can help you keep the drink you enjoy within the recommended limit.
Sushi and Fish During Pregnancy
You can choose sushi made with fully cooked, lower-mercury seafood or vegetables. Think cooked salmon, cooked shrimp or an avocado-and-cucumber roll. Check the whole roll, including toppings: a cooked filling can still come with raw fish on top.
U.S. guidance recommends avoiding raw or undercooked fish during pregnancy because it can carry harmful microbes. Cooking also doesn’t remove mercury, so the species matters even when the fish is fully cooked. The FDA explains both points in its fish guidance.
When ordering, ask for your food to be prepared with clean utensils and surfaces that haven’t been contaminated by raw seafood.
How Much Fish Can You Eat?
The FDA and EPA recommend 8 to 12 ounces per week of a variety of lower-mercury seafood during pregnancy. That’s two to three 4-ounce servings from their “Best Choices” list, which includes salmon, shrimp, sardines and canned light tuna.
Albacore or white tuna is in the “Good Choices” category: the recommendation is one 4-ounce serving that week, with no other fish that week. Bigeye tuna is on the avoid list, along with swordfish, shark, king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy and tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico. Use the FDA/EPA fish chart to check a specific species.
Soft Cheese During Pregnancy
You have plenty of cheese options. Packaged feta, mozzarella, cottage cheese and cream cheese made with pasteurized milk are on the CDC’s safer-choice list.
But “pasteurized” isn’t the only detail to check. Current CDC guidance also recommends heating deli-sliced cheese to 165°F or until steaming hot. It lists unheated queso fresco-type cheeses as riskier even when they’re made with pasteurized milk. For other soft cheeses, such as Brie, heating pasteurized cheese until steaming hot is the more cautious choice. See the CDC’s cheese recommendations.
For an everyday grocery trip, pasteurized mozzarella or cream cheese gives you a straightforward option. Read the label instead of assuming every cheese at the store is pasteurized. If you’re ordering something with a cheese you can’t identify, ask what it is and how it’s prepared.
Peanuts and Peanut Butter During Pregnancy
You don’t need to avoid peanuts to prevent your baby from developing a peanut allergy. If you aren’t allergic yourself and haven’t been told to avoid them for another medical reason, you can keep eating them.
The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology says avoiding allergenic foods during pregnancy hasn’t shown a significant allergy-prevention benefit for the baby. Read its guidance on allergy prevention.
I also wouldn’t promise that eating peanut butter during pregnancy will prevent an allergy. You don’t need to turn it into an assignment. Have it because you like it and it works for you, whether that’s on toast or straight into a bowl of oatmeal.
Foods to Avoid or Prepare Differently
Beyond the foods above, these are the main precautions to keep in mind:
- Raw or undercooked meat, poultry and eggs: Cook thoroughly. For recipes served with uncooked eggs, use pasteurized eggs.
- Refrigerated smoked seafood, including lox: Eat it only in a cooked dish that reaches 165°F. Canned or shelf-stable smoked seafood is another option.
- Raw milk and unpasteurized juice: Choose pasteurized versions.
- Premade deli salads: Skip deli-counter chicken, tuna and similar prepared salads. Make them at home using safely handled ingredients.
- Raw sprouts: Cook them thoroughly.
- Refrigerated pâté and meat spreads: Choose shelf-stable products instead.
These recommendations address foods associated with foodborne illness. FoodSafety.gov provides the details for each category.
Also skip raw dough and batter intended for baking. Raw flour can carry harmful bacteria even if the recipe has no eggs. The FDA explains the flour risk in its food safety guide.
Avoid alcohol during pregnancy. Herbal teas and supplements also deserve an ingredient check with your prenatal clinician; being sold as “natural” doesn’t establish pregnancy safety. NHS guidance covers alcohol and herbal teas.
Food Safety at Home
Wash Produce Before Preparing It
Rinse fruits and vegetables under running water before cutting or eating them, including produce with a peel you won’t eat. Skip soap and produce detergent. If a package says “prewashed” or “ready to eat,” you can use it without washing it again. Keep it away from raw meat and dirty utensils. FDA guidance on washing produce.
Use a Food Thermometer
Color alone can’t reliably tell you whether meat is cooked enough. These are the minimum internal temperatures to use:
| Food | Minimum internal temperature |
|---|---|
| Chicken and turkey, including ground poultry | 165°F |
| Ground beef, pork, lamb and veal | 160°F |
| Whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb and veal | 145°F, followed by a 3-minute rest |
| Fish | 145°F |
| Leftovers | 165°F |
Cook eggs until the yolks and whites are firm. FDA cooking-temperature guidance.
Refrigerate Food Promptly
Keep your refrigerator at 40°F or below. Refrigerate perishable food within two hours, or within one hour when it’s hotter than 90°F. Keep raw meat and its juices separate from foods you’re going to eat without cooking. Wash hands, utensils and preparation surfaces as you go. FDA food-handling guidance.
If You Already Ate Something You’re Worried About
Eating a higher-risk food doesn’t automatically mean it was contaminated or that you’ll get sick. If you ate food linked to a Listeria recall and develop a fever, muscle aches or unusual fatigue, contact your prenatal care team promptly and tell them what you ate.
The CDC notes that people who ate potentially contaminated food and feel well generally don’t need testing or treatment. Your clinician can advise you about your specific situation. CDC guidance on Listeria symptoms and when to seek care.
Getting Help With Pregnancy Nutrition
Food safety advice should help you decide what to eat. If it has left you afraid of most of the grocery store, or you’re struggling to put meals together around nausea and food aversions, you deserve more individual support.
In my nutrition practice, I help women work through food questions and build eating habits that fit their lives. You can learn more about working with me here.
