Is it ok for a pregnant woman to eat camembert cheese if its made from pasteurised milk?
Until recently, pregnant women were told to avoid soft cheese altogether during pregnancy. These days, the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is to make sure any soft cheese you eat has a label clearly stating that it’s made from pasteurized milk. Raw milk and any cheeses or other dairy products made from it can carry disease-causing organisms, including a potentially deadly bacterium called listeria monocytogenes. Although listeria infection is relatively rare (the CDC estimates that it affects 2,500 people in the U.S. every year and this number appears to be decreasing), pregnant women are about 20 times more likely than other healthy adults to get it, and the infection can be devastating or even lethal for their babies. Soft cheeses are thought to be particularly good hosts for listeria. But the pasteurization process kills the bacteria and a whole host of other organisms.
