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Pregnancy food safety · 4 entries

Salad during pregnancy

Salad is worth eating often: folate from the dark leaves, fiber, and it is one of the few things that still appeals when you are queasy. Wash whatever you are using under running water just before you eat it, even when it looks clean. That is about toxoplasma, which lives in soil and crosses the placenta, and it is the same reason to rinse fruit and vegetables. Bagged salad marked pre-washed does not need it, though rinsing does no harm. Two things to skip: made-up salads from a deli counter or salad bar, which are a listeria risk, and raw sprouts — alfalfa, mung bean, clover — which FDA advises against because bacteria grow inside the seed where washing cannot reach. Dressings are fine unless they are built on raw egg, like a traditional Caesar.

Every salad entry, with a verdict

Sorted with the ones worth knowing about first. Avoid means skip it entirely; take care means it depends on how it was prepared.

  • Ready-made salad

    Avoid

    Don't eat ready-made salads and coleslaws from delis and salad bars — sitting in an open tray at fridge temperature is exactly where listeria grows. Sealed bagged salad from the supermarket is fine.

  • Caesar salad

    Safe

    Caesar dressing is traditionally made with raw eggs, and they, as you know, can be contaminated with salmonella. The bottled kind you buy in a grocery store is made with pasteurized egg, so that one is fine — no label-reading needed. When ordering Caesar salad in the restaurant, ask your waiter if their Caesar dressing is made using raw eggs. You should also make sure that chicken, salmon or shrimp in the salad are cooked properly — chicken to 165° F (74° C), fish and shrimp to 145° F (63° C).

  • Almost all types of fresh-made salad

    Safe

    Great idea! This is a light, tasty, and nutritious meal. Wash salad ingredients well before eating. When ordering a salad in a restaurant, choose the one that will be freshly made, make sure that "dangerous" ingredients like meat or fish are cooked properly and order it only in trusted places.

  • Greek salad

    Safe

    Greek salad is traditionally made with feta cheese, which is a soft cheese, and soft cheese made with unpasteurized milk can, as you remember, be contaminated with listeria. Listeriosis can harm the placenta and cause serious health risks for your baby. Almost all the feta sold in US stores is pasteurized, though, so check the label at home and ask when you order. If nobody can tell you, have them leave the cheese off your plate.

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