Cheese in Pregnancy: Which Cheeses Are Safe (Brie, Camembert, Blue, Mozzarella, Halloumi, Paneer)

Most cheese is fine in pregnancy. The two kinds that are not, unless cooked, are soft cheeses that ripen with mould on the outside (brie, camembert, chèvre with a rind) and soft blue cheeses (gorgonzola, roquefort, danish blue). Add anything made from unpasteurised milk, and the avoid list is complete.

The reason is listeria, a bacterium that grows in the fridge and in moist, low-acid cheese, and which is dangerous in pregnancy: the CDC says infection "usually leads to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, or life-threatening infection of the newborn" even when the mother's symptoms are mild. The cure is heat. Any cheese "cooked until steaming hot," in the NHS's phrase, is safe.

Where the UK's NHS, the US FDA and CDC, and France's ANSES differ is in how they draw the line between safe and risky soft cheese: by cooking, by pasteurisation label, or by cheese type. This guide gives all three, cheese by cheese.

The same cheeses under three rulebooks. Any cheese cooked until steaming hot is safe in all three.

Which cheeses are safe in pregnancy?

Hard cheese, pasteurised or not. The NHS lists "pasteurised or unpasteurised hard cheeses, such as cheddar, gruyère and parmesan" as safe, because the low moisture and long ageing do not support listeria. ANSES makes the same exception for raw-milk cheese: avoid it "with the exception of hard pressed cheeses such as Gruyère and Comté." Add cheddar, parmesan, pecorino, manchego, emmental, edam, gouda and aged gruyère.

Pasteurised soft cheese. The NHS lists as safe "pasteurised soft cheeses, such as cottage cheese, cream cheese, processed cheese spreads, mozzarella, feta, paneer, ricotta, mascarpone, halloumi, burrata and goats' cheese that does not have a white coating (rind) on the outside," plus "pasteurised semi-hard cheeses, such as edam." The FDA's test is the label: soft cheese is fine when "labeled as made with pasteurized milk."

Any cooked cheese. "Any cheese that's been cooked until steaming hot, including soft or blue cheese" is safe (NHS). That makes baked brie, a blue-cheese sauce, camembert in the oven and pizza with any topping acceptable in every country.

Processed cheese. Cheese spreads, cheese slices and processed cheese are made from pasteurised milk and heat-treated; they are safe.

Which cheeses should I avoid in pregnancy?

Three practical points hide in that table. Stilton is not named by the NHS; it is a blue cheese, firmer than gorgonzola, and the cautious reading treats it like the other blues, cooked rather than cold. Goat's cheese is two different products: soft chèvre with a white rind is mould-ripened and must be cooked; a pasteurised goat's cheese log without a rind, or a hard goat's cheese, is fine.

And "soft blue" includes the cheeses in a pre-made blue-cheese dressing, which is served cold.

Cheese by cheese: a quick A to Z

Verdicts follow the NHS rule (cold if hard or pasteurised soft; cooked if mould-ripened, blue or unpasteurised), with the US and French differences noted where they change the answer.

• Brie: cooked only (NHS, ANSES); pasteurised OK in the US.
• Burrata: pasteurised OK; raw-milk versions cooked.
• Camembert: cooked only (NHS, ANSES); pasteurised OK in the US.
• Cheddar: safe, including unpasteurised and mature.
• Comté, gruyère, emmental: safe, including raw-milk (ANSES names them as the exception).
• Cottage cheese, cream cheese, quark, mascarpone: safe (pasteurised).
• Danish blue, dolcelatte, gorgonzola, roquefort: cooked only; stilton is not named by the NHS, so treat it the same way.
• Edam, gouda, jarlsberg: safe.
• Feta: safe if pasteurised; raw-milk feta cooked.
• Goat's cheese: rinded chèvre cooked only; rindless pasteurised log or hard goat's cheese safe.
• Halloumi: safe, usually eaten cooked anyway.
• Manchego, pecorino, parmesan, grana padano: safe.
• Mozzarella: safe if pasteurised, including buffalo mozzarella from a labelled pack.
• Munster, taleggio, époisses, reblochon: cooked only; ANSES avoids outright.
• Paneer: safe.
• Processed cheese, cheese slices, spreads: safe.
• Queso fresco, queso blanco: pasteurised OK; the CDC flags unheated fresh cheeses of this type, so check the label or cook.
• Ricotta: safe if pasteurised.
• Wensleydale, red leicester, double gloucester: safe.

Why do the UK, US and France disagree about brie?

Because they are managing the same risk at different points.

• The NHS reasons from the cheese: mould-ripened and soft blue cheeses have the moisture and acidity listeria likes, and contamination can happen after pasteurisation, during ripening. So pasteurisation does not clear them; cooking does.
• The FDA and CDC reason from the milk: most US listeria outbreaks tied to cheese have involved unpasteurised or Latin-style fresh cheeses, so the test is "made with pasteurized milk" on the label. The CDC still singles out "queso fresco-type cheeses" unless heated.
• ANSES reasons from French cheese culture, where raw-milk soft cheeses are common and often unlabelled at the counter. Its list avoids whole categories (surface mould, washed rind, short-ripened pressed, grated) regardless of pasteurisation, and exempts only hard pressed cheeses from the raw-milk rule. Germany's national recommendations go the same way, naming pasteurised gorgonzola as still high risk.

If you move between countries, the strictest rule that applies is the NHS's cooking test combined with ANSES's category list: hard cheese and clearly pasteurised fresh cheese cold, everything else hot. That is also the rule Avo Pregnancy applies when you scan a cheese board or a menu: it shows which cheeses are fine as they are and which need to be cooked, with the body behind each verdict.

What about cheese on a menu or in a sandwich?

Cheese is safest when you can see the label and least safe when you cannot. Three situations come up constantly:

• Pizza, lasagne, baked camembert, cheese sauce: cooked until steaming hot, so any cheese is fine (NHS).
• Cheese boards, salad bars, deli sandwiches: cold soft cheese of unknown origin. Ask whether the brie is pasteurised in the US, or skip it in the UK and France; take the hard cheeses.
• Pre-packed cold items: the NHS's listeriosis page lists pre-prepared sandwiches and salads among the chilled, ready-to-eat foods that cause most infections. Keep them cold, respect the use-by date, and prefer hard or pasteurised cheese fillings.

Our eating out while pregnant guide covers the rest of the menu, and the feta guide answers the single most-asked cheese question in more detail.

What should I do if I ate a risky cheese?

The chance that one portion of brie carries listeria is small, and most exposures cause no illness. The CDC's figure is that about 1 in 25,000 pregnant women are infected each year. Note what you ate and when, and watch for two weeks for a fever, aches, chills, nausea or diarrhoea, or, the NHS adds, stomach ache or reduced baby movement.

If any appear, ask for an urgent GP appointment or call 111 in the UK, or call your obstetrician in the US; listeriosis responds to antibiotics. Our I ate something I shouldn't have guide and the listeria in pregnancy article cover what happens next.