Soft cheese & pregnancy?

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Alibi Ike

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For anyone who is cognizant of this stuff, what's the problem with pregnant women and soft cheese?
 
Being that all store-bought cheese in the US is pasteurized, I'm not getting what the big deal is. Apparently, the place MOST people get listeria from is cantaloupe and strawberries.
However, far be it from me to argue with a pregnant woman!
 
Sounds like someone who is carrying somebody's instructions to the extreme to me. :) If cheese is pasteurized, it should be OK regardless of whether it's a hard or soft cheese.
 
I lived in France for 5 years, I can assure you that most pregant woman do not give up those wonderful UNPASTEURIZED French cheeses!
 
Sometimes I think people want reassurance...even reassurance of the obvious (like the soft cheese being pastuerized).
Sometimes we have guests who are pretty interested in the area, what's offered (beyond stuff for visitors) and many are interested in the farm where we get our produce. Now, in my mind, produce means fruits and vegetables, although we do get some pecans as well.
One guest requested a glass of milk, but as I served it, she stopped me to ask if the milk had been pastuerized. She told me she had heard about people who will buy a share of a cow so they can get the milk raw...I think she thought we had such an arrangement with the farm where we get prodcue. I assured her it had, and was tempted to show her the cardboard carton from the grocery store.
Cause the bottom line is...why would I cut corners with guests' health?
Listeria is a bit tricky - rare, but very, very dangerous for the elderly and pregnant mothers when it rears its head. But if you're serving pastuerized products and observing basic food safety (cooking/heating meats - especially smoked or precooked meats- to recommended temps), it's a non-issue.
 
We have a lady staying with us who has stayed many times from when she was engaged to be married and now they are having twins and the full extend of her pregnancy demands was could she have her egg turned over. Sometimes people worry about salmonella as really bad food poisoning can obvously be dangerous to the baby but I think most stuff is about common sense and moderation. I think "raw" milk depends on the person as I have had it many times and been fine and people who have literally drunk out of the same bucket became ill. It can be intollerance of the richness and unpasturised ness (apologies for grammar) as well as bacteria.
 
We have a lady staying with us who has stayed many times from when she was engaged to be married and now they are having twins and the full extend of her pregnancy demands was could she have her egg turned over. Sometimes people worry about salmonella as really bad food poisoning can obvously be dangerous to the baby but I think most stuff is about common sense and moderation. I think "raw" milk depends on the person as I have had it many times and been fine and people who have literally drunk out of the same bucket became ill. It can be intollerance of the richness and unpasturised ness (apologies for grammar) as well as bacteria..
We grew up on raw milk. Other than the milk at school, never had pasturized until we moved off the farm when I was in high school. THEN we went straight to drinking powdered milk because Mom could not afford the milk bill (my baby brother was accustomed to drinking a quart at a sitting). THAT was a change! And Mom drank the raw milk during her last pregnancy totally (she was not a coffee person). Considering my baby brother was 11 lb 15.5 oz at birth..... don't think it hurt him any.
 
We have a lady staying with us who has stayed many times from when she was engaged to be married and now they are having twins and the full extend of her pregnancy demands was could she have her egg turned over. Sometimes people worry about salmonella as really bad food poisoning can obvously be dangerous to the baby but I think most stuff is about common sense and moderation. I think "raw" milk depends on the person as I have had it many times and been fine and people who have literally drunk out of the same bucket became ill. It can be intollerance of the richness and unpasturised ness (apologies for grammar) as well as bacteria..
We grew up on raw milk. Other than the milk at school, never had pasturized until we moved off the farm when I was in high school. THEN we went straight to drinking powdered milk because Mom could not afford the milk bill (my baby brother was accustomed to drinking a quart at a sitting). THAT was a change! And Mom drank the raw milk during her last pregnancy totally (she was not a coffee person). Considering my baby brother was 11 lb 15.5 oz at birth..... don't think it hurt him any.
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I don't have a problem with (the idea of) raw milk at all. I personally would have no problem consuming it if I was tending the animal myself or knew the farmer well. I just often use other things than cows' milk in baking (for family - we have an allegy issue) and we don't drink cows' milk at all. FWIW, from what I've read, raw milk is far superior nutritionally to pasteurized. But I'm no scientist - I just read a lot.
No way would I consume raw milk from the mass agro-food machine. Uh-uh. I can't even go into it - if you are interested, there's plenty of information out there. I do not believe there is a way to safely produce raw milk for consumption on the scale that most modern farming happens on. My point is just that I would never serve something dangerous to a guest (even if I would eat it myself). If the only milk I could get my hands on was raw, and for some reason I *had* to serve it (not sure what that would be), I would just pasteurize it myslef. It's not complicated. Heated up to temp, then cool it down.
Honestly, I'd just serve something else. I have enough to do.
 
We have a lady staying with us who has stayed many times from when she was engaged to be married and now they are having twins and the full extend of her pregnancy demands was could she have her egg turned over. Sometimes people worry about salmonella as really bad food poisoning can obvously be dangerous to the baby but I think most stuff is about common sense and moderation. I think "raw" milk depends on the person as I have had it many times and been fine and people who have literally drunk out of the same bucket became ill. It can be intollerance of the richness and unpasturised ness (apologies for grammar) as well as bacteria..
We grew up on raw milk. Other than the milk at school, never had pasturized until we moved off the farm when I was in high school. THEN we went straight to drinking powdered milk because Mom could not afford the milk bill (my baby brother was accustomed to drinking a quart at a sitting). THAT was a change! And Mom drank the raw milk during her last pregnancy totally (she was not a coffee person). Considering my baby brother was 11 lb 15.5 oz at birth..... don't think it hurt him any.
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I don't have a problem with (the idea of) raw milk at all. I personally would have no problem consuming it if I was tending the animal myself or knew the farmer well. I just often use other things than cows' milk in baking (for family - we have an allegy issue) and we don't drink cows' milk at all. FWIW, from what I've read, raw milk is far superior nutritionally to pasteurized. But I'm no scientist - I just read a lot.
No way would I consume raw milk from the mass agro-food machine. Uh-uh. I can't even go into it - if you are interested, there's plenty of information out there. I do not believe there is a way to safely produce raw milk for consumption on the scale that most modern farming happens on. My point is just that I would never serve something dangerous to a guest (even if I would eat it myself). If the only milk I could get my hands on was raw, and for some reason I *had* to serve it (not sure what that would be), I would just pasteurize it myslef. It's not complicated. Heated up to temp, then cool it down.
Honestly, I'd just serve something else. I have enough to do.
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I totally agree with you about the "food chain" raw milk. I was just making a statement about growing up on it - and yes, I was milking the darn cows every day our last few years on the farm. Mom and Pappy did it prior to me being determioned old enough to be the milker. We brought the buckets in to Granny and she put it through the strainer and bottled it. Cream was skimmed for butter (the old fashioned plunger churn) or whipped cream. The tractor and hay baler were the most modern things that hit our farm.
 
Alibi Ike said:
For anyone who is cognizant of this stuff, what's the problem with pregnant women and soft cheese?
You just have to realize that the soft cheese is easier to spread on a cracker.
smileystooges.gif
 
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