Thanksgiving Foods To Avoid when Pregnant

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays built entirely around food, so it makes sense that you’re wondering what’s actually safe to eat once you’re pregnant. The good news is that the vast majority of a traditional Thanksgiving spread is completely fine. Turkey, roast vegetables, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing cooked properly, pie, all of it can usually stay on your plate. There are just a handful of specific dishes and preparation methods worth knowing about, mostly because of the risk of listeria, salmonella or toxoplasmosis, bacteria and parasites that healthy adults shrug off but that can cause serious complications in pregnancy.

Here’s what to actually watch for at the table this year, and why, so you can enjoy the day without second-guessing every dish. As always, if you have any specific health conditions or concerns, run this past your GP, midwife or obstetrician too, since individual advice can vary.

Pâté and refrigerated meat spreads

Pâté is a lovely festive starter, but the chilled or refrigerated kind (the sort you’d find in the fridge section of a deli counter) can carry listeria, which is why it’s on the “avoid” list during pregnancy. Listeria doesn’t cause much more than mild flu-like symptoms in most adults, but it can cross the placenta and cause serious problems for your baby, so it’s not worth the risk. Tinned or shelf-stable pâté that hasn’t been opened and refrigerated is generally considered lower risk, and you can read more on which foods to avoid here. If you’re not sure whether the pâté on offer is fresh or shelf-stable, it’s easiest to just skip it and go for a different starter.

Unpasteurised apple cider

Most apple cider sold in supermarkets is pasteurised, meaning it’s been heated to kill off harmful bacteria, and that’s fine to drink. The one to be careful of is the fresh-pressed cider you sometimes find at farm stands, orchards or farmers’ markets in autumn, which is often unpasteurised. This kind can carry E. coli, so check the label or ask before you pour a glass. If in doubt, warming it gently on the stove until it’s steaming hot will kill off most bacteria, though buying pasteurised is the simpler option.

Undercooked turkey

Turkey is the one dish everyone’s watching closely anyway, but it matters even more in pregnancy. The safe minimum internal temperature for poultry is 165°F (74°C), and this should be checked with a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the breast, the innermost part of the thigh and wing, and in the centre of any stuffing that’s been cooked inside the bird. Colour isn’t a reliable guide, turkey can look done on the outside while still being undercooked near the bone, so a thermometer is really the only way to know for sure. Let the turkey rest for at least 20 minutes after cooking before carving, which also helps it finish cooking through.

Unpasteurised soft cheese

Soft cheeses like brie, camembert, feta, ricotta and some blue-veined varieties can carry listeria if they’re made with unpasteurised milk. In the US, most cheeses sold in shops are pasteurised by default, but it’s worth checking the label, especially with cheeses on a holiday cheeseboard that might have come from a smaller producer or a deli counter. Hard cheeses (cheddar, parmesan, gouda) and cream cheese, cottage cheese and mozzarella are all fine, even if unpasteurised, because their lower moisture content makes it harder for listeria to survive.

Stuffing cooked inside the bird

If you’re at someone else’s house and not in control of the cooking, ask how the stuffing was prepared. Stuffing cooked inside the turkey cavity can be a problem because it doesn’t always reach a high enough temperature to kill bacteria, particularly in the centre, even when the turkey itself is fully cooked. The safest option is stuffing baked separately in its own dish, checked with a thermometer to confirm it’s reached 165°F right through. If oysters are part of the stuffing recipe, make sure they’ve been fully cooked too rather than just warmed through.

Unwashed vegetables and raw sprouts

This one applies to everyone, pregnant or not, but it’s worth a reminder. Washing vegetables properly removes soil, dirt and traces of bacteria or parasites, including toxoplasma, which can be present in soil and unwashed produce. Give root vegetables like potatoes, carrots and parsnips a proper scrub, not just a rinse. Raw sprouts (alfalfa, bean sprouts and similar) are worth avoiding altogether during pregnancy, since bacteria can get inside the seed itself during growing and washing doesn’t fully remove the risk. Cooked sprouts are fine.

Raw batter and cookie dough

Licking the spoon after mixing pie filling or cookie dough is a habit a lot of us grew up with, but raw eggs carry a small risk of salmonella, and flour itself can occasionally carry E. coli too, so raw batter ticks both boxes for things to leave alone this year. If you really want a taste of raw dough or batter, look for pasteurised egg products, or make a small batch using pasteurised eggs specifically, and use heat-treated flour if you can find it. Otherwise, it’s easiest to just wait until it’s baked.

Pumpkin and pecan pie versus no-bake pies

Here’s some good news: a traditional baked pumpkin or pecan pie is perfectly fine, because the eggs in the custard filling are fully cooked through the baking process, which kills off any salmonella risk. The pie to be more careful with is anything unbaked or “no-bake”, things like a chilled cream pie, mousse pie or a custard that’s only been gently warmed rather than baked, since the eggs in those may not reach a high enough temperature to be safe. If you’re at a potluck and not sure how a pie was made, it’s fine to ask, most people won’t mind explaining.

Wine, mulled cider and alcohol in general

Current guidance from health bodies including the CDC and ACOG is straightforward: there’s no known safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy, so it’s best avoided completely rather than trying to work out how much is “too much”. That includes an obvious glass of wine, but also things people sometimes overlook, like spiked or “hard” cider, mulled wine, and alcohol used in cooking. A splash of wine in gravy or a sauce doesn’t fully burn off during cooking, so it’s worth asking how a dish was made if you’re unsure. There are plenty of good non-alcoholic options around at this point, sparkling cider, mocktails, or just a nice sparkling water with cranberry, so you’re not stuck drinking water all afternoon.

Cold turkey sandwiches and reheated leftovers

The Black Friday turkey sandwich is a real tradition in a lot of households, and you can still have one, just heat the turkey through until it’s steaming hot rather than eating it cold straight from the fridge. This applies to deli meat generally too. Cold cuts and refrigerated leftovers can harbour listeria even when they look and smell completely fine, which is why the advice is to reheat rather than eat cold. On the food safety side more broadly, get leftovers into the fridge within two hours of cooking, use them within three to four days, and reheat to 165°F throughout, not just warm in the middle.

A quick note on caffeine

Not strictly a Thanksgiving-only issue, but with coffee and pie often going hand in hand, it’s worth knowing that most guidance suggests keeping caffeine under about 200mg a day during pregnancy, roughly one 12oz cup of coffee. Tea, cola and chocolate all add to that total too, so if you’ve had coffee earlier in the day, you might want to skip the after-dinner espresso.

None of this is meant to make Thanksgiving feel stressful. Most of what’s on the table is completely safe, and the list of things to actually avoid is pretty short once you know what to look for. If you’re ever unsure about a specific dish someone’s brought, it’s always fine to just ask how it was made, most people are happy to tell you, and if you can’t find out, it’s completely reasonable to just choose something else. Happy Thanksgiving, and enjoy the day.