Forbidden Foods/Organic Turkey Sausage/Smoke Mozzarella

[Anonymous]

Can someone please let me know if it is okay to eat organic turkey sausage (from whole foods). The package says it contains no nitrates and no nitrates added. It also says no artificial ingreedients added. Also, I can't find any info about smoked mozzarella. Is that considered a no-no like certain other soft cheeses. I know fresh mozzarella is fine, but is the smoking of the cheese harmful in any way ie listeria? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

The sausage sounds fine if it's cooked thoroughly. The smoked cheese sounds fine too, but then again I'm not an Italian cheese smoker. Not sure how they actually do it.

Mozzarella and other pasta filata cheeses are not really considered 'soft' cheese, at least for pregnancy prohibition purposes.

[Anonymous]

I think as long as your cheese is pasteurized, then you're fine...but I'd ask your doctor to be safe.

[Anonymous]

both are fine- and again like the previous poster said make sure sausage is cooked all the way, and as long as the cheese is pasteurized it's fine. double check with MD, but mine said that as long as cheese is pasteurized it's fine (even "soft" cheeses like goat).

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP, if the cheese is pasteurized, then it is fine. However, I thought that fresh Mozzarella was not pasteurized and therefore was not OK to eat while pregnant. So I'd double-check on that.

[Anonymous]

Mozarella sold in stores is pasturized, as mozarella is a fresh cheese (unlike cheddar which is aged). The only way you could eat raw milk mozarella is if you did it yourself at home. Its the law in most states that fresh cheese must come from pasturized milk, certainly it is the law in VA. Some raw cheeses can be made, but they have to be aged over a certain number of days (I think 90) to kill the bacteria for sale in a grocery store. Also if you are buying fine artisan cheese from raw milk, you are going to know you are buying it b/c you are going to be shelling out big bucks at a fine grocery. The run of the mill brands aren't made from raw milk. They are made from industrialized milk products complimented with a healthy doses of rBST and whatever remaining antibiotics did not exit the cow's system from the various illnesses she was treated for while being confined to filthy diseased living conditions. I make cheese at home from raw milk, my kids eat and drink it too, we've never been sick.

however point is, you are OK eating your salad caprese.

[Anonymous]

Amen!! LOL, we too love our homemade raw milk mozerella.

But yes, the reality is that you can't (not in the US, anyway) just stumble upon raw or unpasteurized cheese. You have to go *out of your way* to find it, and then you will pay outrageously high prices for it.

As for listeria, it could really be in any prepared food product that is left out in the deli case. My advice would be to ask how long a particular item has been sitting in the case, and if it is possible ask them to cut or serve some straight from the package (ie, cut off new meat from the turkey or whatever.). That would be your best bet for avoiding listeria -- which, by the way, is extremely extremely rare anyway.

[Anonymous]

Pasteurized cheese is not necessarily safe from listeria - there was a recall of pasteurized cheese contaminated with listeria in New England a few months ago.

The key is whether something is made in a manufacturing facility and doesn't get cooked - that is when is is risky, although as pps have stated the risk is very low.

[Anonymous]

I have eaten tons of turkey & chicken sausage from whole foods while pregnant. If it is all natural it should be fine & as with all meat pregnant or not, it should be cooked thoroughly.