What is the difference between pasteurized and unpasteurized cheese

Department of Agriculture recommends that women aim for a total of three servings of ideally low-fat dairy per day, which in addition to cheese includes milk and yogurt. Hard cheese such as cheddar or Parmesan is your safest choice during pregnancy. Hard cheese contains less moisture than soft cheese, which slashes the odds that potentially dangerous bacteria will grow even if it is made from unpasteurized milk.

Pasteurized cheese during pregnancy is another safe bet. That means most soft cheeses are also safe to eat during pregnancy, as long as the label specifies that they're made with "pasteurized" milk. The following soft commercial cheeses are generally always made with pasteurized milk and considered safe:.

If you're at a restaurant and can't check the label, know that it's safe to eat any cheese that's been heated until it's steaming hot — for instance, cheese on a pizza or in a grilled-cheese sandwich.

When you're pregnant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC recommends avoiding unpasteurized soft cheese, raw milk, unpasteurized yogurt, and unpasteurized ice cream. That's because these products may rarely contain the bacteria listeria, which can cause listeriosis. Pregnant people are 10 times more likely to get listeriosis than the general population. This infection can be passed on to an unborn baby and cause miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm labor, or death in newborns.

Pasteurized cheese can still become contaminated with listeria if it's produced in a facility with unsanitary conditions. If you want to be extra careful, you may want to avoid Hispanic cheeses, even if they're pasteurized, since they have been linked to listeriosis outbreaks in the U.

Examples of Hispanic cheeses you may want to avoid include:. Bottom line: Hard cheeses and pasteurized soft cheeses are safe even healthy! If you're unsure whether a soft cheese is pasteurized, and it's not steaming hot, skip it. BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world. When creating and updating content, we rely on credible sources: respected health organizations, professional groups of doctors and other experts, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals.

We believe you should always know the source of the information you're seeing. Learn more about our editorial and medical review policies. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Check the Cheese, Avoid Listeria. Department of Health and Human Services. People at Risk: Pregnant Women. Concerns regarding the safety of eating unpasteurized cheese for the average person should be alleviated through education. Our raw milk cheeses are all aged at least 60 days and are considered perfectly safe to consume.

Whether you want to eat unpasteurized cheese or not is your decision. And that's why we are lucky, we have a choice. It's available, and it's our decision. I personally love unpasteurized cheese because of the complex flavour profiles and how they linger on the palette. However, I also love a wide variety of pasteurized cheeses made here in Ontario, Quebec, and around the world.

I hope this info was useful to everyone. If you have any other topics you want us to cover, please tweet, email or leave a comment on our Facebook page. Co-founder of Cheesyplace. Cart 0. So let's dive in! So what's the difference between the 3 milk types? The Rules The "war" that exists between cheese enthusiasts and law makers stems from the safety aspect of selling unpasteurized cheese. So what are the laws in Canada? You'll find that most of the cheeses we have available today in Canada are pasteurized.

Pasteurized Cheeses from Spain and Holland. This is just enough heat to allow the milk to start fermenting, to eventually become cheese. The bacterial compounds of the cheese are not destroyed, and thus result in a much more flavourful, powerful cheese.

Some industry experts believe that the enzymes in raw milk cheese are healthier and help us digest it easier. Leave a comment Name Email. Overall, raw milk and milk products are considered safe to consume, although there still remains a potential health risk. Jessica Lewis has published professionally since and is a registered dietitian and nutritionist. Her work is regularly found in the "National Post" and "Oxygen Magazine. A marathon runner and yoga enthusiast, she is also interested in alternative medicine.

By Jessica Lewis Updated November 21, Related Articles.