A question about pasteurized foods when pregnant.

The risk is to your baby. Unpasturized juices, as well as other raw foods could lead to a food based illness. There was just something in the paper warning anyone at risk not to eat raw cold cuts,lunch meats etc. I think the main risks would be from large scale processing where quality control is tougher. Doing your own like you are using shouldn’t be as risky. But I’d like to hear what others think.

From The Baby Center:

“No, most unpasteurized juice is not safe, because your immune system is suppressed when you’re pregnant. You should drink only pasteurized juice products unless the fruit is freshly washed and squeezed immediately before you drink it (as fresh orange juice often is). This is a good precaution even when you’re not pregnant.

Drinking unpasteurized juice has been associated with foodborne disease caused by E. coli 0157H7 or Salmonella species that can make people seriously ill. Especially vulnerable are the young, the elderly, and people whose immune system is compromised by pregnancy, by illness, or for any other reason.”

Note: You can increase the safety of your squeezed at home juice by using organic fruit.

As @marinelife is describing, the caution is about commercial unpasteurized juice. Until they had an E.Coli problem about 10 years ago, Odwalla juices were unpasteurized, as was naked Juice brand.

@marinelife Is that note you threw in your own or from the link? I didn’t see it when I skimmed the link. I once read a study that there are more bacterias found on organic than non organic. However, I don’t know which bacterias were found in larger numbers. The big thing about organic is chemicals not being used for pesticides from what I can tell.

I would think that there is a difference between squeezing the juice out of a fresh piece of fruit and drinking it on the spot and drinking some unpasteurized juice from an unknown source that has been sitting around in a container for awhile.

hey @YoBob that’s what I was thinking, if i can eat the fruit then surely I can juice it and drink it?
I would never buy unpasteurized juice, and i guess that is what I’m asking…

I would, of course, be sure to wash it well to take care of anything that might be hitchhiking on the skin.

yeah I peel it and wash it again as extra precaution.

If you are making it yourself and you are washing the fruit beforehand, you should be fine. make sure the juicer is kept very clean too.

I worked in a juice factory and we didn’t pasturise our stuff. All our stuff was fresh and we had to put a pinch of preservative in it to keep it fresh.

The risk comes when the juice factory becomes infected with nasty bacteria like salmonella. Birds and animals carry this. If the cleaning procedures are inadequate, (there was a case in Australia when I was working in New Zealand) the bacteria infects the juice and the juice is consumed and the weak and unborn can die from such an infection.

Wash your fruit well before juicing. Keep your juicer clean. You should be fine. Don’t purchase unpasturised stuff.

@marinelife organic fruit is just as likely to carry bacteria so the same precautions still need to be taken.

@JLeslie From the site: “FRESH unpasteurized (green) juice made with organic produce juiced at home or from a known source is not only good for you and the baby it is a great way to get the proper nutrients during pregnancy. It is essential to ensure clean and high quality produce is used”

Oh, juiced at home. I must have read too fast. Certainly juicing your own fruit at home, and drinking it right away is fine, it is the same as eating a whole fruit at home as pointed out by others. I was confused.

Sorry @JLeslie probably the way I wrote it!
Yeah that’s what i thought as well!

@marinelife Here is an article touching on what I have read in the past about more bacteria being found on organic produce. If you google, not that I am asking you to, just if you are curious there are additional articles.

@tan235 Bacteria divides and multiplies very fast. If when juiced there are only a small amount of bacterias, probably a healthy adult will not get sick. But, as the juice sits over time the bacterias grow and grow and grow in numbers possibly causing illness. Pasteurizing kills everything. So, while your fresh squeezed juice at home might have a few bacterias in there, because it is not sterile obviously, it won’t cause illness most likely. Hopefully it is completely free of some of the very worrisome pathogens. But, the longer the juice sits around, especially if not refridgerated, the more the bacterias grow. This is true for all the food you eat. Be extra careful to not eat raw hamburger meat, or to leave leftovers sitting out too long.

Your body has decreased your natural immune response so you don’t reject the new baby growing inside of you, which means stay away from sick people, and don’t touch your face. LOL.

good advice @JLeslie!!!!!
Thank you x