Is beef jerky safe during pregnancy?

What does the evidence say about beef jerky during pregnancy?

1. A parasite called Toxoplasma can hide in raw or undercooked meat, and catching it during pregnancy can affect your growing baby. 1
2. Drying and salting meat the right way, with the correct amount of salt, low moisture, and enough time, has been shown in lab studies to rapidly wipe out this parasite in other ready-to-eat dried meats. 2
3. Skimping on salt or rushing the drying time is the real problem: in lab testing, meat prepared with too little salt for too short a time still carried a live, infectious parasite for more than a week. 3
4. Time matters too: in one study, dried ham kept in the salt-and-dry process for over 12 months had far less live parasite than ham kept in it for only 9 months, though researchers note more time alone doesn't fully rule out risk. 4
5. Health officials already list similar ready-to-eat dried meats, like dry sausage, among the foods to heat until steaming rather than eat cold, and that same caution is worth applying to any jerky you didn't buy from a trusted, labeled source. 5

Is beef jerky safe in each trimester?

• First trimester. Early on, a Toxoplasma infection is less likely to reach your baby, but when it does, the impact tends to be more serious. Stick to sealed, store-bought jerky with a nutrition label, and skip anything homemade or unfamiliar for now.
• Second trimester. The odds that a Toxoplasma infection could cross to your baby go up in the second trimester. The same rule still holds: commercially made jerky is fine, homemade or soft jerky is not worth the gamble.
• Third trimester. By the third trimester, transmission risk is highest, though effects on your baby are usually milder if it happens. Keep choosing factory-sealed jerky over homemade batches, and reach out to your provider if you ever eat something you're unsure about.