Is lobster safe during pregnancy?

What does the evidence say about lobster during pregnancy?

1. FDA lists lobster, both American and spiny, in the Best Choices category at 2 to 3 servings a week for pregnancy, with a serving defined as 4 ounces. 1
2. Spiny lobster averages 0.093 parts per million of mercury and northern or American lobster 0.107, both below cod at 0.111 and far below the once-a-week species. 2
3. Lobster is cooked when the flesh turns firm, pearly, and opaque, the same cue used for shrimp, scallops, and crab, with 145°F the reference temperature for most seafood. 3
4. Undercooked shellfish is where Vibrio vulnificus turns up, an uncommon but serious infection with reported mortality ranging from 18 percent to 50 percent in its severe forms. 4
5. A typical adult serving is 4 ounces weighed before cooking, and the weekly ceiling in pregnancy is about 12 ounces of fish in total across everything you eat. 5

Is lobster safe in each trimester?

• First trimester. Lobster is safe from the start, and the practical obstacle in the first trimester is usually smell rather than safety. Buying it already cooked from a busy counter avoids the whole business of boiling a pot at home. Keep it chilled and eat it within a day or two.
• Second trimester. This is the trimester where a lobster roll or a bisque is most likely to come up. Both are fine if the lobster itself was cooked through, which it almost always is in a prepared product. The mayonnaise in a roll is commercially made and pasteurized, so that is not the issue people sometimes assume it is.
• Third trimester. Nothing about late pregnancy changes lobster's category. Worth remembering is that it counts toward the same weekly seafood total as everything else, so a lobster dinner is one of your two to three servings rather than a free extra. Raw or barely warmed preparations remain the ones to skip.