Is ricotta safe during pregnancy?

What does the evidence say about ricotta during pregnancy?

1. Pasteurization uses moderate heat, up to about 212°F, to eliminate pathogens, and once a cheese has been through it the added risk in pregnancy is very small. 1
2. Heating food to steaming, at least 165°F or 74°C, kills listeria bacteria, which is why a fully baked pasta dish is a lower-risk way to eat any fresh cheese. 2
3. The dairy products flagged in pregnancy are unpasteurized milk and raw milk products, not pasteurized cheese eaten in an ordinary meal. 3
4. Milk, yogurt, and cheese are the main sources of calcium for most people in the United States, and pregnancy calls for 1,000 mg a day, or 1,300 mg if you are 18 or younger. 4
5. Laboratory heating work confirms the principle behind cooking fresh cheese: holding curd at 65°C long enough left neither salmonella nor listeria recoverable from the sample. 5

Is ricotta safe in each trimester?

• First trimester. Lasagna and baked pasta are exactly the bland, warm food that often stays down in the first trimester, and ricotta is not a reason to avoid them. Check that the tub says pasteurized, which is nearly always the case for supermarket brands.
• Second trimester. Ricotta is a genuinely useful calcium source as your baby's skeleton starts mineralizing in earnest. Fresh ricotta from a cheese counter or an Italian deli is the version to ask about, since it may be made differently from the sealed tubs.
• Third trimester. Leftovers matter more than the cheese itself now. Refrigerate baked pasta promptly, and reheat portions until they are steaming at 165°F rather than just warm in the middle.