Is blue cheese safe during pregnancy?

It depends on the milk. FDA tells pregnant women not to eat blue-veined cheeses unless they are made with pasteurized milk. The risk being managed is Listeria. A 2023 UK Food Standards Agency risk assessment rated listeriosis from blue cheese in pregnant women and other vulnerable people as very rare but impossible to exclude, and rated the illness itself as high severity with a significant death rate.

Not for everyone. Pregnancy is what raises the stakes. According to CDC, pregnant women are 10 times more likely to get a Listeria infection, and ACOG puts the incidence of listeriosis in pregnancy at about 13 times that of the general population. Neither figure is specific to blue cheese.

Unsettled. We found no randomized trial and no systematic review of blue cheese in pregnancy. This is a food safety question, and the answer on this page comes from an agency risk assessment, agency advice, outbreak records and one case report. None of it measures the risk per serving.

When listeriosis in pregnancy happens, percent of infections

From an umbrella review of 9 systematic reviews covering 330 studies, mostly observational and case series. These are shares of infections, not the chance that any one woman is infected. No interval is reported, so none is drawn. Source: card ev-blcpg-10 below.

What the trials found

There are no trials. What exists is safety data, and it points in two directions at once.

Blue cheese is an uncommon source. Of 17 US listeriosis outbreaks linked to soft cheese between 1998 and 2014, one was traced to blue-veined cheese. Those are outbreak counts, which say nothing about how many servings were eaten safely. The UK assessment, built on outbreak records, retail sampling, consumption and growth data, reached a similar place and called the frequency very low.

It still happens. In an Italian case report of listeriosis traced to Gorgonzola, Listeria from the patient's refrigerator, from food stores and from production-plant samples could not be told apart from the strain that made the patient ill. That patient was not described as pregnant. Most of the contamination data in the UK assessment come from Gorgonzola, and in those surveys the rind was much more likely to be contaminated than the center of the cheese.

Pasteurized does not mean risk-free. A 2022 systematic review of dairy outbreaks in Canada and the US from 2007 to October 2020 found 12 outbreaks from pasteurized products, with 174 confirmed cases, 134 hospitalizations, 17 deaths and seven fetal losses. Those were dairy products of every kind, not blue cheese, and the figures are not limited to Listeria.

Who should be careful

Pregnant women, and the other groups the UK assessment names as vulnerable: people over 65, infants and people with weakened immunity. An umbrella review of 9 systematic reviews found that listeriosis in pregnancy struck in the third trimester in 66 percent of infections against 3 percent in the first. The underlying studies are mostly observational and case series.

Blanket avoidance is not obviously free either. In 1,638 pregnant Australian women, those who ate such foods more often had better diet quality (r = 0.60) and higher micronutrient intakes. That is a correlation, cheese was not separated from the other foods in the score, and it does not show that avoiding these foods makes a diet worse.

Not for everyone. If you are pregnant, read the label. Blue cheese made from unpasteurized milk is on both FDA's and CDC's list of riskier choices. Pasteurized blue cheese is allowed by FDA, but pasteurized dairy has still caused outbreaks, so the label is not a guarantee.

What expert bodies say

FDA says pregnant women should not eat soft cheeses, naming blue-veined cheeses among them, unless they are made with pasteurized milk. CDC lists soft cheese made from unpasteurized milk, blue-veined cheese included, among the riskier food choices in pregnancy. ACOG describes listeriosis as about 13 times more common in pregnancy than in the general population. The UK Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland rated the frequency of listeriosis from blue cheese as very low and its severity as high. That assessment was commissioned to inform UK pregnancy advice, and we did not retrieve the current UK consumer wording.

How we searched

Searched: a local copy of PubMed for Listeria or listeriosis with pregnancy, maternal, fetal or neonatal terms and cheese, dairy or food, which returned 52 records. A search for blue cheese, Gorgonzola, Roquefort, Stilton, blue-veined and mold-ripened cheese with Listeria, pregnancy, safety or contamination returned 3. We also searched our store of agency documents, the open web, FDA and CDC pages, the UK Food Standards Agency and the retraction database. Search run on 7 October 2026.

Included: the UK blue cheese risk assessment, FDA, CDC and ACOG positions, a CDC review of soft cheese outbreaks, a systematic review of North American dairy outbreaks, an umbrella review of listeriosis in pregnancy, an Australian cohort on diet quality and one Gorgonzola case report. None of the papers is retracted.

Excluded: a 2003 US retail survey whose blue cheese figures appear only in a full text we could not get, a later Australian analysis that added nothing to the cohort above, an older systematic review superseded by the umbrella review, outbreaks from cheeses that were not blue, and NHS consumer pages, which are not on our list of trusted sources.

What we read: the official summary of the UK risk assessment, the FDA and CDC pages, the full text of the CDC outbreak review and abstracts for the rest.

What we could not get: the full UK risk assessment report, whose page returned an error, the current UK consumer advice on blue cheese, and any risk estimate per serving for blue cheese specifically.

What would change this answer

A quantitative estimate of listeriosis risk per serving for pasteurized against raw-milk blue cheese. That is the number a pregnant woman would actually want, and nobody we found has published it.
New outbreaks traced to blue cheese in pregnancy, which would move it from rare toward known risk.
Revised UK advice built on the 2023 assessment. No trials are expected for a safety question like this one.

More on blue cheese itself, including salt and tyramine: Blue cheese.

The food behind this question

Blue cheese: the tyramine rule depends on the drug — numbers, evidence and safety

The same question for other foods (pregnancy)

Sources

ev-blcpg-01 · Position of an expert body · qualitative microbiological risk assessment by a food safety agency · n = —
The frequency of occurrence of listeriosis in vulnerable people from consumption of blue cheese is considered very low (very rare but cannot be excluded), based on the evidence gathered for blue cheese including outbreaks, typical L. monocytogenes contamination levels, typical consumption levels and typical L. monocytogenes growth.
Who: vulnerable consumers in the UK: pregnant women, people over 65, infants, people with weakened immunity
Effect: frequency of listeriosis from blue cheese: very low (very rare but cannot be excluded); uncertainty medium
Certainty: Built on outbreak records, UK retail sampling, consumption and growth data; commissioned to revise UK pregnancy advice.
Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland, 2023, Risk assessment for vulnerable consumers from Listeria monocytogenes in blue cheese (doi:10.46756/sci.fsa.tqb580) · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
ev-blcpg-02 · Position of an expert body · qualitative microbiological risk assessment by a food safety agency · n = —
The risk assessment concludes that the severity of Listeria monocytogenes infection in vulnerable people is high (severe illness: causing life-threatening or substantial chronic complications or illness of long duration), with a significant mortality rate.
Who: vulnerable consumers including pregnant women
Effect: severity: high (life-threatening or substantial chronic complications), significant mortality; low uncertainty
Certainty: Severity rating applies to listeriosis in general, not specific to blue cheese.
Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland, 2023, Risk assessment for vulnerable consumers from Listeria monocytogenes in blue cheese (doi:10.46756/sci.fsa.tqb580) · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
ev-blcpg-03 · Position of an expert body · literature review within an agency risk assessment · n = —
The rinds of Gorgonzola were much more likely to be contaminated than the centre of the cheese.
Who: published contamination surveys of European blue cheeses, mostly Gorgonzola
Effect: rind contamination much more frequent than the center
Certainty: Most data are from Gorgonzola; other blue cheeses less studied.
Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland, 2023, Risk assessment for vulnerable consumers from Listeria monocytogenes in blue cheese (doi:10.46756/sci.fsa.tqb580) · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
ev-blcpg-04 · Position of an expert body · agency consumer guidance · n = —
Since some soft cheeses may be made with unpasteurized milk - especially traditional, homemade soft cheeses - pregnant women should not eat soft cheeses, such as Feta, Brie, Camembert, "blue-veined cheeses," or "queso blanco," "queso fresco," or Panela - unless they're made with pasteurized milk.
Who: pregnant women, US consumer guidance
Effect: avoid soft and blue-veined cheeses unless made with pasteurized milk
Certainty: Class advice for soft cheeses; pasteurization lowers but does not remove post-processing contamination.
FDA, Fact or Fiction: Food Safety for Moms-to-Be · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
ev-blcpg-05 · Position of an expert body · agency consumer guidance · n = —
Soft cheese made from unpasteurized (raw) milk—for example, queso fresco, brie, camembert, and blue-veined cheese
Who: pregnant women, US consumer guidance
Effect: riskier: soft cheese from raw milk, including blue-veined; safer: pasteurized soft cheese heated to 165 F
Certainty: List item, not a risk estimate.
CDC, Safer Food Choices for Pregnant Women · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
ev-blcpg-06 · Position of an expert body · agency consumer guidance · n = —
Pregnant women are 10 times more likely to get a Listeria infection.
Who: pregnant women
Effect: about 10-fold higher risk of Listeria infection in pregnancy
Certainty: CDC figure; ACOG cites about 13-fold (ev-blcpg-07).
CDC, Safer Food Choices for Pregnant Women · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
ev-blcpg-07 · Position of an expert body · professional society committee opinion · n = —
The incidence of listeriosis associated with pregnancy is approximately 13 times higher than in the general population.
Who: pregnant women
Effect: incidence about 13 times higher than the general population
Certainty: Position statement, no own analysis.
Obstet Gynecol, 2014 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
ev-blcpg-08 · Observational data · retrospective observational analysis of national outbreak surveillance data · n = 17 outbreaks
The remaining outbreaks involved sheep’s-milk cheese, Middle Eastern– or Eastern European–style cheeses, Middle Eastern–style cheese, Italian-style cheese, blue-veined cheese, and soft-ripened cheeses (1 outbreak each).
Who: US listeriosis outbreaks reported to CDC, 1998 to 2014
Effect: blue-veined cheese: 1 of 17 soft-cheese outbreaks
Certainty: Outbreak counts, not per-serving risk.
Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2018 (Jackson et al.) · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the fulltext
ev-blcpg-09 · Laboratory or animal data · case report with molecular typing · n = 1
Molecular typing of the isolates, using both randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), demonstrated that the isolates from the patient's refrigerator, food stores, and production-plant samples were indistinguishable from the clinical isolate.
Who: one patient with listeriosis, Italy
Effect: L. monocytogenes 1/2b in cheese at <100 to 1,200 cfu/g; isolates indistinguishable by PFGE
Certainty: Single case; the patient was not described as pregnant.
Foodborne Pathog Dis, 2006 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
ev-blcpg-10 · Observational data · umbrella review of systematic reviews · n = 9 systematic reviews
Listeriosis infections were likely to occur in the third trimester (66%) rather than in the first trimester (3%) of pregnancy.
Who: systematic reviews of listeriosis in pregnancy and up to 4 weeks postnatally; 330 studies
Effect: third trimester 66% of infections vs first trimester 3%
Certainty: Underlying evidence mostly observational and case series.
BJOG, 2022 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
ev-blcpg-11 · Observational data · systematic review of outbreak reports · n = 32 outbreaks
Twelve outbreaks involving pasteurized products resulted in 174 confirmed cases of illness, 134 hospitalizations, 17 deaths, and seven fetal losses.
Who: dairy-associated outbreaks in Canada and the USA from 2007 to October 2020
Effect: pasteurized products: 12 outbreaks, 174 cases, 134 hospitalizations, 17 deaths, 7 fetal losses
Certainty: All dairy products and all pathogens in the quote; not specific to blue cheese or to Listeria.
Can J Public Health, 2022 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
ev-blcpg-12 · Observational data · secondary analysis of two pregnancy cohorts · n = 1638
A higher LFES (i.e., more frequent consumption of potential food sources of L. monocytogenes) was significantly associated with higher diet quality score (r = 0.60, p < 0.001), higher intakes of nutrient-dense core foods (r = 0.11-0.43, p < 0.001), and higher micronutrient intakes (r = 0.24-0.52, all p < 0.001).
Who: pregnant women aged 19 or older with singleton pregnancy, Newcastle and Perth cohorts
Effect: Listeria Food Exposure Score vs diet quality r = 0.60; micronutrient intakes r = 0.24 to 0.52
Certainty: Correlation; cheese not separated from other foods.
J Hum Nutr Diet, 2025 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract

How this page was made. Evidence was extracted from primary sources into cards, every number was re-checked against the source, and the text was written from those cards. Bioma Learn has no human medical reviewer at this time, and we say so rather than invent one. Methodology. This is information, not medical advice.