Is feta cheese safe during pregnancy?

Feta made with pasteurized milk is on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list of safer cheese choices for pregnant women. Soft cheese made from raw milk is on its list of riskier ones. The danger is Listeria, a bacterium that can cause miscarriage, preterm birth and stillbirth. Of 58 US listeriosis outbreaks between 1998 and 2014, 17 were linked to soft cheese and caused 14 fetal losses, although feta was not named among them. Nobody has run a trial or a review of feta in pregnant women, so this answer rests on outbreak data and agency advice.

Not for everyone. The word that decides the answer is pasteurized. Traditional feta can be made from raw sheep or goat milk, and then it falls into the CDC category of riskier soft cheese. Read the label, and if a cheese at a market stall or abroad has no label, treat it as raw milk.

What the studies found

There are no randomized trials on this question and there cannot be. Nobody would feed pregnant women a cheese to see whether it infects them. What exists is food safety evidence, all of it observational, and it answers two separate questions.

How often soft cheese carries the bacteria

CDC analysts who went through US outbreak records for 1998 to 2014 found 17 of 58 listeriosis outbreaks traced to soft cheese, with 180 illnesses, 14 fetal losses and 17 deaths. Of the 140 cases with data, 62 were linked to pregnancy. Those are counts of outbreaks rather than a risk per serving, and most of them involved Latin-style cheeses. Only one outbreak each involved a sheep's milk cheese and a Middle Eastern or Eastern European style cheese.

The same authors write that soft cheeses made with pasteurized milk are generally considered safe. They add that some pasteurized soft cheeses were made in facilities with poor processing conditions and became contaminated afterward, and that a buyer cannot tell this from the label. Pasteurization removes most of the risk. It does not protect against contamination after the milk is heated.

For the milk feta is made from, a meta-analysis of 30 studies of sheep and goat milk cheeses found Listeria in 11 percent and Brucella in 34 percent, mostly in cheese from untreated milk. Those figures cover these cheeses in general rather than feta alone, and each is a share across studies, not a share of every sample tested.

What the infection does in pregnancy

An umbrella review of 9 systematic reviews states that the risk of being diagnosed with listeriosis rises in pregnancy and that it can lead to miscarriage, preterm birth, stillbirth and infection of the newborn. A 2026 review of 73 Chinese studies found a major adverse outcome, meaning miscarriage, stillbirth, prematurity or low birth weight, in 58.3 percent of pregnancies with listeriosis. Only 6 percent of those women received penicillin, so the share may be lower where treatment is better.

The chance of falling ill after eating one contaminated food is small. During a 2011 US outbreak traced to cantaloupe, about 6,500 to 12,000 pregnant women in Colorado may have eaten the melon, an attack rate of about 1 in 10,000 exposed. That was melon, not cheese, and it gives the order of the risk rather than the risk from feta.

Who should be careful

This whole page is about one group. Pregnant women are the people for whom listeriosis has the gravest consequences, and the outcomes above are what the caution is for.

Not for everyone. Raw sheep and goat milk cheese carries a second risk besides Listeria. In a 2008 brucellosis outbreak on the Greek island of Thassos, people who ate locally produced raw cheese had 15.1 times the odds of infection with Brucella melitensis, with a confidence interval of 6.56 to 34.7. That is an odds ratio from one case-control study, the cheese type was not named, and pregnant women were not analyzed separately.

What expert bodies say

The CDC lists cottage cheese, cream cheese, string cheese, feta and mozzarella among safer choices for pregnant women when they are made with pasteurized milk. It lists soft cheese made from raw milk, such as queso fresco, brie, camembert and blue-veined cheese, among riskier choices. No other body on our trusted list had a statement specific to feta, and we found no disagreement with the CDC.

How we searched

What would change this answer

• Surveys of Listeria in pasteurized feta sold in the US and Europe. The contamination figures above are for sheep and goat milk cheeses in general, mostly raw, and they cannot tell you how often a supermarket pack of pasteurized feta is contaminated.
• A risk estimate per serving for feta. Outbreak counts say which foods have caused harm. They do not say how likely one portion is to cause it.
• Data on brucellosis in pregnant women who eat raw-milk cheese. The Greek study did not look at pregnancy separately.
• No trial is coming. This is a food safety question, and the answer will improve through surveillance rather than experiments.

Sources

1. ev-fetapg-01 · Observational data · retrospective observational analysis of national outbreak surveillance data · n = 58 outbreaks
   Of 58 listeriosis outbreaks reported during 1998–2014, a total of 17 (30%) were associated with soft cheese (Figure), and resulted in 180 illnesses, 14 fetal losses, and 17 deaths (Technical Appendix Table). Most patients (146, 88%) were hospitalized. Of 116 patients for whom we had information on ethnicity, 38 (33%) were Hispanic. Of 140 cases with available data, 62 (44%) were pregnancy-associated.
   
   Who: 17 soft-cheese listeriosis outbreaks reported to the US Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System, 1998-2014
   Effect: 17 of 58 outbreaks (30%) from soft cheese; 180 illnesses, 14 fetal losses, 17 deaths; 62 of 140 cases (44%) pregnancy-associated
   Certainty: Outbreaks, not risk per serving. Feta is not named separately; among the cheeses in outbreaks are sheep's-milk cheese and Middle Eastern/Eastern European style (1 outbreak each). 65% of outbreaks were Latin-style cheeses.
   Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2018 (Jackson et al.) · checked 2026-10-06 · we read the fulltext
2. ev-fetapg-02 · Observational data · retrospective observational analysis of national outbreak surveillance data · n = 17 outbreaks
   Soft cheeses made with pasteurized milk, including commercial cottage cheese, cream cheese, and processed mozzarella, are generally considered safe. However, some soft cheeses made with pasteurized milk, particularly Latin-style soft cheeses, have been produced in facilities with improper processing conditions, resulting in L. monocytogenes contamination. Consumers cannot evaluate the conditions under which a cheese was made on the basis of labeling or other attributes of the product.
   
   Who: Soft-cheese listeriosis outbreaks, United States, 1998-2014
   Effect: pasteurized soft cheese generally considered safe; some contaminated after pasteurization in facilities with improper processing; not detectable from the label
   Certainty: The authors' conclusion from outbreaks, not a risk measurement. Important for the page: pasteurization removes most of the risk, but not contamination after it.
   Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2018 (Jackson et al.) · checked 2026-10-06 · we read the fulltext
3. ev-fetapg-03 · Observational data · systematic review with pooled estimates of observational studies · n = 73 studies
   Two maternal deaths were recorded, whereas major adverse outcomes (miscarriage, stillbirth, prematurity, or low birth weight) occurred in 58.3% of pregnancies.
   
   Who: 956 pregnant women and 749 neonates with listeriosis in 73 studies from 19 Chinese provinces
   Effect: major adverse pregnancy outcome (miscarriage, stillbirth, prematurity or low birth weight) in 58.3% of pregnancies; two maternal deaths
   Certainty: Descriptive data from China, treatment often suboptimal (only 6% received penicillin), so the share of complications may be higher than in countries with better practice. About the consequences of infection, not about cheese.
   Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2026 · checked 2026-10-06 · we read the abstract
4. ev-fetapg-04 · Observational data · umbrella review of systematic reviews · n = 9 reviews
   Compared with the general population, the risk of being diagnosed with listeriosis increases during pregnancy. Listeriosis can lead to miscarriage, spontaneous preterm labour and preterm birth, stillbirth and congenital neonatal infections.
   
   Who: 9 systematic reviews covering 330 studies and 487 patients
   Effect: higher risk of diagnosis in pregnancy; outcomes include miscarriage, preterm birth, stillbirth, congenital infection
   Certainty: Review of reviews of mostly descriptive data; a sentence from the Background, no number. Another sentence of the same review is already in brie-daily-r4-14.
   BJOG, 2022 · checked 2026-10-06 · we read the abstract
5. ev-fetapg-05 · Observational data · meta-analysis of contamination studies · n = 30 studies
   The significantly contaminating microbes were found to be Acremonium spp. (19%), Aspergillus spp. (23%), Bacillus spp. (2%), Brucella spp. (34%), Enterobactericae spp. (36%), Enterococcus spp. (28%), Escherichia spp. (15%), Fusarium spp. (21%), Geotrichum spp. (22%), Listeria spp. (11%), Mucor spp. (15%), Penicillium spp. (25%), Phoma spp. (20%), Rhizopus spp. (15%), Salmonella spp. (3%), Scopulariopsis spp. (19%) and Staphylococcus spp. (25%) in caprine and ovine cheese, indicating a variety of food pathogens as well as spoilers.
   
   Who: 30 studies of caprine or ovine milk cheeses, mostly European small holdings
   Effect: Listeria spp. 11%, Brucella spp. 34%, Salmonella spp. 3%, Staphylococcus spp. 25%
   Certainty: Cheeses in general, not only feta; most from raw milk. Shares are by microbe among the studies, not the share of all samples. For pregnant women: the risk concerns cheeses from unpasteurized sheep/goat milk.
   Food Res Int, 2020 · checked 2026-10-06 · we read the abstract
6. ev-fetapg-06 · Observational data · 1:1 case-control study · n = —
   The study revealed that consumption of locally produced raw cheese was a risk factor for Brucella melitensis infection (odds ratio (OR): 15.1, 95% confidence interval (CI): 6.56–34.7).
   
   Who: Cases and matched controls, island of Thassos, Greece, spring 2008
   Effect: OR 15.1 (95% CI 6.56 to 34.7) for raw local cheese
   Certainty: OR is odds, not risk. The type of cheese is not named in the abstract (raw, non heat-treated cheese); feta is the main Greek cheese from sheep/goat milk, but transfer is not established. Brucellosis in pregnant women is a separate threat (miscarriage); this paper has no pregnant women separately.
   Euro Surveill, 2012 · checked 2026-10-06 · we read the abstract
7. ev-fetapg-07 · Observational data · observational outbreak study with exposure estimation · n = 1060 surveyed
   Approximately 6,500-12,000 pregnant women in Colorado might have eaten the contaminated cantaloupes, an attack rate of ~1 per 10,000 exposed pregnant women.
   
   Who: Pregnant women in Colorado; 6,500 to 12,000 estimated to have eaten contaminated cantaloupe
   Effect: attack rate about 1 per 10,000 exposed pregnant women; 6,500 to 12,000 estimated exposed
   Certainty: Cantaloupe, not cheese; gives the order of absolute risk after one contaminated product. In PubMed the type is "case report", by design it is surveillance. Does not mean that the risk from cheese is the same.
   Infect Dis Obstet Gynecol, 2015 · checked 2026-10-06 · we read the abstract
8. ev-fetapg-08 · Position of an expert body · agency guidance · n = —
   Cottage cheese, cream cheese, string cheese, feta and mozzarella, when made with pasteurized milk
   
   Who: Pregnant women, CDC food safety guidance
   Effect: pasteurized feta listed as a safer choice
   Certainty: Authority position without a number. NHS (not in trust.json) says the same: pasteurized feta is allowed. No disagreements found among the authorities in trust.json.
   CDC, Safer Food Choices for Pregnant Women · checked 2026-10-06 · we read the section
9. ev-fetapg-09 · Position of an expert body · agency guidance · n = —
   Soft cheese made from unpasteurized (raw) milk—for example, queso fresco, brie, camembert, and blue-veined cheese
   
   Who: Pregnant women, CDC food safety guidance
   Effect: raw-milk soft cheese listed as a riskier choice
   Certainty: Feta from unpasteurized milk (traditional Greek can be such) falls under this category; CDC separately names queso fresco as risky even when pasteurized.
   CDC, Safer Food Choices for Pregnant Women · checked 2026-10-06 · we read the section