Goats Cheese - can I eat it?
- Thread starter Frog99
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Found this on the food standards agency website....
Is it OK to eat goats' cheese when I'm pregnant?
There are different types of goats' cheeses available. The type that is probably most common in the UK has a white rind similar to Brie and Camembert. This type of goats' cheese is sometimes called Chevre and is often served in restaurants, for example in a goats' cheese salad. You should avoid this when you are pregnant. However, other types of goats' cheese that don't have this kind of rind should be fine to eat, particularly hard cheeses.
Hope that helps
Is it OK to eat goats' cheese when I'm pregnant?
There are different types of goats' cheeses available. The type that is probably most common in the UK has a white rind similar to Brie and Camembert. This type of goats' cheese is sometimes called Chevre and is often served in restaurants, for example in a goats' cheese salad. You should avoid this when you are pregnant. However, other types of goats' cheese that don't have this kind of rind should be fine to eat, particularly hard cheeses.
Hope that helps
splashmonkey
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What Hannah said! Plus, like all the other cheeses, if it's cooked it's fine.
purplepants
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Damn, does that mean i could of had the pizza with goats cheese on it from pizza hut last week???splashmonkey said:
splashmonkey
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purplepants, I'd say the pizza would have been fine - sorry! Frog I don't know if melting under the grill really counts, depends how long you leave it, basically it's got to be piping hot through, so that the bacteria have been killed by the temperature. Same goes for all the "forbidden" cheeses - so baked camembert, blue cheese sauces etc all back on the menu! Yay! I was most upset it took me till about 12 weeks to discover this, why don't they tell us?!
although how you can eat that stuff is beyond me!!! 
By 'cooked', they mean 'thoroughly cooked' - a couple of minutes under the grill won't count, it just warms it and makes any bacteria more active.
Howver, the goat's cheese on pizza is not going to be of the rind kind like brie or camembert - it'll be the rindless soft cheese that has a texture like a cross between ricotta/feta/cream cheese. So the goat's cheese pizza will be as safe as spinach and ricotta pizza...
Personally I wouldn't be eating baked camembert at all unless I cooked it at home. When you get it in restaurants, quite often it's warm in the middle, not hot - because if they cook it thoroughly, it starts falling apart and looks messy. If they serve it in the box, they tend to cook it longer, but if they're presenting it on a salad or something, it's usually not cooked, but warmed. Baking is done at a much lower temperature than most cooking - gas mark 3 or 4 compared to 6 or 7 for roasting. Same goes for blue cheese sauces. If you do them at home, you can cook them for long enough that they bubble for a while - restaurants will merely heat them till they melt, often in a microwave. Also, they make cheese sauces in advance, leave them to cool, and then reheat to serve quickly - this won't kill the bacteria, but will encourage them to multiply. Put it this way, if your cooked cheese arrives within 30 minutes of ordering, it's almost certainly not cooked thoroughly enough!
However - if you go to a decent cheese shop, or have a good rummage on your supermarket shelf, you should be able to find pasteurised brie, camembert, etc. This will be perfectly safe to eat, regardless of the rind - pasteurisation kills the bacteria.
Howver, the goat's cheese on pizza is not going to be of the rind kind like brie or camembert - it'll be the rindless soft cheese that has a texture like a cross between ricotta/feta/cream cheese. So the goat's cheese pizza will be as safe as spinach and ricotta pizza...
Personally I wouldn't be eating baked camembert at all unless I cooked it at home. When you get it in restaurants, quite often it's warm in the middle, not hot - because if they cook it thoroughly, it starts falling apart and looks messy. If they serve it in the box, they tend to cook it longer, but if they're presenting it on a salad or something, it's usually not cooked, but warmed. Baking is done at a much lower temperature than most cooking - gas mark 3 or 4 compared to 6 or 7 for roasting. Same goes for blue cheese sauces. If you do them at home, you can cook them for long enough that they bubble for a while - restaurants will merely heat them till they melt, often in a microwave. Also, they make cheese sauces in advance, leave them to cool, and then reheat to serve quickly - this won't kill the bacteria, but will encourage them to multiply. Put it this way, if your cooked cheese arrives within 30 minutes of ordering, it's almost certainly not cooked thoroughly enough!
However - if you go to a decent cheese shop, or have a good rummage on your supermarket shelf, you should be able to find pasteurised brie, camembert, etc. This will be perfectly safe to eat, regardless of the rind - pasteurisation kills the bacteria.
splashmonkey
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Well pasteurising kills the bacteria, so don't see why not... I feel a pasteurised brie hunt coming on...
