Cravings during pregnancy can lead to pregnant women desiring a wide variety of foods, but some foods may be dangerous during pregnancy. Soft serve ice cream is listed as one of the foods that pregnant women should avoid, though not all doctors agree with this assessment.
Dangers to Pregnancy
The potential danger of soft serve ice cream comes from the possibility of contracting the bacteria listeria, which can live in the machines that hold and serve the ice cream. According to Baby Center, the bacteria can affect the placenta, amniotic fluid or fetus if the mother becomes infected. Approximately a third of the 2,500 cases of listeria infection each year occur in pregnant women. An infection can lead to complications, including premature birth, miscarriage, stillbirth and skin sores, respiratory infections or meningitis in the newborn.
Microorganism
The disease listeriosis is caused by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. According to the FDA, between 1 percent and 10 percent of people are carriers of the bacteria naturally, and many other organisms harbor the bacteria, including dairy cows. Because the bacteria can tolerate freezing and drying, these are not sufficient to guarantee safety. Listeria bacteria can enter soft serve ice cream via the milk of an infected cow or from the hands of an infected individual who handles the machine, mixing and serving the ice cream. It takes less than 1,000 individual bacteria to cause a serious infection in a pregnant woman.
Controversy
According to the website Bites, a promotion of Baskin Robbins in 2008 offered free soft serve ice cream to pregnant women showing up on a particular day. Promoted by pregnant celebrity Tori Spelling, this promotion set off a storm of controversy over whether the company should be promoting something that many health professionals recommend their pregnant clients avoid. However, the company claimed their modern pasteurization methods made the ice cream safe and free from contamination.
Alternatives
While many pregnant women and their doctors consider soft serve ice cream off limits, plenty of alternatives can be chosen. Hard serve ice cream made from pasteurized milk is a completely safe way to satisfy any cravings for ice cream. Hard cheeses, yogurt and milk that have undergone pasteurization are other acceptable ways to get dairy into a pregnant woman's diet.
Recommendations
Proper sanitation and sterilization of soft serve equipment can help prevent instances of listeria contamination, and the risk of contracting the disease from soft serve ice cream is fairly low. However, the risk of severe consequences is enough to make many women choose to avoid soft serve ice cream throughout pregnancy, just to be on the safe side.
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