Is Brie Safe During Pregnancy? What the Official Guidance Actually Says

Few foods carry as much pregnancy folklore as brie. Somewhere along the way, "be careful with some soft cheeses" hardened into "never touch brie for nine months" — and that's not what US health agencies actually say. The real guidance is more reassuring, and it hinges on one word on the label: pasteurized.

The short answer

In the United States, official guidance from the FDA says cheese made with pasteurized milk is okay to eat during pregnancy. The vast majority of brie sold in American grocery stores — the wheels and wedges from brands like Président, Ile de France, and store labels at Trader Joe's and Costco — is made from pasteurized milk, because federal rules require imported and domestic soft cheeses to either use pasteurized milk or be aged at least 60 days (and classic soft-ripened brie isn't aged that long).

What you should avoid is brie — or any soft cheese — made with raw (unpasteurized) milk. That's the version the warnings are really about.

Why soft cheese gets flagged at all: Listeria

The concern is a bacterium called Listeria monocytogenes. For most healthy adults, listeriosis is rare and usually mild. Pregnancy changes the math: the FDA notes that pregnant women are about 10 times more likely to get listeriosis than other healthy adults, and an infection can cause serious complications for the pregnancy, including miscarriage, stillbirth, and illness in newborns.

Soft cheeses come up because of how Listeria behaves. The CDC explains that soft cheeses, which are high in moisture, are more likely to be contaminated than hard cheeses, and that Listeria is unusual among foodborne bacteria in that it can keep growing at refrigerator temperatures. Pasteurization — heating milk to kill harmful bacteria — removes the pathogen at the source, which is why the CDC recommends that everyone, pregnant or not, choose pasteurized milk and dairy products.

It's worth knowing that in recent US outbreaks tied to cheese, the recurring culprits have been queso fresco–style Hispanic soft cheeses, not brie. The FDA specifically advises pregnant women to avoid queso fresco–type cheeses (queso fresco, queso blanco, requesón) even when made from pasteurized milk, because of their track record of contamination after pasteurization. Brie is not in that category — but it's a useful reminder that "soft cheese" covers very different products with very different risk profiles.

How to check whether your brie is pasteurized

Flip the package over. US labeling rules require the ingredient list to say "pasteurized milk" or "pasteurized cow's milk" — or, if it's raw milk, to say so. A few quick rules of thumb:

• Mainstream grocery brie (Président, Ile de France, supermarket store brands, Trader Joe's, Costco's Kirkland imports) is pasteurized. The label will confirm it.
• Cheese-counter and cheesemonger brie is usually pasteurized too, but this is where raw-milk soft cheeses occasionally appear. Ask, or read the sign and label.
• True Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun — the raw-milk AOP cheeses from France — generally can't be legally sold in the US precisely because they're unpasteurized and young. If you're traveling in Europe while pregnant, know that the brie on the table may well be raw-milk.
• Farmers' market soft cheeses deserve the most scrutiny. Small producers make wonderful cheese, but always confirm pasteurization before buying a bloomy-rind cheese while pregnant.

If a label or vendor can't tell you whether the milk was pasteurized, treat it as if it wasn't and pass.

Does cooking brie make it safer?

Yes. Heat kills Listeria. The CDC notes that cooking cheese until it's steaming hot — 165°F — kills harmful germs, which is why even higher-risk cheeses are considered acceptable for at-risk groups when thoroughly cooked into a dish. For brie, that means a fully baked brie that's hot and molten all the way through, brie bubbling on a flatbread straight from the oven, or brie melted into a hot sandwich adds a real margin of safety on top of starting with a pasteurized wheel.

The key word is thoroughly. A wheel that's warm on the outside and cool in the center hasn't reached the temperatures that matter, and neither has brie that melted onto a burger and then sat around. Steaming hot, eaten promptly, is the standard.

Sensible habits, not fear

Beyond the pasteurization check, ordinary food-safety habits cover most of the remaining ground:

• Keep brie refrigerated at 40°F or below, and don't leave it sitting out for hours at a party before you eat it.
• Mind the dates, and eat opened soft cheese within a few days rather than weeks.
• Avoid cross-contamination — a clean knife for the cheese, not the one that just handled deli meat (another food the FDA flags in pregnancy unless reheated steaming hot).
• When in doubt about any particular cheese, skip it. There will be other cheese boards.

What this article is — and isn't

This is a plain-language summary of current US guidance, not medical advice tailored to you. Pregnancies differ, and some providers give more conservative recommendations based on your health history. If you've eaten something you're unsure about, or you develop fever, muscle aches, or flu-like symptoms during pregnancy, call your doctor or midwife promptly — listeriosis is treatable, and early attention matters.

The bottom line is genuinely good news: if you're in the US and your brie says "pasteurized milk" on the label, official FDA guidance puts it in the okay column. Read the label, skip raw-milk cheese, let baked brie be your friend, and enjoy the next nine months with more cheese than the folklore would have you believe.

Sources: FDA — Listeria (Food Safety for Moms-to-Be) · CDC — How Listeria Spreads: Soft Cheeses and Raw Milk