Healthy eating during pregnancy is as much about what foods to avoid as what foods to eat. Some food may harm your baby as well as making you ill, so food safety needs to be a priority. The points below are some of the foods to avoid during pregnancy.

Foods which carry a risk of food poisoning and could make you ill:

• Undercooked or raw eggs or foods likely to be made with them, (including home-made mousses, ice cream and mayonnaise)
• Undercooked or very rare meat, chicken and fish
• Raw fish or meat
• Shellfish

Foods which contain elements that could harm your baby:

• Unpasteurised milk, cheese or yoghurt, uncooked, soft, mould-ripened cheeses like brie and camembert or soft blue-veined cheeses (ordinary cheddar cheese or cottage cheese is fine as long as they are made with pasteurised milk - check the label!)
• Pâté or liver – these can have excessive amounts of vitamin A which can harm your baby. There’s also an increased risk of these foods containing listeria.
• Swordfish, marlin and shark. These fish can contain potentially unsafe levels of mercury which can harm your baby’s developing nervous system. Tuna also contains mercury, so limit the amount you eat to up to four medium-size cans (140g drained weight, per can) OR two fresh steaks (up to 170g raw weight, per steak) a week.