Soft Serve Frozen Yogurt

fish8412

Any thoughts?  I had lunch today with one of my friends who is also pregnant.  She told me that soft serve frozen yogurt isn't safe for pregnant women because the machines do not get regularly cleaned, so the frozen yogurt may contain listeria.  Has anyone else heard of this?  I have never heard of this and now feel guilty for having fro-yo every now and then!  I feel like an idiot!  The times I have had it, I felt just fine.  Another food to avoid!  

ufsandra85

i eat it constantly. i probably get more germs from using my computer to type this. i have been eating it for years and it has never made me sick. i wouldnt eat it from a sketchy place that cant pass a health inspection but fro yo is perfectly fine

CruiseGirl28

It depends too on the type of yogurt/place you get it at.  I have seen a lot of new places that have the froyo in soft serve machines.  I'm not sure how often those machines get cleaned.  When I was younger, I worked at an ice cream place.  Our frozen yogurt looked like frozen hockey pucks.  We would place a puck or two into a machine and add mix-ins (fruit, candy, etc) and it would mix together and look like soft-serve.  The machine was rinsed after each use to get the flavor out, but it was completely taken apart and cleaned every night.  That would be a lot safer.

Shobb414

Yes, I ignore it! If I went by every single thing I was told or read not to eat I would be sooooo hungry! Everything can have something bad about it. I have refrained from caffeine and all the other basics I'm not about to give up ice cream.

Also soda machines are dirty, the ice part barely gets cleaned, etc the list could go on

myfriendscallmemeg

Just ask the next time you're in the store. If the people working look clueless about the last time the machines were cleaned maybe look at a different froyo place. How rude can it be to ask if something is clean? Worst case scenario play the pregnancy card and say that your hormones have made you a complete germ-a-phobe!

ufsandra85

MadApple said:

ufsandra85 said:

i eat it constantly. i probably get more germs from using my computer to type this. i have been eating it for years and it has never made me sick. i wouldnt eat it from a sketchy place that cant pass a health inspection but fro yo is perfectly fine

I'm not saying that something bad will happen if you eat frozen yogurt, but the fact that you have eaten frozen yogurt for years and have never gotten sick doesn't mean anything when you are talking about what listeria can do to a baby. If you ingest something infected with listeria, you probably won't have any negative affects from it because your immune system can fight it off. If an unborn baby is infected, this is not the case. You could be fine and have no idea that your baby has been infected.

non pregnant people also get sick from listeria. I have a compromised immune system and get sick from a ton of things most people dont. https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/

LiFeIsAmIrAcLe

I've been following pretty much all the "rules" thus far for the most part, so if I get a random craving for some frozen yogurt, I'm probably going to eat it! :P call me a bad mommy if you want but I think pregnancy was not meant to be as "fragile" as some of these "what you can and can't eat" lists make it seem.

ewallace00

MadApple said:

ufsandra85 said:

i eat it constantly. i probably get more germs from using my computer to type this. i have been eating it for years and it has never made me sick. i wouldnt eat it from a sketchy place that cant pass a health inspection but fro yo is perfectly fine

I'm not saying that something bad will happen if you eat frozen yogurt, but the fact that you have eaten frozen yogurt for years and have never gotten sick doesn't mean anything when you are talking about what listeria can do to a baby. If you ingest something infected with listeria, you probably won't have any negative affects from it because your immune system can fight it off. If an unborn baby is infected, this is not the case. You could be fine and have no idea that your baby has been infected.

I didn't realize all of this @madapple. I will probably be more strict staying away from the froyo and deli foods and the soft cheeses now. I do check all home cooked meat with thermometers, including hot dogs. Thank you for sharing! It's just scary to think the baby would be affected and I may not have symptoms.