Yes, pregnant women can eat fresh mozzarella, as long as it’s made from pasteurized milk. The vast majority of fresh mozzarella sold in U.S. grocery stores, delis, and restaurants is pasteurized, making it safe to enjoy throughout pregnancy. The key concern with any soft cheese during pregnancy is a bacteria called Listeria, which pasteurization effectively kills.
Why Pasteurization Matters
Listeria is a bacteria that can survive refrigeration, and pregnant women are roughly ten times more likely than the general population to become seriously ill from it. Infection during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, or life-threatening infection in the newborn. That risk is why health agencies focus so heavily on whether cheese is made from pasteurized or raw milk.
Pasteurization heats milk to at least 161°F (72°C) for 15 seconds, or 145°F (63°C) for 30 minutes, which destroys Listeria along with other harmful bacteria. Most commercial mozzarella producers actually exceed these minimum temperatures. Both the FDA and the UK’s National Health Service explicitly list pasteurized mozzarella as safe for pregnant women.
How to Check the Label
In the United States, any cheese made from raw (unpasteurized) milk must say so on the label, using terms like “raw milk” or “not pasteurized.” If your fresh mozzarella doesn’t carry that language, it was made with pasteurized milk. Most major brands, including the ones packaged in water or brine at the grocery store, use pasteurized milk by default.
The one situation that requires a little more attention is buying from farmers’ markets, specialty importers, or artisan cheese shops. Some small-batch or imported Italian mozzarella is made with raw milk. If there’s no label to check, ask the vendor directly.
Buffalo Mozzarella and Burrata
Buffalo mozzarella (mozzarella di bufala) follows the same rule: pasteurized versions are safe, unpasteurized versions are not recommended during pregnancy. The same applies to burrata, which is essentially a shell of mozzarella filled with soft cream and cheese curds. As long as the product is made from pasteurized milk, both are fine to eat.
Where these varieties deserve a bit of extra caution is freshness. Burrata in particular is extremely perishable. Its creamy center spoils faster than a solid ball of mozzarella, so check the expiration date, keep it refrigerated, and eat it promptly after opening.
The Brine Factor
Fresh mozzarella is typically stored in water or a salt brine, which is one reason it sometimes gets flagged as riskier than hard cheeses. Research from the USDA’s National Agricultural Library confirms that Listeria can survive in cheese brine, particularly because commercial brines are often reused over time. Staphylococcus aureus, another salt-tolerant pathogen, can also persist in brine.
This doesn’t mean you need to avoid brined mozzarella. It does mean proper handling matters more than with a block of cheddar. Keep fresh mozzarella refrigerated at 40°F (4°C) or below, use it before the expiration date, and don’t leave it sitting out at room temperature for extended periods. Once you open the package, eat it within a few days.
Cooking Adds Extra Safety
If you want an extra layer of reassurance, heating mozzarella eliminates essentially all risk. Listeria is killed when food reaches an internal temperature of 165°F (74°C). That means melted mozzarella on pizza, in baked pasta, or on a toasted sandwich is as safe as it gets. Research on cheese curd shows that heating to just 158°F (70°C) for about 13 minutes achieves a near-complete kill of Listeria, and the bubbling temperatures of a pizza oven far exceed that.
Eating it uncooked on a caprese salad or a cold sandwich is still perfectly fine when the cheese is pasteurized and properly stored. Cooking is simply an option if you’d prefer not to think about it at all.
A Small Risk Even With Pasteurized Cheese
One detail worth knowing: pasteurization dramatically reduces risk but doesn’t make it absolute zero. A European meta-analysis covering multiple countries found that about 0.9% of soft and semi-soft cheeses made from pasteurized milk still tested positive for Listeria, a rate that was statistically identical to the 1.0% found in unpasteurized varieties. Contamination in those cases likely happened after pasteurization, during processing, packaging, or storage rather than from the milk itself.
That number sounds alarming until you put it in context. A positive test for Listeria doesn’t mean the cheese will make you sick. Contamination levels are typically very low, and the vast majority of people who encounter trace amounts never develop symptoms. Still, it reinforces why storage and freshness matter. A pasteurized mozzarella ball that’s been sitting in the back of your fridge two weeks past its date carries more real-world risk than a fresh one eaten the day you bought it.
Nutritional Benefits During Pregnancy
Fresh mozzarella is a genuinely useful food during pregnancy, not just a “safe enough” indulgence. A single one-ounce serving delivers about 200 mg of calcium, a meaningful contribution toward the roughly 1,000 mg pregnant women need daily for fetal bone development. That same ounce packs 7 grams of protein. It’s also a source of phosphorus, which works alongside calcium for bone and teeth formation.
Compared to harder aged cheeses, fresh mozzarella tends to be lower in sodium and milder in flavor, which can be a plus if you’re dealing with nausea or food aversions in early pregnancy. Pairing it with tomatoes, basil, and olive oil gives you a nutrient-dense meal that also happens to be one of the easiest things to assemble when cooking feels like too much effort.
What Listeriosis Looks Like in Pregnancy
Symptoms of Listeria infection in pregnant women typically appear within two weeks of eating contaminated food, though the window can range from a few days to several weeks. The most common signs are fever, muscle aches, and fatigue, which often feel indistinguishable from a mild flu. Some pregnant women with confirmed Listeria infections never develop noticeable symptoms at all, which is part of what makes it tricky.
If you develop a fever with flu-like symptoms and you’re concerned about something you ate, mention it to your healthcare provider. A simple blood test can confirm or rule out Listeria infection, and early treatment significantly improves outcomes.