Caesar salad is generally safe during pregnancy, but it depends on how the dressing is made. The main concern is raw eggs in traditional Caesar dressing, which can carry Salmonella. Bottled, store-bought Caesar dressing uses pasteurized eggs and is safe to eat. Homemade or restaurant-made dressing is where you need to ask questions.
The Real Risk: Raw Eggs in the Dressing
Traditional Caesar dressing is made with raw egg yolks, which act as an emulsifier to give the dressing its creamy texture. Raw eggs can harbor Salmonella Enteritidis, a bacterium that causes food poisoning. The CDC estimates roughly one egg in every 20,000 is contaminated, so the absolute risk from any single serving is low. But Salmonella infection during pregnancy can cause severe dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea, and in rare cases, the bacteria can cross into the bloodstream and affect the pregnancy.
The FDA specifically lists homemade Caesar salad dressing as a food pregnant women should avoid unless it’s made with pasteurized eggs.
Store-Bought Dressing Is Safe
If you buy bottled Caesar dressing from the grocery store, you’re in the clear. Commercial dressings and mayonnaise are required to use pasteurized eggs, which eliminates the Salmonella risk. This applies to shelf-stable bottles as well as refrigerated brands. So a Caesar salad you make at home with store-bought dressing is perfectly fine.
What to Ask at Restaurants
Restaurants are the trickiest situation because some make their dressing in-house and some use a commercial product. Before ordering, ask your server two questions: Is the dressing made in-house or from a bottle? If it’s house-made, does it contain raw eggs or pasteurized eggs? Most servers can check with the kitchen quickly. Many restaurants, especially chains, use commercial dressing and you won’t need to worry.
If the server isn’t sure or the kitchen uses raw eggs, you can ask for the dressing on the side and substitute a vinaigrette, or simply skip the dressing and ask for olive oil and lemon.
Making Safe Caesar Dressing at Home
If you want to make Caesar dressing from scratch, you have a few good options. The simplest swap is using pasteurized eggs, which are sold at most grocery stores (the carton will be clearly labeled “pasteurized”). These eggs have been heat-treated just enough to kill bacteria without cooking the egg, so they work the same way in a dressing.
Another approach is to skip the egg entirely and use mayonnaise as the base, since commercial mayo is already made with pasteurized eggs. A tablespoon or two of mayo plus olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and anchovy paste gives you a dressing that’s close to the original. Some recipes go even simpler, using Dijon mustard and extra olive oil to emulsify the dressing without any egg at all.
Parmesan Cheese Is Fine
You might have heard that some cheeses are off-limits during pregnancy, which could make you second-guess the Parmesan on a Caesar salad. Hard, aged cheeses like Parmesan are considered safe. The long aging process (a minimum of 12 months for authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano), low moisture content, and high acidity create conditions where harmful bacteria can’t survive. This holds true even for Parmesan made from unpasteurized milk, though most commercial Parmesan in the U.S. uses pasteurized milk anyway.
The cheeses to avoid during pregnancy are soft, mold-ripened varieties like brie and blue cheese, which have higher moisture and can harbor Listeria. Parmesan doesn’t fall into that category.
Anchovies Are a Good Choice
Caesar dressing traditionally contains anchovies, and these are one of the best fish options during pregnancy. The FDA classifies anchovies in its “Best Choices” category for mercury levels, meaning they’re among the lowest-mercury fish available. Pregnant women can safely eat two to three servings per week of fish from this category. The small amount of anchovy in a salad dressing is well within safe limits.
A Note About the Lettuce
Romaine lettuce, the base of any Caesar salad, has been linked to E. coli outbreaks in recent years, including a multistate outbreak that began in November 2024. Romaine is eaten raw, so there’s no cooking step to kill bacteria, and its open-leaf structure makes it more susceptible to contamination from water, soil, or farm equipment.
This doesn’t mean you need to avoid romaine altogether. Wash the leaves thoroughly under running water, even if the package says “pre-washed.” Buy from reputable sources and check for any active recall notices before purchasing. If there’s an ongoing outbreak linked to romaine at the time you’re reading this, consider swapping to a different green until the advisory clears.
The Quick Version
- Bottled dressing from the store: safe, uses pasteurized eggs
- Homemade with raw eggs: not safe unless you use pasteurized eggs or skip the egg
- Restaurant dressing: ask whether it’s house-made and whether it contains raw eggs
- Parmesan: safe, it’s a hard aged cheese
- Anchovies: safe, very low in mercury
- Romaine: wash well and check for active recalls