Subway can be safe during pregnancy, but only if you order strategically. The main concern is Listeria, a bacteria that thrives in deli meats and can cross the placenta, causing pregnancy loss, premature birth, or life-threatening infection in newborns. The fix is straightforward: any sandwich with deli meat needs to be heated to an internal temperature of 165°F, or what you’d recognize as steaming hot. A lukewarm toasted sub isn’t enough.
Why Deli Meat Is Risky During Pregnancy
Listeria is unlike most foodborne bacteria because it grows even at refrigerator temperatures. Deli meats, including turkey, ham, roast beef, salami, and pepperoni, can harbor it regardless of how fresh they look or smell. For most healthy adults, a Listeria infection causes mild flu-like symptoms. During pregnancy, the stakes are dramatically different.
Pregnant women are significantly more likely to develop invasive listeriosis, where the bacteria spreads beyond the gut into the bloodstream. You might experience fever, muscle aches, and fatigue that seem manageable, but the infection can be devastating for the baby. In a review of 222 reported cases of maternal Listeria infection, 94 infants were infected. Of those, about 25% died and another 13% had long-term neurological complications. Neonatal Listeria infection can cause pneumonia, sepsis, or meningitis. Symptoms in the mother can appear anywhere from the same day to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food, which makes tracing the source difficult.
This isn’t a theoretical risk. The CDC issued guidance during a 2024 Listeria outbreak linked specifically to meats sliced at delis, reinforcing that pregnant women should either avoid deli meat entirely or reheat it to 165°F before eating.
How to Order Safely at Subway
If you want a deli meat sub, ask for it to be toasted until the meat is steaming hot, not just warm. The cheese should be fully melted and the meat should feel hot when you bite into it. If it comes out of the toaster looking tepid, ask them to run it through again. A simple way to phrase it: “Can you toast it until the meat is steaming hot? I need it really well-heated.” This applies to every pre-sliced, pre-cooked meat on the menu, including turkey breast, ham, roast beef, and Italian-style subs with salami or pepperoni.
You can let the sandwich cool down before eating. The goal is reaching a temperature that kills Listeria, not eating it scalding hot.
What’s Safe Without Heating
Several Subway options skip the deli meat concern altogether. A meatball sub arrives already cooked at high heat. Chicken strips and steak are cooked to order on a hot surface. A veggie sub sidesteps the issue entirely.
Most toppings are fine. Fresh vegetables like lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and onions are safe. Pickled items (pickles, jalapeños, banana peppers) carry minimal risk because their acidity inhibits bacterial growth. Olives are brined and processed. Subway’s mayonnaise, mustard, and other sauces are commercially produced with pasteurized ingredients. Guacamole and avocado are also safe choices.
Cheese at Subway
Subway’s cheeses are made from pasteurized milk, which eliminates the raw-milk concern that makes some artisan cheeses risky during pregnancy. The CDC lists hard cheeses like cheddar, Swiss, and Parmesan as safer choices when made with pasteurized milk, and softer options like mozzarella and feta are also fine if pasteurized. The one caution from the CDC is about cheese sliced at a deli counter, which can pick up Listeria from shared slicing equipment. If that worries you, getting your sub toasted addresses this too, since heating cheese to 165°F neutralizes the bacteria.
What About Subway’s Tuna?
Tuna brings up a separate concern: mercury. The FDA recommends that pregnant women eat 2 to 3 servings of fish per week from the “Best Choices” category, with each serving being about 4 ounces. Canned light tuna falls into that best category, meaning it has relatively low mercury levels. Albacore (white) tuna is a step up in mercury content and belongs in the “Good Choices” category, limited to one serving per week with no other fish that week.
Subway doesn’t specify which type of tuna it uses in every location, so it’s reasonable to treat it as a moderate-mercury option and limit yourself to one serving per week. The tuna itself doesn’t carry Listeria risk since it’s mixed with mayonnaise and not a sliced deli meat, but mercury accumulation is the tradeoff to watch.
Processed Meat and Nitrites
Beyond Listeria, processed deli meats contain nitrites, preservatives that have raised separate health concerns during pregnancy. Nitrites can cross the placenta and have been linked in some studies to a higher risk of neural tube defects and adverse reproductive outcomes. The body can also convert nitrites into compounds with carcinogenic potential.
The actual risk depends on how much and how often you eat processed meat. Research on pregnant women in Serbia found that average nitrite exposure from meat products fell well below the European recommended limit of 0.07 mg per kilogram of body weight per day. An occasional Subway sandwich is unlikely to push you into concerning territory, but making processed deli meat a daily habit during pregnancy adds up. When you can, choosing chicken, meatball, or veggie subs reduces this exposure.
A Quick-Reference Ordering Guide
- Lowest risk: Veggie sub, meatball marinara, or any sub with freshly cooked chicken or steak. No special preparation needed.
- Safe with heating: Turkey, ham, roast beef, salami, pepperoni, or any deli meat toasted until steaming hot (165°F).
- Limit frequency: Tuna subs, kept to about one serving per week due to mercury.
- All fine: Fresh vegetable toppings, pickled items, pasteurized cheeses, commercial sauces, avocado.
The bottom line is that Subway isn’t off-limits during pregnancy. The single most important thing you can do is make sure any deli meat is heated until it’s genuinely steaming, not just run through the toaster on a low setting. If the meat isn’t hot enough to make you wait a moment before biting in, send it back through.