Most fast food is safe to eat during pregnancy, as long as you pay attention to a few key items. Burgers, chicken sandwiches, fries, tacos, and most standard menu items are fine when they’re cooked thoroughly and served hot. The real concerns come down to a short list: deli meats that haven’t been heated, raw sprouts, high-mercury fish, and keeping sodium and caffeine in check.
What to Order With Confidence
Cooked burgers, grilled or fried chicken sandwiches, chicken nuggets, tacos with cooked meat, and egg-based breakfast sandwiches are all safe choices. The heat from cooking kills the bacteria that pose risks during pregnancy, so anything that comes off a grill, out of a fryer, or off a flattop is generally good to go. If your food arrives lukewarm, send it back and ask for it freshly made.
Fish sandwiches and fish tacos from major chains are also safe. The FDA has noted that fish sticks and fast food fish sandwiches are commonly made from fish low in mercury, typically pollock or cod. Shrimp, salmon, pollock, and catfish all fall into the low-mercury category. The fish to avoid entirely during pregnancy (shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish) simply don’t show up on fast food menus.
Condiments like mayonnaise, ranch dressing, and other sauces from fast food restaurants use pasteurized eggs, so they’re safe. You don’t need to scrape off the mayo or skip the dipping sauce.
High-Protein Options Worth Choosing
Pregnancy increases your protein needs, and fast food can actually deliver on that front. Chick-fil-A’s grilled nuggets pack 25 grams of protein in just 130 calories, making them one of the leanest options available. Their Cool Wrap with grilled chicken hits 43 grams of protein and has 14 grams of fiber, which helps with the constipation many pregnant people deal with.
A Chipotle burrito bowl with steak or chicken over rice and beans gives you a solid protein and iron combination, plus you control exactly what goes in. Wendy’s Cobb Salad with grilled chicken, egg, and cheese delivers 37 grams of protein. A McDonald’s Egg McMuffin provides 17 grams of protein and is a reasonable breakfast option at a moderate calorie count. Panera’s Green Goddess Chicken Cobb Salad reaches 43 grams of protein thanks to the combination of chicken, hard-boiled egg, and bacon.
Choosing grilled over fried when you can helps limit saturated fat, but a fried chicken sandwich here and there isn’t something to stress about.
The Deli Meat Rule
Subway, Jersey Mike’s, Jimmy John’s, and other sub shops are where you need to be more careful. Cold deli meats (turkey, ham, roast beef, salami) can carry listeria, a bacteria that’s rare but especially dangerous during pregnancy. The CDC recommends either avoiding deli meat entirely or heating it to 165°F, which means steaming hot, before eating it.
Most sub shops will toast or heat your sandwich if you ask. A toasted sub where the meat is visibly steaming is a safer bet than a cold one. At Subway, just ask for your sandwich to be run through the oven. Hot dogs follow the same rule: they need to be heated until steaming, not just served at room temperature.
Skip the Raw Sprouts
Raw sprouts (alfalfa, clover, radish, mung bean) are one of the few vegetables the FDA specifically warns pregnant people to avoid. Bacteria can get into sprout seeds through cracks in the shell before they even grow, and once that happens, washing won’t remove them. Even sprouts grown in clean conditions can harbor harmful bacteria if the seed was contaminated.
Sprouts show up more often than you’d expect in sandwiches and salads at delis and sit-down chains. When you order, ask that raw sprouts not be added. If a sandwich comes with them by default, request they be left off.
Watch the Sodium
This is where fast food gets tricky for pregnancy. The recommended daily sodium limit is about 2,300 mg, roughly one teaspoon of salt. A single Wendy’s burger contains 2,200 mg of sodium, nearly an entire day’s worth in one meal. The Chick-fil-A Cool Wrap has 1,420 mg. Even salads at fast food restaurants often land between 1,000 and 1,500 mg once dressing is added.
High sodium is linked to high blood pressure, which during pregnancy can contribute to complications like preeclampsia. You don’t need to avoid fast food over this, but it helps to be strategic. Skip the extra sauces and dips when you can, choose smaller sizes, and balance a higher-sodium lunch with lower-sodium meals the rest of the day. Checking the nutrition info on the restaurant’s app before ordering takes 30 seconds and can help you pick a better option.
Caffeine in Fast Food Drinks
Most guidance for pregnancy suggests keeping caffeine under 200 mg per day. A standard 8-ounce brewed coffee contains about 96 mg, so a small coffee from most chains keeps you well under that limit. But fast food coffee sizes run large. A 16-ounce medium coffee could put you close to 200 mg in a single cup, and a 20-ounce large could push you over.
An 8-ounce cola has about 33 mg of caffeine, so a regular-sized soda is relatively low. Energy drinks are a different story: an 8-ounce serving has roughly 79 mg, and those small 2-ounce energy shots contain around 200 mg, your entire daily budget in two sips. Iced tea falls in between, with about 48 mg per 8 ounces for black tea.
If you’re ordering a coffee drink with espresso shots, keep in mind each shot adds about 63 mg. A latte with two shots puts you at 126 mg before anything else you consume that day.
Simple Ordering Tips
Ask for your food to be cooked thoroughly, especially meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. When a hot meal arrives, it should be piping hot. If it’s lukewarm, don’t eat it, just ask for a fresh one. If you’re unsure about ingredients in a particular item (some sauces contain raw egg at sit-down restaurants, some salads come with sprouts), ask before you order.
At build-your-own places like Chipotle, Subway, or Cava, you have the most control. Load up on cooked proteins, rice, beans, cooked vegetables, and cheese. At burger chains, a standard burger or grilled chicken sandwich with whatever toppings you like is perfectly fine. For breakfast, egg sandwiches and burritos with cooked eggs are easy, protein-rich options. The biggest practical shift is just making sure deli meats are heated and sprouts are skipped. Beyond that, most of what you’d normally order at a drive-through is safe.