While I was researching rillettes, I saw a few references about how pregnant ladies should avoid eating rillettes. I thought that was a highly specific recommendation (since rillettes aren’t even popular in North America) so I wanted to know more, and I decided to put my findings in a helpful blog post here for you.
Is it safe for pregnant ladies to eat rillettes?
NO is the safest answer when it comes to rillettes and pregnancy. Listeriosis is high risk for pregnant women because they’re 20 times more susceptible to contract listeriosis from contaminated food and it’s known to be fatal to fetuses and newborns. Mass-produced rillettes have been recalled multiple times due to listeria, the bacteria that causes listeriosis.
While “don’t eat rillettes” may be the takeaway from that blurb, you may also be interested in more details about listeria and rillettes, especially how that applies to rillettes you make at home. If yes, keep reading.
[Medical disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, and this information is not to be construed as medical advice. However, I’ve only included reliable content from studies and recall notices here.]
All about the risks of eating rillettes during pregnancy
Here’s the chain of thinking that supports NOT eating rillettes during pregnancy:
- Manufactured rillettes have been recalled due to listeria.
- Listeria causes listeriosis.
- Pregnant women contract listeriosis more than non-pregnant ladies.
- Listeriosis is often fatal to unborn babies.
Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these elements.
More about manufactured rillettes and listeria
1993 rillette recall
An academic paper published on PubMed, Listeriosis outbreak associated with the consumption of rillettes in France in 1993, covers the topic of listeriosis and rillettes well. There were 38 patients who contracted listeriosis between June and October of 1993. Of these 38 patients, 31 were “materno-neonatal” (a.k.a. maternal-neonatal) patients: pregnant ladies and babies. The pregnant women ranged from 20 to 34-years old.
The study revealed that one brand of pork rillettes was the source of the outbreak. These rillettes were recalled, and the listeria bacteria was confirmed in unopened cans. The report speculates that other canned meat products from the same brand could’ve also been tainted with listeria.
Further investigations traced the source of the bacteria to the production lines (for rillettes and other canned meat) at the manufacturing plant. It’s believed that there was cross-contamination between the raw material and cooked product areas.
This outbreak had serious repercussions for the 31 materno-neonatal patients:
- Nine fetal deaths.
- 12 premature births, including five that were classified as severely pre-mature.
- One baby died at four-days-old.
- This outbreak had a case-fatality ratio of 32%.
2017 warning about French rillettes in Hong Kong
In 2017, the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety (CFS) warned the public against consuming tins of imported French rillettes due to suspected contamination of Listeria monocytogenes.
According to the press release, “The CFS received a notification from the concerned French authorities that a batch of pork rillettes manufactured by Charcuterie Bordelaise, a French manufacturer, was suspected to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes and the manufacturer initiated a recall of the affected product … A local importer Classic Fine Foods (Hong Kong) Limited had imported the affected product into Hong Kong.”
2019 rillettes recalls in Canada
In September 2019, the Canada Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced that a company called, Les Spécialités Prodal (1975) Ltée, was “recalling various brands of pâtés, mousses, terrines and rillettes from the marketplace due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination.”
The CFIA also maintains a list of recalled food items including rillettes, terrines, mousses and pâtés. You can find their list here: Various brands of pâtés, mousses, terrines and rillettes recalled due to Listeria monocytogenes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also maintains a selected list of listeria outbreaks in the United States; no rillettes on the list but there are recorded outbreaks every year since 2011, traced back to dairy products, boiled eggs, deli meats, enoki mushrooms and cantaloupes.
More about listeriosis
The 1993 study about the French rillettes recall (mentioned above) beautifully explains why listeriosis is something to be concerned about: “Although listeriosis is not as common as some other food-borne diseases, such as salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis, it has become an important public health problem because its severity (meningitis, encephalitis, sepsis, fetal death, prematurity) and its high case-fatality ratio (33%) [1]. Immunocompromised people, neonates, pregnant women, and the elderly are most at risk of listeriosis.”
Reading about all this reminds me of the 2008 listeria outbreak we had in Canada that resulted in 22 people dying and a lot of cold cuts being recalled. In this case, there were more than 200 types of possibly contaminated products and the contamination was linked to the packaging stage of the production line, similar to the French case that happened 15 years earlier.
In the province of Québec, in Canada, listeriosis is a reportable disease. The Government of Québec website states, “Laboratories and doctors that receive sample results from infected individuals must report all cases of listeriosis to public health authorities for tracking.”
And the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency wants the public to know that, “Food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick.”
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services indicates these foods are associated with risk of listeria:
- Unpasteurized (raw) milk and dairy products including soft cheeses made with unpasteurized milk and “Hispanic-style” cheeses made from pasteurized milk.
- Raw fruits and vegetables (such as melons and sprouts).
- Deli meats and hot dogs.
- Refrigerated pâtés, meat spreads and smoked seafood.
For more information about how to prevent listeriosis at home, visit the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s page about listeria prevention. This has a good list of soft cheeses to avoid and how to keep your melons listeria-free.
More about pregnant women being more susceptible to listeriosis
As I mentioned above, pregnant women are in the high-risk category for contracting listeriosis. According to the academic paper, Listeriosis in Pregnancy: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention, “Listeriosis is a rare infection, but is about 20 times more common in pregnant women than in the general population.”
More about listeriosis and fatalities in fetal and neo-natal patients
Healthline reports that pregnant women with listeriosis are at increased risk of “miscarriage, still birth, premature delivery, delivering a low birth weight infant and death to the fetus.”
Listeriosis is treatable for moms, fetuses and babies with antibiotics but left untreated, it’s dangerous:
- In people with compromised immune systems, the listeriosis fatality rate is 20% to 50%.
- For fetuses and neo-natal patients, the listeriosis fatality rate is 20% to 30%.
[These stats are from this paper: Listeriosis in Pregnancy: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention.]
Preventing listeria contamination at home
Listeriosis can happen in manufacturing plants and wherever food is served, including home. You can’t control what happens outside of your home, but you can practice food safety at home to reduce your risk of listeriosis and all types of food poisoning.
FoodSafety.org says the four steps to food safety are:
- Clean – Wash everything often, including your hands, utensils and surfaces.
- Separate – Don’t cross contaminate between foods, especially raw and cooked foods.
- Cook – Food should be cooked to a food-safe temperature.
- Chill – Refrigerate food within two hours or freeze it properly.
Each of these steps comes with more details. To get all the food safety details, read their article called, 4 Steps to Food Safety.
Are homemade rillettes safe to eat during pregnancy?
This is a good question. To make rillettes, you put pork and other meat, fat, salt, spices and stock in a closed container and cook it for hours in the oven.
According to the European Food Safety Authority, “Cooking at temperatures higher than 65C kills the bacteria. However, Listeria can contaminate foods after production (for example contamination can occur after the food is cooked but before is packaged). Unlike many other foodborne bacteria, Listeria tolerates salty environments and can even multiply at cold temperatures (between +2C and 4C).”
So, the cooking should take care of that, but then pregnant ladies would want to be extra careful about using the 4 Steps to Food Safety to avoid cross contamination during packaging.
And, since you can keep rillettes for weeks or months in the fridge, that might up the risk factor for listeria.
To get around this potential risk factor, you could divide your batch of rillettes into smaller containers (like a one-cup, wide-mouth mason jar), cover them in the layer of fat as usual and keep them in the freezer. That way, each small jar of rillettes won’t be in the fridge too long.
Given the potentially high consequences of listeriosis during pregnancy, it’s a good idea to practice food safety and eliminate or reduce foods associated with listeria, including canned rillettes.
Conclusion
As for homemade rillettes, that’s up to you. My objective when writing this article wasn’t to tell you what to do, but to give you a bunch of information from reputable sources so you can think for yourself and make an informed decision. All the best to you!
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Resources to accompany this article:
Listeriosis Outbreak Associated with the Consumption of Rillettes in France in 1993
Authors: Véronique Goulet, Jocelyne Rocourt, Isabelle Rebiere, Christine Jacquet, Colette Moyse, Patrick Dehaumont, Gilles Salvat, Pierre Veit
PubMed link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9419182
Download the entire paper at https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/177/1/155/854782
Listeriosis in Pregnancy: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
Author: Vanitha Janakiraman, MD
This paper is available at the US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health site: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2621056/
Listeria prevention
Centres for Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/prevention.html
Food safety and handling guidelines (listeria prevention)
Healthline
https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/infections-listeria#prevention
4 Steps to Food Safety
FoodSafety.gov (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)
Find the whole article that covers the four steps to food safety—clean, separate, cook and chill—here:
https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep-food-safe/4-steps-to-food-safety