Can I eat KFC while pregnant?

The verdict

Fried chicken, burgers cooked through, chips and hot wraps from a fast food chain are safe in pregnancy. Nothing in NHS, FDA, ACOG, FSANZ or HSE guidance restricts fast food as a category.

Chicken is deep fried at around 170C to 180C, which is far above the 165F, or 74C, that the FDA requires for all poultry and the 70C for two minutes that the Food Standards Agency uses as its fully cooked standard. Served hot from the fryer, it is one of the more reliably cooked things you can buy.

Two items on a typical fast food menu are genuinely restricted, and they are not the ones most people worry about. Soft-serve ice cream is named on Irish and Australian avoid lists. Cold sliced meat in a sub or a wrap is restricted in the US, Australia and Ireland unless heated.

Everything else on this page is about how the food is held rather than what it is.

Chicken, burgers and anything from a fryer

The FSA states that poultry can have bacteria all the way through the meat, so it must be cooked all the way through, with no pink fleshy meat and juices running clear. A commercial fryer with a timed cycle does this consistently.

Burgers are minced meat, which the FSA says must be cooked thoroughly because mincing moves bacteria from the outside of the meat throughout it, and it states burgers should not be served rare or pink at home. Major chains cook burgers to a fixed internal temperature as standard; the FDA's requirement is 160F, which is 71C, for ground beef. A burger from a fast food chain is cooked through. A rare or pink burger from a restaurant that offers the choice is a different question and belongs with steak advice.

Fish patties, chicken nuggets, hash browns and chips are all cooked from frozen at high temperature.

The one thing worth asking for is food that has just been cooked rather than food that has been held. FSANZ describes the danger zone as 5C to 60C and advises limiting time spent in it, and the FSA's general principle is to keep food properly hot or properly cold rather than lukewarm. Holding cabinets in busy outlets are usually fine; at a quiet hour, asking for a fresh batch is reasonable and gets you better food.

Soft-serve ice cream, the one clear restriction

This is the item people are least likely to expect, and it is named directly in two countries.

Ireland's HSE lists soft-serve ice cream, giving a 99 ice cream as its example, among foods to avoid in pregnancy. FSANZ lists soft serve ice cream in its higher-risk table for vulnerable people, with packaged frozen ice cream as the safer alternative and the precaution to keep the ice cream frozen hard.

The reason is the machine. A soft-serve dispenser holds a milk mixture at a temperature that is cold but not frozen, and it is a complex piece of equipment to clean thoroughly. Listeria grows at those temperatures, and the FDA's listeria page lists ice cream among the foods through which listeriosis is contracted.

Packaged, hard-frozen ice cream, a milkshake made from a sealed mix, and scooped ice cream from a tub are not the same product. The substitution is easy.

Subs, wraps and cold fillings

The second restriction is cold ready-to-eat meat, which is the core of a sandwich shop menu.

The FDA and ACOG both say to avoid hot dogs, deli meats and luncheon meats unless they are reheated until steaming hot just before serving. FSANZ lists cold ready-to-eat meats, including unpackaged meats from delicatessen counters and sandwich bars, in its higher-risk table. The HSE names ready-to-eat sliced meat such as sliced ham and advises avoiding deli counters as food hygiene may be compromised. The NHS treats cold pre-cooked meats as foods to be careful with, to be kept chilled and eaten before the use-by date.

In practice that means a cold turkey, ham or salami sub is the item to change, and toasting it is the fix, provided it comes out genuinely hot rather than warm. A sub built on hot grilled chicken, meatballs in sauce, or falafel avoids the question entirely.

Cold pre-cooked prawns in a wrap are the seafood version of the same problem: the NHS says cold, pre-cooked ready-to-eat prawns must be cooked until steaming hot.

Sauces, dressings and salad

Mayonnaise is fine. The FDA states that commercial mayonnaise, dressing and sauces contain pasteurised eggs that are safe to eat, and FSANZ lists commercial dressings such as mayonnaise and aioli among safer alternatives to raw egg foods. Chain sauces are commercial products made with pasteurised egg.

Caesar dressing made fresh in a kitchen is the exception the FDA names, along with hollandaise, bearnaise and aioli made from raw egg. In a fast food chain these are pre-made commercial products; in an independent restaurant they may not be, and it is reasonable to ask.

Salad and raw garnishes fall under general produce advice. The NHS advises washing salad vegetables such as lettuce and tomatoes thoroughly before eating, and lists pre-packaged salads among foods to be careful with. FSANZ lists pre-prepared or pre-packaged salads, including those from buffets and salad bars, in its higher-risk group, with freshly prepared salads as the alternative. A salad bar where you serve yourself is the version to be most cautious about.

Cheese slices on a burger are processed pasteurised cheese, which the NHS names as safe. Cheese sauce is cooked.

Drinks and caffeine

Fast food drinks bring caffeine into the picture. The NHS limit in pregnancy is no more than 200mg of caffeine a day, and its estimates are 100mg in a cup of instant coffee, with filter coffee and coffee bought from coffee shops containing more, 75mg in a cup of tea, 40mg in a can of cola and 80mg in a 250ml can of energy drink.

A large fast food cola or iced coffee can use a substantial part of that allowance, and a coffee shop latte more so. The HSE and FSANZ give the same 200mg figure and reasoning.

Milkshakes made from a sealed pasteurised mix are not restricted. Milkshakes made with raw egg, which is rare commercially, would be, and FSANZ names milkshakes among its raw and lightly cooked egg examples.

The nutritional part

None of this makes fast food a good daily choice. It is high in salt, saturated fat and calories, and NHS pregnancy diet advice is to eat a healthy balanced diet with plenty of fruit, vegetables and starchy foods, and to limit foods high in fat, salt and sugar. UK healthy eating advice puts the adult salt limit at 6g a day, and a single fast food meal can approach it.

Weight gain in pregnancy is monitored, and blood pressure more so, and salt matters to the second. That said, if fast food is what you can face during a period of nausea, eating something is better than eating nothing, and it is worth raising with your midwife rather than hiding it.

If you have eaten something on the list

A soft-serve ice cream or a cold sub once is a low risk. Listeriosis is rare, and the NHS's general position is that a small amount of a food that should have been avoided, if you did not become ill, is unlikely to affect your baby.

Because listeria has a long incubation, watch the following weeks. ACOG notes symptoms may appear as late as two months afterwards, and lists fever, chills, muscle aches and upset stomach, with stiff neck, headache, confusion or loss of balance in more serious illness. Contact your midwife or GP the same day if any appear, and say what you ate.

Where guidance genuinely differs

On hot cooked food, nowhere. Every authority accepts thoroughly cooked food served hot.

On soft-serve ice cream, Ireland and Australia name it and the UK and US do not, which is the most surprising divergence on this page. On cold sliced meat, the UK is more permissive than the US, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, all of which want it heated.

The practical rule that satisfies every guideline: order it hot, skip the soft-serve, and treat the salad bar with the same caution you would give a buffet.