There are plenty of lists of what to avoid and very few of what you can actually eat. Here is what the health authorities really say, and why the line falls where it does. This is general guidance, not medical advice for you — your clinician is the one to confirm it with.
Why cheese is always on the list
The reason is a bacterium called listeria. Unusually, it grows at refrigerator temperatures, which makes chilled food that sits for days and gets eaten a little at a time the real problem — and that describes cheese exactly. Outside pregnancy an infection is usually mild and often unnoticed. The concern is the baby. The NHS warns that catching listeriosis while pregnant carries a risk of miscarriage or stillbirth. That asymmetry — mild for the mother, potentially serious for the baby — is why the advice is cautious.
Hard cheese is fine, pasteurised or not
This surprises people. The NHS lists hard cheeses as safe whether or not they were made with pasteurised milk, naming cheddar, gruyère and parmesan. The reason is water. Listeria needs moisture to grow, and a hard cheese is dry and salty enough that it struggles to establish itself. So the first question is not whether the milk was pasteurised. It is what kind of cheese you are holding.
Dry enough that the bacteria struggle to grow:
Pasteurised soft cheeses are largely fine too
Soft does not automatically mean off-limits. The cheeses the NHS names as safe include cottage cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella, feta, paneer, ricotta, mascarpone, halloumi and burrata. Two conditions apply: made with pasteurised milk, and no white rind on the outside. Supermarket versions of these are pasteurised as a matter of course, so checking the label is usually the whole job.
Pasteurised, and without a rind:
Soft cheeses with a white rind need cooking
This is brie, camembert and their relatives — the ones with a bloomy white coating. They hold a lot of moisture, and as the rind mould grows it reduces the acidity, which together makes a comfortable home for listeria. The NHS advises eating these only when cooked until steaming hot. Goat cheese splits across the line, because it is not one thing: a fresh chèvre with no white coating counts as safe if pasteurised, while an aged one that has grown a rind belongs in this group.
Rinded, and best eaten cooked:
Soft blues are in the same group
Gorgonzola, roquefort and other soft blue-veined cheeses fall under the same advice. Blues vary a great deal in firmness and it is not always obvious which side of the line a particular one sits on — and when it is not obvious, cook it. Once cooked the question disappears, so there is no need to adjudicate it.
Blue-veined and on the softer side:
Pasteurisation alone does not settle it
This is the most common misreading. For soft cheeses, the line the NHS draws is not about pasteurisation but about rinds and blue veining. Pasteurised mozzarella and ricotta are listed as safe, while brie and camembert are told to be cooked without any pasteurisation caveat attached. Milk can be pasteurised and the cheese still be contaminated afterwards, during making or packing — and then there are weeks of ripening in which the bacteria have time to grow. So do not reason from a pasteurised label to a safe brie.
Cooking makes them fine — steaming hot is the test
Even the cheeses on the avoid list are considered safe once thoroughly cooked, and the test is not whether the surface has melted but whether the middle is hot enough to steam. Baking a whole brie until the centre runs, or an oven dish like a gratin or a pizza, will do it. Warming a slice on hot toast will not, and neither will something you baked earlier and are now eating cold. If you cook it, eat it hot.
In short
Hard cheese is fine regardless of pasteurisation. Pasteurised soft cheese without a rind is fine. Soft cheese with a white rind and soft blue cheese should be cooked until steaming hot, and when you are unsure, cooking settles it. One last thing: this article summarises general guidance from health authorities, and it is not medical advice about you. Circumstances and histories differ, and national advice differs a little too, so confirm it with the clinician looking after you.