I like free stuff and free food always taste better. This is just another of my many mottos I follow. So yesterday I'm reading that Baskin-Robbins has announced that it is launching a new marketing campaign "Bump Day" and will be offering free soft serve ice cream to expecting moms in select cities. My first thought: "What about expecting fathers?"

It seems girls are alway getting stuff for free and/or at a discounted rate. Example: "Girl's get in for free", "No coverage charge for girls", "Girls get 2 drinks for the price of 1". That's not fair is what I always pouted to myself and/or to anyone who would listen. But this recent rant, on my end, didn't last long. I quickly started reading that soft serve ice cream is proned to the "Listeria" bacteria. Until now I had no clue what Listeria was - so I Googled it.

Listeria is the common name for the pathogenic or disease-causing bacterium known as Listeria monocytogenes.  It is a foodborne illness that when ingested causes an infection known as listeriosis (Cossart & Bierne, 2001). Approximately 2,500 illnesses and 500 deaths are attributed to listeriosis in the United States annually (CDC, 2005).

Pregnant women naturally have a depressed cell-mediated immune system; many think that this occurs so that the mother’s immune system will not reject the fetus. In addition, the systems of fetuses and newborns are very immature; they are extremely susceptible to intracellular pathogens. Other adults, especially transplant recipients and lymphoma patients, are given necessary therapies with the specific intent of depressing immune T-cells, and these individuals become especially susceptible to Listeria monocytogenes as well.

Pregnant women are about 20 times more likely than other healthy adults to contract listeriosis. About one-third of listeriosis cases happen during pregnancy. The incidence of listeriosis in the newborn is 8.6 per 100,000 live births (Tappero et al., 1995).  There is no routine screening test for susceptibility to listeriosis during pregnancy, as there is for rubella and some other congenital infections. Newborns, rather than the pregnant women themselves, suffer the serious effects of infection in pregnancy.

source: www.about-listeria.com

Since soft serve ice cream is kept at warmer temperatures than frozen ice cream it then becomes highly acceptable to the Listeria bacteria. Many countries like Australia and Ireland have added soft serve ice cream to a list of foods that expecting mothers should avoid.

Wow, I never knew this and wondered who did - so I casually asked my wife if she could eat soft serve while pregnant. "Sure, why not?" was her response. I really expected my wife to know this expecially with all of the reading she does. Now I'm wondering how many pregnant women are out there were putting their babies health at risk without even knowing.

With all the risks of a pregnant woman contacting Listeria why would Baskin-Robbins decided to go forward with "Bump Day"? I decide to go straight to the source, Baskin-Robbins.com and scour the site looking for any health mention of Listeria. Nope, nothing, nada, zip! I looked under "Nutrituion", "Soft Serve" and finally "About Us". Still nothing. Wait a second...I see a press release labeled: May 19, 2008 - Baskin-Robbins Launches a New Twist - Soft Serve (pdf). Half-way down the page under "About Us" there is a link tag - "¹ American Pregnancy Association, www.americanpregnancy.com". It's interesting that the link is wrong, it should end in .org instead of .com. and they only link to the home page and not to any deeper page within the site where it might actually mention the risk of eating soft serve ice cream. I wonder if it was a typo or on purpose. And to top it off, the fine print reads: "*The Bump Day Soft Serve offer is for pregnant women only. Limit one free 3 oz cone cup or cone of Soft Serve per customer. Offer good on Wednesday May 21, 2008 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. while supplies last."

I have to think that Baskin-Robbins is more concerned about the all-might-dollar than the health of it's customers. What do you think?

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