Purine content of Anchovy
across 5 measured preparations · median 321 mg · spans very high to extremely high
Dried anchovy measures 1,109 mg per 100 g in the USDA and ODS-NIH database — the third-highest value among all 830 foods here, behind only raw Japanese seabass skin at 1,399.7 mg and raw Japanese mackerel skin at 1,175 mg. But it is also a food almost nobody eats 100 g of, and the form matters enormously: fresh anchovy measures 303.9 mg, canned 321 mg, and the spicy preparation in the Chinese guideline 263 mg.
Avoid or strictly limit — significant gout flare risk.
On this page (7)
One food, five numbers, a four-fold spread
Most charts publish a single figure for anchovy — commonly somewhere around 550 mg per 100 g. That number matches none of the five preparations measured in the primary databases. It sits above canned and raw, and at half the dried figure.
The spread is not measurement noise, it is water. Drying removes most of the mass of a fish while leaving the purines behind, so 100 g of dried anchovy began as several hundred grams of fresh fish. Reading the dried figure and applying it to the tin in your cupboard overstates it by roughly three and a half times; reading the fresh figure and applying it to dried anchovy understates it by the same factor.
If you are checking anchovy, the only question that matters is which of the five you are holding.
More practical swaps
Lower-purine options you can realistically buy or order instead — not only the lowest numbers in the category.
- Fresh sardine82 mg
The same culinary job — small oily fish — at a quarter of canned anchovy.
- Cod71 mg
Fresh cod, per 100 g. Mild white fish, no drying involved.
- Cheeseabout 2 mg
For the salty-umami role anchovy plays in a dressing or sauce, without the purines.
- Eggsunder 1 mg
Among the lowest values in the whole database.
Why the numbers vary
The portion inverts the headline
Anchovy is a seasoning in most of the dishes it appears in. Two fillets on a pizza is roughly 8 g; at the canned figure of 321 mg per 100 g, that contributes about 26 mg — less than a slice of bread. A tablespoon of dried anchovy in a stock, about 5 g, contributes around 55 mg even at the four-figure headline rate.
Set that against a 250 g plate of chicken breast at several hundred milligrams, and the food with the scariest number in the database turns out to be a smaller contributor than the food nobody warns you about. This is the single most useful habit when reading any purine chart: convert to the amount you will actually eat before reacting to the number.
The exception is dishes built on dried anchovy rather than seasoned with it — some Korean and Japanese stocks, Southeast Asian sambals, and dried-fish snacks eaten by the handful. There the portion is no longer a garnish, and the headline figure starts to describe reality.
The seafood measured here run from 7.7 mg to 1399.7 mg per 100 g, so the category is a poor guide on its own — which specific food, and prepared how, decides almost everything.
Preparation matters more than the food's name. Anchovy, dried measures 1109 mg, while Anchovy (spicy) measures 263 mg — a difference of 4.2 times. Drying and grilling remove water and concentrate what is left; boiling can move purines into water that is then poured away.
Every form of anchovy measured (5)
Highest first, each with the preparation that was measured.
| Food as measured | Per 100 g | Level | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anchovy, dried | 1109 mg | Extremely high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Anchovy, raw | 411 mg | Extremely high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Anchovy, canned | 321 mg | Extremely high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Anchovy, fresh | 303.9 mg | Extremely high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Anchovy (spicy) | 263 mg | Very high | NHC 2024 |
Questions about anchovy and purines
Are canned anchovies as high in purines as dried ones?
No, and the gap is large. Canned anchovy measures 321 mg per 100 g and dried anchovy 1,109 mg in the USDA and ODS-NIH database — a factor of about 3.5. Canned anchovies are packed in oil or salt and retain their water; dried anchovy has had most of its water removed, concentrating everything that remains.
How many purines are in the anchovies on a pizza?
A typical anchovy fillet weighs around 4 g, so two fillets is about 8 g. At the canned figure of 321 mg per 100 g that is roughly 26 mg of purines. Charts quoting a single high figure for all anchovy can overstate this several-fold, because the fillet on a pizza is a canned preparation rather than a dried one.
Source
- USDA and ODS-NIH Database for the Purine Content of Foods, Release 2.0 (2025) — Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Dietary Guideline for Adults with Hyperuricaemia and Gout (2024 Edition) — National Health Commission of China, appendix 1. Issued February 2024.
Reference information only. Purine values describe foods, not people: they cannot tell you what is safe for you to eat, and nothing here diagnoses or treats gout. Talk to your doctor or dietitian about your own diet and medication.