High-purine foods list
141 of the 372 foods in this database measure above 75 mg of purines per 100 g — 60 of them above 150 mg. They are listed here highest first, each with the preparation that was measured and the source it came from.
The 30 highest-purine foods measured
Dried and grilled foods dominate the top of this list because drying removes water and concentrates what remains. Where a name covers several measurements, the figure shown is the median across them and the page behind it lists each one.
- Seabass, Japanese, skin, raw1399.7mgExtremely high
- Yeast, dried847.1mgExtremely high
- Whitebait, dried471.1mgExtremely high
- Dried laver415mgExtremely high
- Mussels1 measured · 414–414 mg414mgExtremely high
- Cutlassfish (hairtail), fresh385.5mgExtremely high
- Noodlefish (dried)383mgExtremely high
- Gnomefish, skin, raw382.6mgExtremely high
- Sardines6 measured · 82–746 mg325.2mgExtremely high
- Anchovy5 measured · 263–1109 mg321mgExtremely high
- Parsley, fresh289.3mgVery high
- Sea hare266mgVery high
- Herring2 measured · 139.2–378 mg258.6mgVery high
- Tripe & intestine7 measured · 88.2–346 mg252mgVery high
- Liver16 measured · 80–398.7 mg247mgVery high
- Loach247mgVery high
- Oysters3 measured · 193–282 mg242mgVery high
- Mackerel10 measured · 161.9–1175 mg230mgVery high
- Sea bass227mgVery high
- Okiami (krill), raw225.6mgVery high
- Kidney (offal)4 measured · 195–239 mg221.9mgVery high
- Shrimp18 measured · 101.5–748.9 mg220.8mgVery high
- Tuna5 measured · 142–492.9 mg211.2mgVery high
- Halibut211mgVery high
- Pacific saury, half-dried209.1mgVery high
- Catfish, farmed, raw205.2mgVery high
- Sturgeon (cooked)202mgVery high
- Red-headed fish195mgHigh
- Scallops5 measured · 76.5–235 mg193mgHigh
- Clams5 measured · 149–343 mg193mgHigh
Search all 372 foods to sort and filter the full database.
Where the high numbers cluster
High-purine foods are not spread evenly across the plate. Three groups account for most of them, and knowing which group a food belongs to is a faster shortcut than memorising values.
Organ meats. Liver, kidney, gizzard, heart and brain measure two to four times their muscle-meat equivalents. Duck liver at 398 mg and pork liver at 275 mg sit far above pork itself at 138 mg. This is the one group that gout dietary guidance tends to name explicitly rather than merely limit.
Dried and concentrated seafood. Dried anchovy, dried shrimp, dried scallop and bonito flakes are all in the hundreds. They are usually eaten in small quantities, which softens the practical impact — but they are also easy to forget about, because they arrive as seasoning rather than as a dish.
Oily and shellfish. Mackerel at 298 mg, mussels at 414 mg, oysters between 193 and 282 mg, and squid at 244 mg. These are eaten as main courses, so portion size does most of the work here.
How the categories rank
Counting how many foods above 75 mg each category contains gives a rough map of where the risk lives:
- Seafood — 100 foods above 75 mg
- Meat & poultry — 25 foods above 75 mg
- Vegetables — 5 foods above 75 mg
- Soy & legumes — 4 foods above 75 mg
- Other foods — 3 foods above 75 mg
- Nuts & seeds — 3 foods above 75 mg
- Grains & staples — 1 foods above 75 mg
Work in portions, not labels
The single most useful habit when reading a list like this is to convert to the amount you will actually eat. At 100 g per portion a food's listed value is its contribution; at 30 g it is under a third of it. Some worked examples from this database:
- Dried shrimp, 220 mg per 100 g — a 20 g garnish contributes 44 mg.
- Pork liver, 275 mg per 100 g — an 80 g serving contributes 220 mg.
- Chicken breast, 208 mg per 100 g — a 250 g breast contributes 520 mg.
The chicken breast is the point. It is not on anyone's “avoid” list, and in a normal serving it contributes more purines than the liver everyone worries about.
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.
Common questions
Which food has the highest purine content?
Concentrated and raw fish products top the list. The three highest measurements here are raw Japanese seabass skin at 1,399.7 mg per 100 g, raw Japanese mackerel skin at 1,175 mg and dried anchovy at 1,109 mg, followed by dried yeast at 847.1 mg and dried sakura shrimp at 748.9 mg. Among fresh foods, organ meats lead: duck liver at 398 mg, goose liver at 377 mg and pork liver at 275 mg per 100 g. The reason dried foods dominate is water loss, not some special property — 100 g of a dried food started life as several hundred grams of the fresh one.
Do I have to avoid high-purine foods completely?
Standard dietary guidance limits rather than bans, with the exception of organ meats and heavy alcohol, which most guidelines single out. The practical unit is the portion: a 30 g garnish of a 400 mg food contributes 120 mg, while a 250 g main course of a 100 mg food contributes 250 mg. Which foods you personally need to limit, and how strictly, is a question for your doctor or dietitian.
Are vegetables that are high in purines a problem?
Several vegetables measure high — dried mushrooms, some seaweeds, asparagus, spinach and dried legumes among them. Published research has generally not found the same association with gout risk for plant sources as for meat and seafood, and vegetable protein is not usually restricted in gout dietary guidance. The measurement and the clinical advice genuinely differ here, which is worth raising with your clinician rather than resolving from a chart.
Is beer high in purines?
Not by measurement — beer sits between roughly 4 and 15 mg per 100 ml, which is the low band. But alcohol also reduces how efficiently the kidneys clear uric acid, and beer specifically is repeatedly associated with flares in the research. It is the clearest case on this site of a food whose purine number does not tell the whole story.