How purine levels are classified
Purine charts disagree about what counts as high, and the disagreement is almost never about the measurement. It is about where each country draws its lines.
The six bands used on this site
The Breeze scale. Its lower three cut lines (30, 75 and 150 mg) come from the Chinese NHC 2024 dietary guideline; the upper two (200 and 300 mg) come from the Japanese gout treatment guideline. Combining them into one six-band scale is our editorial decision — no single authority publishes all six — but every threshold is one a guideline already draws.
- Lowunder 30 mg per 100 g164 foods
Generally treated as unrestricted on a low-purine diet — these are the foods most gout diets build around.
Cut line: NHC 2024, lowest band
- Fairly low30–75 mg per 100 g67 foods
Usually eaten in normal portions without much concern, though they add up across a day.
Cut line: NHC 2024, second band begins at 30 mg
- Fairly high75–150 mg per 100 g81 foods
Commonly limited rather than avoided — portion size is what makes the difference here. Most English-language charts call this whole range moderate.
Cut line: NHC 2024, third band begins at 75 mg
- High150–200 mg per 100 g33 foods
Above the top NHC threshold, but still below the point at which the Japanese guideline calls a food high. Many everyday meats and fish live here.
Cut line: NHC 2024, top band begins at 150 mg
- Very high200–300 mg per 100 g17 foods
High by every published scheme at once. Organ meats, most shellfish and oily fish cluster in this band.
Cut line: Japanese gout guideline, high band begins at 200 mg
- Extremely highover 300 mg per 100 g10 foods
The concentrated end of the database: dried seafood, yeast, stock powders and liver. Almost everything here is eaten in grams rather than portions.
Cut line: Japanese gout guideline, extremely-high band begins at 300 mg
The three published schemes, side by side
Taking 148 mg per 100 g as an example — roughly a lean cut of meat — here is how each national scheme bands it. The gap is two categories wide.
| Scheme | This food is | Band covers |
|---|---|---|
| NHC dietary guidelineChina | Fairly high | 75–150 mg |
| Common three-tier chartEnglish-language | Moderate | 50–150 mg |
| Gout treatment guidelineJapan | Unnamed in the guideline | 100–200 mg |
- NHC dietary guideline — Dietary Guideline for Adults with Hyperuricaemia and Gout (2024 Edition), National Health Commission of China
- Common three-tier chart — The split used across English-language dietetic handouts and purine charts A widely repeated convention rather than a scheme published by one named body.
- Gout treatment guideline — Guideline for the Management of Hyperuricaemia and Gout, Japanese Society of Gout and Uric & Nucleic Acids, as published by the Gout and Uric Acid Foundation of Japan The guideline names four bands and leaves 100–200 mg unnamed; Japanese charts commonly fill that gap with an informal 'moderate'.
Questions about purine classification
Why does one chart call a food high and another call it moderate?
Because the thresholds are set nationally and differ by a wide margin. The Chinese NHC 2024 guideline puts its top band at 150 mg per 100 g. The three-tier scheme common in English-language dietetic handouts calls everything from 50 to 150 mg moderate. The Japanese gout treatment guideline does not call a food high until 200 mg. The same measured number can therefore be labelled two categories apart without anyone being wrong about the measurement.
Why does this site use six bands instead of four?
Because the NHC's top band holds a quarter of this database across a nine-fold range — cooked chicken breast at 368.7 mg and dried anchovy at 1,109 mg would otherwise share one colour. The Japanese guideline already separates its high band at 200 mg and its extremely-high band at 300, so splitting the top of the scale uses lines that exist rather than lines we invented.
Is the six-band scale an official classification?
No, and it is not presented as one. Every individual threshold is published by a named guideline, but combining two guidelines into a single scale is our editorial decision. No single authority publishes all six bands. The table above shows how each national scheme bands a value on its own terms.
Which scheme should I follow?
That is a question for your doctor or dietitian, who will be working to whichever guideline applies where you are treated. What the bands are useful for is comparison between foods, which holds regardless of scheme: a food measuring 400 mg sits above one measuring 100 mg under all three.
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.
Search the full food database to see where any food falls.