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Vitamin B12
What foods provide vitamin B12?
Vitamin B12 is naturally found in animal foods including fish, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and milk products. Fortified breakfast cereals are a particularly valuable source of vitamin B12 for vegetarians [5-7]. Table 1 lists a variety of food sources of vitamin B12.
Table 1: Selected food sources of vitamin B12
| Food | Micrograms (μg) per serving |
Percent DV* |
|---|---|---|
| Mollusks, clam, mixed species, cooked, 3 ounces | 84.1 | 1400 |
| Liver, beef, braised, 1 slice | 47.9 | 780 |
| Fortified breakfast cereals, (100%) fortified), ¾ cup | 6.0 | 100 |
| Trout, rainbow, wild, cooked, 3 ounces | 5.4 | 90 |
| Salmon, sockeye, cooked, 3 ounces | 4.9 | 80 |
| Trout, rainbow, farmed, cooked, 3 ounces | 4.2 | 50 |
| Beef, top sirloin, lean, choice, broiled, 3 ounces | 2.4 | 40 |
| Fast Food, Cheeseburger, regular, double patty & bun, 1 sandwich | 1.9 | 30 |
| Fast Food, Taco, 1 large | 1.6 | 25 |
| Fortified breakfast cereals (25% fortified), ¾ cup | 1.5 | 25 |
| Yogurt, plain, skim, with 13 grams protein per cup, 1 cup | 1.4 | 25 |
| Haddock, cooked, 3 ounces | 1.2 | 20 |
| Clams, breaded & fried, ¾ cup | 1.1 | 20 |
| Tuna, white, canned in water, drained solids, 3 ounces | 1.0 | 15 |
| Milk, 1 cup | 0.9 | 15 |
| Pork, cured, ham, lean only, canned, roasted, 3 ounces | 0.6 | 10 |
| Egg, whole, hard boiled, 1 | 0.6 | 10 |
| American pasteurized cheese food, 1 ounces | 0.3 | 6 |
| Chicken, breast, meat only, roasted, ½ breast | 0.3 | 6 |
*DV = Daily Value. DVs are reference numbers developed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help consumers determine if a food contains a lot or a little of a specific nutrient. The DV for vitamin B12 is 6.0 micrograms (μg). Most food labels do not list a food's vitamin B12 content. The percent DV (%DV) listed on the table indicates the percentage of the DV provided in one serving. A food providing 5% of the DV or less is a low source while a food that provides 10-19% of the DV is a good source. A food that provides 20% or more of the DV is high in that nutrient. It is important to remember that foods that provide lower percentages of the DV also contribute to a healthful diet. For foods not listed in this table, please refer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Nutrient Database Web site: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl.
What is the recommended dietary intake for vitamin B12?
