What it is
Iron is a mineral measured in milligrams (mg). Meat and seafood contain it, and so do legumes, seeds and whole grains. This page answers two questions: what foods are high in iron, and which give the most iron for each dollar. The foods with the most iron per 100 g are not always the cheapest per milligram. The list below divides iron by price using Brisbane prices, so affordable foods such as dry legumes can rank well.
What foods are high in iron?
Per 100 g, the highest values are in soybeans (dry), sesame seeds and cannellini beans (dry). By food group, Legumes has the highest average, at 7 mg per 100 g.
- Per 100 g15.7 mgSoybeans (dry)
- Per 100 g14.6 mgSesame seeds
- Per 100 g10.4 mgCannellini beans (dry)
Highest per 100 g of the 155 foods on this site.
Iron per dollar
Each food's iron per kg is divided by its price per kg in your location, so the list shows how much iron $1 buys. For the bone-in cuts marked with *, I first multiply by the share that is meat. Foods with no price for your location are left out.
| Rank | Food | mg per $1 |
|---|
Checking prices.
Approximate. Adjusted for the share of the cut that is meat rather than bone. See how I estimate this.
Notes and limits
All 155 foods on this site have a iron value in USDA FoodData Central. Values are per 100 g of each food as described in its USDA entry, such as raw or dry.