What it is
Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, is a vitamin measured in milligrams (mg). Fruit and vegetables supply most of it, including capsicum, kale, kiwifruit, citrus fruit and broccoli, and animal foods contain very little. This page answers what are the highest vitamin C foods and which give the most vitamin C for each dollar. The figures are for raw foods. Cooking and storage can lower the vitamin C in a food, and the list does not adjust for that.
What are the highest vitamin C foods?
Per 100 g, the highest values are in capsicum (red), kale and kiwifruit. By food group, Vegetables has the highest average, at 29.5 mg per 100 g.
- Per 100 g128 mgCapsicum (red)
- Per 100 g93.4 mgKale
- Per 100 g92.7 mgKiwifruit
Highest per 100 g of the 155 foods on this site.
Vitamin C per dollar
Each food's vitamin C per kg is divided by its price per kg in your location, so the list shows how much vitamin C $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
4 of the 155 foods on this site have no vitamin C value in USDA FoodData Central, so they are left out of these lists. Values are per 100 g of each food as described in its USDA entry, such as raw or dry.