A central nervous system stimulant. Sensitivity varies widely and is partly genetic.
Every figure here is per 100 g of the food, not per serving. That makes foods comparable to each other, but it is not how anyone eats: 100 g of a dried spice and 100 g of a leafy green are very different portions, so a high position in this list does not tell you what a meal contributes.
Nutrient values are per 100 g of the USDA reference entry named on this page and vary with variety, growing conditions, storage and preparation.
No FDA Daily Value is established for caffeine, so no % DV is shown.
24 entries with a measured caffeine value, highest first.
Coffea arabica / Coffea canephora
The brewed infusion of roasted, ground Coffea seeds, and the largest single source of polyphenols in many national diets simply…
Camellia sinensis
Leaves of the same plant as green tea, allowed to oxidise fully before drying, which converts most catechins into larger…
Camellia sinensis
Leaves of Camellia sinensis heated soon after picking to stop enzymatic browning, which leaves the catechins largely intact. The…
Gallus gallus domesticus
Dark leg meat, richer in myoglobin, fat and connective tissue than breast because these are the muscles the bird actually uses.…
Cervidae spp.
Meat from deer, whether wild-harvested or farmed. Because the animals are active and rarely grain-finished, the carcass carries…
Bos taurus
The metabolic and storage organ of cattle, and consequently one of the most nutrient-concentrated foods in the human diet by a…
Sus scrofa domesticus
A small muscle running along the inside of the spine that does almost no work, making it the leanest and most tender cut on the…
Animal bones and connective tissue simmered for many hours, which hydrolyses collagen into gelatin and gives the cooled liquid…
Salmo salar
The great majority of salmon sold worldwide, raised in sea pens on formulated feed. It is consistently fattier than wild salmon,…
Sardina pilchardus
Small schooling fish canned whole with their soft, edible bones intact. Being short-lived plankton feeders low in the food chain,…
Engraulis encrasicolus
Tiny oily fish usually sold salt-cured and packed in oil, where months of curing dissolves the flesh into an intensely savoury…
Penaeus spp.
Decapod crustaceans, the most traded seafood in the world by value and now largely farmed. Their shells contain astaxanthin bound…
Crassostrea virginica
Filter-feeding bivalve molluscs, farmed and wild-harvested, whose flavour tracks the water they grew in closely enough that…
Mytilus edulis
Rope- or bottom-grown bivalves that need no feed input, making them one of the lowest-impact animal foods produced. They open…
Scomber scombrus
A fast-swimming oily fish with dark, strongly flavoured flesh that spoils quickly and is therefore often smoked or canned. It is…
Gadus morhua
A large cold-water groundfish with lean, flaky white flesh that stores its oil in the liver rather than the muscle. That anatomy…
Gallus gallus domesticus
A complete package of protein, fat and micronutrients built to grow a chick, split between a protein-and-water white and a…
Gallus gallus domesticus
The fat-soluble half of the egg, carrying essentially all of its fat, cholesterol, fat-soluble vitamins, choline and carotenoid…
A fresh, unripened cheese made by acidifying milk and draining the curd without pressing, leaving the loose grains in a little…
A hard cheese aged a year or more, during which enzymes break down protein into free amino acids and the crystalline tyrosine…
Bos taurus
Cow milk with its fat left in, standardised to around 3.25% in most markets and almost always pasteurised. It is an emulsion in…
Cream churned until the fat globules coalesce and separate from the buttermilk, leaving a product that is overwhelmingly fat.…
Milk fermented with Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, which acidify it until the casein…
Gallus gallus domesticus
A small, soft organ meat with a milder flavour and finer texture than beef liver, which is why it dominates pâtés and parfaits.…