Foods High in Nickel: What to Avoid and What to Choose

This page summarizes published lists and is not a diet. The lists do not always agree: if you have a diagnosed nickel allergy, the list that matters is your doctor's or dietitian's.

Almost every food contains some nickel, in very different amounts. It depends on the food, but also on the soil, the water, the season and how the food is processed and stored. That is why two tables can give different numbers for the same broccoli. Below is what the main sources say, group by group, without microgram figures.

Which foods contain the most nickel

The EFSA opinion (2020), based on more than 47,000 analytical results, names the main sources of nickel in the European diet:

1. grains and grain products, the largest source in every age group;
2. beans and other legumes;
3. coffee;
4. chocolate;
5. breakfast cereals and ready-made soups.

Medical low-nickel lists (Zirwas and Molenda, 2009; Sharma, 2013; Braga et al., 2013) add:

• nuts and seeds (hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, sunflower, sesame);
• whole grains, bran, oats, buckwheat and millet: the nickel sits mostly in the bran and germ;
• shellfish (mussels, clams, shrimp);
• canned food, black tea and licorice.

Foods to avoid or limit, group by group

Nickel-free foods? The ones lowest in nickel

There are no nickel-free foods. There are foods that the lists rate low:

• white rice, refined pasta, white bread;
• fresh meat (chicken, turkey, beef, pork) and fresh fish;
• eggs, milk, yogurt, cheese;
• zucchini and cucumber;
• apples, peaches, melon, lemon;
• olive oil, butter, sugar, honey.

We used these to write 7 easy low-nickel recipes.

Where the lists disagree

No single table tells you this. Comparing public Italian sources:

• Carrots, broccoli and asparagus. The 2025 ASIPAN sheet puts them among the lowest vegetables; the elimination list of nutrition biologist Agostina Iannicelli removes them for a few weeks.
• Pears. Iannicelli removes them; the ASIPAN sheet does not list them.
• Canned tuna. The ASIPAN sheet rates it among the lowest; Sara Rurgo's presentation for ASIPAN advises avoiding canned food and drinks.
• Potatoes, tomato, onion, corn, bananas. They sit in different places depending on the list.

Why? The nickel in a vegetable changes with the soil, water, fertilizer and season, as Sara Rurgo (ASIPAN, 2025) notes. And elimination lists are designed for a short diagnostic phase, not as nutrition tables. In our list these foods carry an asterisk: they are the ones to clear with your doctor.

Cooking, cookware and cans

How you cook matters too. A presentation by pediatrician Roberto Berni Canani (ASIPAN, 2025) lists stainless steel cookware with acidic foods among the factors that can raise the nickel in a meal, and many lists remove canned food. More in what to eat with a nickel allergy.

Adapt your recipes to your doctor's list

Knowing which foods are high in nickel does not help much if the reel recipe you wanted to try is full of beans and cocoa. ChefExtract, on iPhone and Android, saves the recipe from a link (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, websites) and lets you create up to three custom variations: write your doctor's list in the description and the app proposes a version with swaps, which you then check. There is no "nickel" button and it is not medical advice: it is a faster way to rewrite a recipe.

The full printable list

Every food on this page, with its level (low, medium or varies, high) and an asterisk where the lists disagree, is in the printable low-nickel food list. It is a free PDF, no sign-up, to print or share.

If you are trying to work out whether your symptoms come from nickel, start with nickel allergy symptoms.