Fruits and salicylate: 75 foods rated

Avocado is one of the few fatty fruits high in salicylates, and unlike most produce there is no peeling or cooking step that lowers it. Portion size is the only real lever.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Cranberry is eaten almost entirely in concentrated forms — juice and dried — which carry more per mouthful than the fresh berry. The sweetened versions hide the sourness, not the salicylate.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Dates are dried fruit, so the salicylate that was in the fresh date is packed into a much smaller weight. They are eaten as a sweet snack, which makes the portion easy to overshoot.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Grape salicylate sits mostly in the skin, so dark grapes run higher than pale ones and raisins higher still. Peeling is impractical here — quantity is the workable lever.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Guava is high in salicylates whether eaten fresh or drunk as nectar, and the juice concentrates several fruits into one glass — a much larger dose than eating one.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Pineapple is high in salicylates, and canned or juiced forms are no lower — processing does not break salicylate down the way it breaks down some vitamins.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Plums are high in salicylates, and dried into prunes they climb higher per gram as the water goes. Both the fresh fruit and the dried one belong in the same caution.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Redcurrants are a high-salicylate berry, and they are usually eaten as jelly or coulis, which packs many berries into a spoonful. The concentrated forms are the ones that matter.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Drying concentrates what the fresh tomato held: the same salicylate in a fraction of the weight. A handful of sun-dried pieces carries far more than the tomato they came from.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Tamarind pulp is high in salicylates and is used precisely for the sourness that comes with them. It hides in sauces and chutneys, where it is rarely the ingredient people check.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Whitecurrants carry the same high salicylate load as redcurrants — the missing pigment changes the colour, not the salicylate. Pale does not mean milder here.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

The salicylate is concentrated in the skin, and acorn squash is one of the few that people sometimes roast and eat skin-on. Peeling before cooking is the lever.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Apricot: salicylate concentrates in the skin, so peeling lowers it meaningfully — one of the few fruits where that is both effective and practical. Underripe fruit runs higher than fully ripe.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Canned apricot keeps the salicylate of the fresh fruit: salicylates are not heat-labile, and nothing in the process takes them out. What the tin does change is the skin: most canned apricot is peeled, and the skin is where the higher concentration sits.

Aubergine: where the question has been measured, the salicylate concentrates in the skin: apple came out at 2.93 mg/kg peeled against 9.03 unpeeled. Peeling an aubergine is the same lever, applied to a figure that belongs to the apple. Peeling it changes the dish more than peeling a squash does, but it is the only real lever short of reducing the portion. How it is cooked moves the phenolic content, and this vegetable is one of the four that were measured. Deep frying and sautéing RAISED total phenols; both kinds of boiling lowered them. Frying in extra virgin olive oil also transfers the oil's own phenols into the food - oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, pinoresinol - so the dish is not simply the vegetable. All the methods preserved or raised antioxidant capacity. These are PHENOLS in general, though: the study measured eighteen of them and salicylic acid is not the subject. Two measurement studies put the whole fruit-and-vegetable group at 0 to 1 mg/kg of salicylate, free and bound together, with only half of the foods tested carrying a detectable amount at all. A third measured apple at three to nine times that. The level here follows the older classification, and the disagreement between the measurements is the honest state of this axis.

• Ramirez-Anaya J. del P. et al., Food Chem 188 (2015) 430-438, phenols and antioxidant capacity of Mediterranean vegetables cooked in extra virgin olive oil
• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chem 105 (2007) 273-279, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996) 1762-1767
• Malakar S, Gibson PR, Barrett JS & Muir JG, J Food Compos Anal 57 (2017), 31-39 - salicylic acid measured by GC-MS in 112 common foods

Blackberry is a whole-eaten berry with no peel to remove, and the seeds and skin are where the salicylate sits. Cooking into a compote does not reduce it.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Blackcurrant is a high-skin-to-flesh berry, which is why its salicylate sits above most fruit. It is usually eaten as cordial or jam, and both concentrate several times the fruit into one serving.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Citrus is one of the groups the RPAH tables put highest on this axis, and a blood orange is citrus. The peel is where most of the salicylate is, which matters for zest and marmalade more than for the segments.

• Swain A et al., Friendly Food (RPAH elimination diet)
• USDA FoodData Central

The skin carries most of the salicylate and there is no way to eat a blueberry without it. The wild, smaller-fruited varieties have more skin per gram than cultivated ones.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Peeled butternut is markedly lower in salicylate than unpeeled, and it is nearly always peeled anyway — which is why the flesh alone is a reasonable choice at this level.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Melon flesh is mostly water, so the concentration per gram stays modest — the serving size is what brings it up. Choosing fully ripe fruit helps: salicylates are more concentrated in underripe produce.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Chokeberry is placed with the other berries for salicylate, which sit moderate. No assay covers the chokeberry itself; what can be said comes from the berries that have been measured.

Drying is the whole story: the fresh apricot is milder, and removing the water leaves the same salicylate in a fraction of the weight. Sulphites are a separate trigger from salicylate, and the packet is where to check for them: sulphur dioxide and sulphites above 10 mg/kg are one of the fourteen entries of Annex II, so a label that does not name them is stating they are not there.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC
• Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex II, the fourteen substances a label must name

The fresh peach is lower; drying concentrates the salicylate that was there. Peeling before drying removes some of it, but commercial dried peach is usually dried with the skin on.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Elderberry is placed with the other berries for salicylate, which sit moderate. No assay covers the elderberry itself; what can be said comes from the berries that have been measured. The elderFLOWER is a different organ of the same plant and answers separately.

Like other melons, the salicylate per gram is not high but the serving is: melon is eaten in wedges, not slices. Portion is the whole lever here.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Goji berries are sold dried, which is why their salicylate lands here rather than with fresh berries. They are eaten by the spoonful as a topping, so the portion stays small if it stays deliberate.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Melon flesh is mostly water, which keeps the salicylate per gram down — but portions are large, and that is what brings it to moderate rather than low.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Berries sit high on the salicylate elimination lists as a group, and the lingonberry is not measured in any published source.

Eaten whole, skin included, with no practical way to separate them. Dried mulberries — increasingly common as a snack — are considerably more concentrated in salicylate.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Olives measure 26.7 mg of salicylic acid per kilogram - seventh highest of the 112 foods in the Malakar survey, level with beetroot. What saves it is the serve: a black olive is about 6 g, so one delivers 0.16 mg, and the paper's own conclusion is that this axis is better read per serve than per kilogram. A bowl of olives with drinks is where that stops being reassuring.

• Malakar S, Gibson PR, Barrett JS & Muir JG, J Food Compos Anal 57 (2017), 31-39 - salicylic acid measured by GC-MS in 112 common foods, reported per serve as well as per kilogram

Orange: the pith and zest hold far more salicylate than the flesh, so zest is the thing to watch: a teaspoon of it in a recipe outweighs eating the segments.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

The pulp and seeds are eaten together and both contribute salicylate. Passion fruit is usually a spoonful on top of something else, which keeps the portion naturally small.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Pomegranate: the arils are the edible part and they carry the salicylate; the bitter membrane holds more still, so removing it carefully helps a little. Juice concentrates several fruits into a glass.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Skin holds most of it, flesh much less, and pumpkin is always peeled. The seeds are a separate matter and are not part of this level. How it is cooked moves the phenolic content, and this vegetable is one of the four that were measured. Deep frying and sautéing RAISED total phenols; both kinds of boiling lowered them. Frying in extra virgin olive oil also transfers the oil's own phenols into the food - oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, pinoresinol - so the dish is not simply the vegetable. All the methods preserved or raised antioxidant capacity. These are PHENOLS in general, though: the study measured eighteen of them and salicylic acid is not the subject. Two measurement studies put the whole fruit-and-vegetable group at 0 to 1 mg/kg of salicylate, free and bound together, with only half of the foods tested carrying a detectable amount at all. A third measured apple at three to nine times that. The level here follows the older classification, and the disagreement between the measurements is the honest state of this axis.

• Ramirez-Anaya J. del P. et al., Food Chem 188 (2015) 430-438, phenols and antioxidant capacity of Mediterranean vegetables cooked in extra virgin olive oil
• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chem 105 (2007) 273-279, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996) 1762-1767

A raisin is a grape with the water gone, and grape salicylate sits mostly in the skin — which drying leaves entirely intact. A small handful equals a large bunch.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

The rose hip is a wild fruit used medicinally, which is the profile that tends to sit high on the salicylate lists, and no measurement of it is published.

Strawberries are eaten whole, so there is no peeling option and the portion is the only lever. Strawberries are also commonly eaten in bowls rather than pieces, which is where the salicylate dose comes from.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

Same salicylate concentration effect as any raisin, with one addition: sultanas are commonly treated with sulfites to keep them pale, which is a separate trigger frequently cut at the same time.

• Scotter M.J. et al., Food Chemistry 105 (2007), free and acetyl salicylic acid in foods by GC-MS, and Venema D. et al., J Agric Food Chem 44 (1996), acetylsalicylic and salicylic acid in foods by HPLC

The flesh is low, the skin is not — peeled apple is a very different food for salicylate from an apple eaten whole. Ripe fruit is also lower than underripe. Malakar measured exactly that difference: 2.93 mg/kg in the peeled apple against 9.03 unpeeled — three times as much in a fruit most people eat with the skin on. The authors' own conclusion from 112 foods is that serve size decides more than concentration does, which is the reason an apple stays low and a handful of dried herbs does not.

• Malakar S, Gibson P.R., Barrett J.S. & Muir J.G., J Agric Food Chem 65 (2017), salicylic acid by GC-MS in 112 foods

Banana measures 5.4 mg of salicylate per kilogram and a 100 g fruit carries 0.54 mg. The banana matters more than most here: it is the fruit people reach for when they want something bland and safe.

• Malakar S, Gibson PR, Barrett JS & Muir JG, J Food Compos Anal 57 (2017), 31-39 - salicylic acid measured by GC-MS in 112 common foods, reported per serve as well as per kilogram

Bell pepper: low as a fresh vegetable, but this is the same plant that becomes paprika: dried and ground, it moves to the top of the salicylate scale.

Cherries are eaten whole with the skin, which is why their salicylate is not lower still. Sweet varieties sit below sour ones, and ripe below underripe.

A cherry tomato is a tomato and carries what a tomato carries. If anything the skin-to-flesh ratio is higher, which matters because the skin usually carries more salicylate, but no figure is published for the difference.

• Wood A et al., Mol Nutr Food Res 55 Suppl. 1 (2011) S7-S14, for the share of dietary salicylate that comes from tomato-based sauces

Courgette measures 6.13 mg per kilogram and 0.40 mg in a 66 g serve. Peeling is the RPAH protocol's advice rather than a measurement, and what supports it is the survey's peeled apple against its unpeeled one: 2.93 against 9.03 mg per kilogram. Left unpeeled it moves up, since the salicylate sits in the skin.

• Malakar S., Gibson P.R., Barrett J.S. & Muir J.G., J Food Compos Anal 57 (2017) 31–39, salicylic acid by GC-MS in 112 foods, Table 2c for the spices

Peeled cucumber is low; the dark skin holds more salicylate. Since cucumber is often eaten unpeeled, that choice is the whole difference.

Prunes are dried plums, and drying concentrates the salicylate — so this sits above fresh plum despite the low rating. The portion is what keeps it manageable.

Low, though it climbs when underripe — gooseberries are often picked sour and firm, which is the higher-salicylate state.

Kiwifruit measures 13.4 mg of salicylate per kilogram and a single fruit delivers 1.14 mg - one of the larger per-serve figures in the survey, because unlike a spice it is eaten by the fruit rather than by the pinch. Eaten with the skin on, as some people do, expect more: the same paper found unpeeled apple at three times the peeled value.

• Malakar S, Gibson PR, Barrett JS & Muir JG, J Food Compos Anal 57 (2017), 31-39 - salicylic acid measured by GC-MS in 112 common foods, reported per serve as well as per kilogram

Lemon measures 6.7 mg of salicylate per kilogram, and the serve the survey used was 6 g - a squeeze - which delivers 0.04 mg, the smallest per-serve figure of any fruit measured. That gap is the whole argument of the paper: a food can be middling per kilogram and negligible in practice because nobody eats a kilogram of it. The zest is the part to watch, being skin.

• Malakar S, Gibson PR, Barrett JS & Muir JG, J Food Compos Anal 57 (2017), 31-39 - salicylic acid measured by GC-MS in 112 common foods, reported per serve as well as per kilogram

Fruit as a group sits on the salicylate lists, and the longan is in none of the published tables.

Mango measures 7.0 mg of salicylic acid per kilogram, in the same range as the strawberry and the pineapple. The serve measured was small - 20 g - so the per-serve figure of 0.14 mg says less about the fruit than about the slice.

• Malakar S, Gibson PR, Barrett JS & Muir JG, J Food Compos Anal 57 (2017), 31-39 - salicylic acid measured by GC-MS in 112 common foods, reported per serve as well as per kilogram

Nectarine: the same fruit as a peach without the fuzz, and the same rule: the salicylate is in the skin, so peeling is what keeps it here.

Ripe papaya is low; the unripe green fruit used in salads is higher, since salicylates concentrate in underripe produce.

Peeled peach is low; the fuzzy skin holds most of the salicylate. Tinned peaches in syrup are peeled, which is why they sit low too.

Peeled ripe pear is the reference low-salicylate fruit, the one elimination diets start from. The peel is where the salicylate is, so juice made with skin on does not qualify.

Persimmon: low when fully ripe and soft. The astringent, firm stage is both unpleasant and higher in salicylates, so ripeness works in your favour twice.

Raspberry: low in salicylate for a berry, which is unusual — most are higher. There is no peel to remove, so portion is the only adjustment available.

Tomato carries salicylate, and its concentrated forms carry more: sauce and powder sit above the fresh fruit, and sun-dried tomato higher still. Nothing is added to a tomato to make it salicylate-bearing — those forms are concentrated tomato. Wood's systematic review puts tomato-based sauces at 12 per cent of all dietary salicylate in a Scottish population, the fourth largest contributor, and the axis article has named tomatoes among the high-salicylate foods all along. A fresh tomato is mostly water, and no figure is published for it. How it is cooked moves the phenolic content, and this vegetable is one of the four that were measured. Deep frying and sautéing RAISED total phenols; both kinds of boiling lowered them. Frying in extra virgin olive oil also transfers the oil's own phenols into the food - oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, pinoresinol - so the dish is not simply the vegetable. All the methods preserved or raised antioxidant capacity. These are PHENOLS in general, though: the study measured eighteen of them and salicylic acid is not the subject.

• Wood A et al., Mol Nutr Food Res 55 Suppl. 1 (2011) S7-S14, for the share of dietary salicylate that comes from tomato-based sauces
• Ramirez-Anaya J. del P. et al., Food Chem 188 (2015) 430-438, phenols and antioxidant capacity of Mediterranean vegetables cooked in extra virgin olive oil

Mostly water, so the salicylate per gram is low. Servings are large, which is the only thing that makes it worth watching at all.