Vitamin B12 Foods: Rich Sources, Vegetarian Options, and How Much You Need
Vitamin B12 comes from animal foods and fortified foods. Nothing you can grow in a garden contains it. Fish, meat, eggs, milk, curd and paneer all carry it. Fruit, vegetables, dal and dry fruits carry none. An adult needs about 2.2 micrograms (µg) a day by the Indian allowance. On paper that is roughly two glasses of milk, a bowl of curd and an egg across the day, or one serving of fish.12
The useful part is the numbers, because the gap between foods is wide. A 100 g serving of sardines holds about 8.94 µg, a glass of milk under 1 µg, and 100 g of chicken breast about 0.34 µg. Those three facts decide most of what follows.34 Chicken is the surprise.
In short
- Daily need: 2.2 µg (ICMR-NIN, adults); 2.4 µg by the US allowance.12
- Highest: liver (about 70.7 µg per 85 g), clams, mackerel, sardines.23
- Everyday: milk about 0.78 µg per 200 ml glass in Pune measurements; one egg about 0.5 µg.42
- None worth counting: fruit, vegetables, grains, pulses, nuts and dry fruits, unless fortified.2
- Active absorption appears to top out at roughly 1 to 2 µg per sitting, so several small servings beat one large one.56
Which foods are rich in vitamin B12? Copy link
Liver, shellfish and oily fish are the richest vitamin B12 foods by a long way, followed by red meat and fish such as tuna and salmon, and only then by the everyday dairy and egg foods: milk, curd, paneer, cheese and eggs. Chicken sits near the bottom of the animal list.23 Fish sits at the top. Liver higher still.
Here are the figures behind the chart, in micrograms per serving. US values come from the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements and USDA FoodData Central. Indian values exist only where someone has measured them, which is mostly milk. The Indian Food Composition Tables of 2017 did not analyze vitamin B12 at all. So there is no official Indian number for rohu, catla, mutton or paneer.74
| Food | Serving | Vitamin B12 | % of 2.2 µg intake target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beef liver, pan-fried | 85 g | 70.7 µg | 3,200% |
| Clams, cooked | 85 g | 17 µg | 770% |
| Mackerel, Atlantic, cooked | 100 g | 19.0 µg | 860% |
| Sardines, canned in oil | 100 g | 8.94 µg | 410% |
| Salmon, cooked | 85 g | 2.6 µg | 118% |
| Tuna, canned in water | 85 g | 2.5 µg | 114% |
| Beef, ground, cooked | 85 g | 2.4 µg | 109% |
| Milk, 2% fat (US) | 240 ml | 1.3 µg | 59% |
| Goat meat, roasted | 100 g | 1.19 µg | 54% |
| Curd, plain | 170 g | 1.0 µg | 45% |
| Milk, cow or buffalo (Pune) | 200 ml | 0.78 µg | 35% |
| Fortified breakfast cereal (US, 25% DV) | 1 serving | 0.6 µg | 27% |
| Egg, whole, cooked | 1 large | 0.5 µg | 23% |
| Cheddar cheese | 43 g | 0.5 µg | 23% |
| Chicken thigh, roasted | 100 g | 0.42 µg | 19% |
| Chicken breast, roasted | 100 g | 0.34 µg | 15% |
| Tempeh | ½ cup | 0.1 µg | 5% |
| Banana, spinach, kidney beans, wheat bread | any | 0 µg | 0% |
The right-hand column is what the food holds. What you absorb from one sitting is a smaller, limited amount, as the absorption section explains. Two rows deserve a second look. A cup of US milk carries 1.3 µg, but cow and buffalo milk bought in Pune measured about 0.78 µg per 200 ml, so an Indian glass may give you about a quarter less than a US table suggests, and that matters if milk is your main source.4 And chicken, which many people count as their main animal food, gives less than a third of what the same weight of goat meat gives.3
How much vitamin B12 do you need per day? Copy link
ICMR-NIN set the Indian recommended allowance at 2.2 µg a day for adult men and women in 2020, up from 1 µg in the 2010 edition. The US allowance is 2.4 µg, rising to 2.6 µg in pregnancy and 2.8 µg while breastfeeding.12
Why did the Indian figure double? The 2020 revision brought it close to the US figure, and the published summary gives the new values without the working. What is published separately is the absorption data behind allowances of this size: Bengaluru tracer studies found that about half of a 2.5 µg dose is taken up, so an intake target around 2 µg delivers roughly the 1 µg a day the body uses.15 The target already allows for that loss. You don't need to eat double it. Reaching it, spread across the day, is enough. Worth saying plainly, because the fear of "not enough" sends people to high-dose tablets they may not need.
Does the number change with age? The allowance holds from 19 upward, and the 2024 NICE guideline did not treat age itself as a risk factor. What changes is the stomach. Atrophic gastritis, a thinning of the stomach lining that cuts acid and intrinsic factor, affects about 8 to 9% of adults aged 65 and over. It lowers absorption from food whatever you eat. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or past 65, read the "when food is not enough" section below before you plan around food alone.82
Which fruits and vegetables have vitamin B12? Copy link
None you can count on. No ordinary fruit, vegetable, grain, pulse, nut, seed or dry fruit is a usable source of vitamin B12. Apples, bananas, oranges, guava, almonds, walnuts, raisins, dates, beetroot, button mushrooms and sprouts all measure zero or close to it in food tables.29
The reason is biology. Vitamin B12 is made only by certain bacteria and archaea, and plants neither make it nor need it. Animals get it from the microbes in their gut or feed, and we get it from the animals.910 So "B12-rich fruits" lists are recommending foods for their vitamin C or folate. Different vitamins, different jobs.
A few plant foods are the exception, and they come with a catch. Dried purple laver, the seaweed sold as nori, measured about 32.3 µg per 100 g dry weight in Japanese testing, which is a lot for a few grams of sheet, and dried shiitake mushrooms averaged 5.61 µg per 100 g dry weight with a wide range of 1.3 to 12.7. Both appear to pick the vitamin up from bacteria in their environment. Spirulina, on the other hand, mostly contains pseudovitamin B12, a look-alike molecule your body cannot use, so it should not be counted as a source.9 If you want to rely on nori, treat it as a supplement with an uncertain dose.
Is there vitamin B12 in milk, curd and paneer? Copy link
Yes, in all three, and dairy is the best-absorbed source there is. Milk gives up about 65% of its B12 to your blood, against under 9% for eggs and 61 to 66% for chicken, which is why a small amount in milk counts for more than the same amount in an omelette or a curry. Strange, but measured.62
How much is in a glass? Pune researchers measured cow and buffalo milk at 2.5 to 3.85 µg per liter in 2013, and about 0.78 µg per 200 ml in a 2019 trial, with cow and buffalo milk coming out the same.114 Same glass, same vitamin. US tables give a cup of 2% milk 1.3 µg, and the Pune authors cite a published range of 2 to 7 µg per liter for milk in general, so both figures sit inside it.24
Curd carries roughly what the milk it was set from carried. The idea that setting milk into curd increases B12 is a common exam-note belief. The food tables don't support it. Plain curd measures 1.0 µg per 170 g in US data, a little under the milk it came from. Most of the bacteria that set curd don't make B12; a few strains can under controlled conditions, which is why researchers have tried B12-enriched yogurts, but home-set curd isn't one of those.29 No Indian laboratory has published a value for home-set curd, so the answer is "about the same as the milk, possibly slightly less".
Paneer keeps part of the milk's B12 and loses the rest in the whey. Cottage cheese, the closest tested relative, recovers 20 to 60% of the vitamin in the milk.9 Nobody has measured Indian paneer, so there is no number to give you; expect less than the milk it came from, weight for weight, and count it as a modest contributor. Hard cheese is denser: 43 g of cheddar gives 0.5 µg.2
Does boiling milk destroy it? Some of it, and the exact share depends on the pan, the time and the milk. One Indian study that boiled milk the way households do measured a 21% fall in B12; it was funded by a milk-products company, so read that figure with care. In the heating studies one review collected, 2 to 5 minutes of boiling cost about 30% and 30 minutes about 50%; 5 minutes in a microwave cost 50% and pasteurization 5 to 10%.126 Each of those figures belongs to the conditions of its own study, but the direction is consistent. Boil once. Briefly. Don't keep reboiling the same milk.
Does chicken have vitamin B12? Fish and meat compared Copy link
Chicken has a little, and far less than people expect. Roasted chicken breast carries 0.34 µg per 100 g and thigh 0.42 µg, so a generous 150 g portion gives about a quarter of a day's need, while goat meat at 1.19 µg per 100 g gives about three times as much for the same weight.3 Mutton wins.
Fish is where the big numbers live, and small oily fish beat large white ones. Canned sardines hold 8.94 µg per 100 g and Atlantic mackerel 19.0 µg per 100 g cooked, several times the daily figure on one plate. Canned tuna gives 2.5 µg per 85 g and salmon 2.6 µg.32 One caution on the Indian market. Bangda is Indian mackerel, a different species from the Atlantic one in US tables. Rohu, catla and hilsa have no published B12 values, because the 2017 Indian tables skipped the vitamin. Expect oily sea fish to be high and freshwater fish to be lower, but no one has printed the number.7
Liver is in a class of its own on paper. Pan-fried beef liver carries 70.7 µg per 85 g and braised lamb liver 76.5 µg per 100 g, more than thirty times the daily figure.23 You don't absorb thirty days' worth from it, though. The carrier that handles B12 fills up within a single meal, and only a small passive share crosses beyond that, so most of what a liver meal holds passes through unused. How much of liver's B12 is actually taken up has not been measured directly.56 Your body's 1 to 5 mg store explains why deficiency takes years to show; it does not let one meal cover a week.2 Cooking costs something too: meats lose roughly a third of their B12 in cooking.6 And liver carries a lot of preformed vitamin A, so the NHS advises not eating it more than once a week and avoiding it in pregnancy.13
Eating meat is no guarantee. In a study of 630 healthy adults in Hyderabad, 54% of vegetarians were B12 deficient, and so were 31% of people eating a mixed diet. One in three meat eaters.14 The study did not ask which meat. But if your animal food is mostly chicken, a few times a week, the arithmetic above puts you closer to a dairy-only intake than you may think.
Do idli, dosa and other fermented foods give vitamin B12? Copy link
Not in any amount you can plan around, though some B12 does appear in the batter. Fermentation makes B12 only when B12-producing bacteria are among the fermenters. A 2019 study of idli batter found B12 activity rising during fermentation on a plate assay, and found that some of the Weissella confusa isolates could produce it, in line with older reports.15 What that study did not do is weigh it: there is no published microgram figure per idli, no test of whether it is the active form or a look-alike, and no measure of how much survives steaming. Until someone does that, idli is a food that may contain a little B12, not a food that supplies it.
The tested fermented plant foods are instructive. Tempeh, a fermented soybean cake, ranged from 0.7 to 8.0 µg per 100 g in one review. The US table lists 0.1 µg per half cup. The vitamin comes from stray bacteria, and they vary batch to batch. Kimchi measured under 0.1 µg per 100 g.92 A food whose B12 depends on which bacteria happened to land in it is not a food you can count toward 2.2 µg.
Curd is the fermented food that does count. The vitamin was in the milk before the bacteria arrived. Fermented batter starts from rice and dal, which hold none, so whatever the bacteria add is the whole story, and nobody has yet measured how much that is.
Why does active vitamin B12 absorption stop at about 1 to 2 µg per meal? Copy link
Because the main route of absorption per meal runs through a carrier that fills up. Think of a lift with room for one. Everyone else takes the stairs, slowly. Your stomach makes intrinsic factor, a protein that grabs B12 and escorts it to receptors at the end of the small intestine. In a 2024 Bengaluru study that fed nine healthy adults pure, labelled B12 at 2.5, 5 and 10 µg, the amount taken up through that route levelled off at about 1.2 µg whatever the dose, with wide variation between people. Older estimates, also from pure B12, put the ceiling at 1.5 to 2.5 µg. Nobody has measured the ceiling for B12 locked in a meal, which has to be freed by stomach acid first, so treat the number as the best available estimate, not a law.56 That is the active route. A second, passive route lets roughly 1 to 2% of any dose seep across on its own, so total absorption keeps creeping up with bigger doses even after the carrier is full.516
The measured numbers make the shape clear. In the Bengaluru study, the 2.5 µg dose delivered 1.16 µg on average, the 5 µg dose 1.22 µg and the 10 µg dose 1.39 µg, so quadrupling the dose added a fifth to what got in.5 At 500 µg the NIH summary puts absorption at about 2%, and at 1,000 µg about 1.3%.2 That is how a 1,000 µg tablet works at all: 1.3% of a huge dose is still around 13 µg, most of it through the passive route. Brute force, and it works, which is why high-dose oral treatment exists.
What does this change about food? Timing, more than totals. A glass of milk at breakfast, curd at lunch and an egg at dinner gives the carrier three separate chances to work, and each serving is small enough to be mostly taken up. Eat the same foods in one sitting and most of the excess passes through; only the passive few percent is rescued. A plate of sardines is still worth eating, because it fills the carrier completely and adds a little on top, but it buys you about a day. For anyone living on dairy and eggs, the day-to-day plan is to spread the servings out. The Bengaluru authors make the same point: 2.5 µg every 4 to 6 hours delivers more than one big dose.5
How to increase vitamin B12 naturally from food, whatever you eat Copy link
Start from what you already eat, because the plan is different for each pattern and none of them is "the Indian diet". There isn't one. A Pew survey in 2021 found 39% of Indian adults call themselves vegetarian and 81% limit meat in some way.17 That leaves a majority eating some fish, meat or eggs, and a large minority whose animal food is dairy alone.
If you eat fish or meat. A serving of oily fish, goat meat or egg on most days, plus your usual milk or curd, reaches the intake target without effort. A sardine or mackerel meal fills the carrier in one go; what it cannot do is bank a week, so a once-a-week fish day with chicken the rest of the time leaves most days short. If your meat is mainly chicken, it won't carry the day on its own; add an egg or a second dairy serving. Goat meat helps more than chicken for the same weight, and liver, once a week at most, helps most of all.3213
If you eat eggs but no meat. Two eggs and a glass of milk add up to about 2.3 µg on US values and about 1.8 µg on the Pune milk figure, so a bowl of curd is needed to close the gap. Eggs are poorly absorbed, under 9% in tracer studies, so count them as a top-up and let milk or curd be the base.62
If dairy is your only animal food. Plan on about three dairy servings spread through the day. For example, a 200 ml glass of milk morning and evening and a 150 g bowl of curd at lunch comes to roughly 2.4 µg on the Pune milk figure and the US curd figure, and a little less if the curd is set from local milk. Treat that as a contribution toward the target rather than a promise, because milk B12 varies from dairy to dairy and boiling takes a share. Paneer and cheese add to it; ghee and butter add almost none, because B12 is water-soluble and stays in the watery part of milk.18 Two 200 ml glasses a day raised blood B12 in deficient young adults in Pune from 92.8 to 122.1 pmol/L in 14 days, a real rise that still sat below the 148 pmol/L cut-off. Four weeks of the same milk in a second trial improved status without normalizing it.114 Milk alone can hold a normal level. Repair is slow.
If you eat no animal foods at all. Unfortified plant food cannot do it, and no amount of nori, mushroom or fermented food changes that reliably. You need a dependable source: a supplement, foods fortified with a meaningful amount, or both. The 2024 NICE guideline on B12 deficiency lists a diet excluding animal-source foods, with no fortified foods or drinks, as a risk factor in its own right, and advises checking that a supplement actually contains cyanocobalamin, methylcobalamin or adenosylcobalamin, since some products don't.8 A fortified nutritional yeast gives 8.3 to 24 µg per quarter cup depending on the brand, which is one way to do it through the kitchen.2 All of this is prevention. Treating a deficiency that already exists is a different dose and a doctor's decision.
Whichever pattern is yours, two things on a blood test report are worth a glance if you have one. A high mean cell volume on the CBC report can mean red cells are enlarging for want of B12 or folate, and a low hemoglobin that iron hasn't fixed is another prompt. Neither is a screening test. B12 can damage nerves before it touches the blood count, and NICE says plainly not to rule out deficiency because anemia or large cells are absent. Numbness, tingling or unsteadiness with a normal CBC is a reason to test the B12 itself, and a borderline result may need a methylmalonic acid test to settle it.82
Which fortified foods in India contain vitamin B12? Copy link
Fortified rice, atta and maida carrying the FSSAI +F logo contain vitamin B12, and so do some breakfast cereals and breads. Fortified milk does not: the Indian milk standard adds only vitamin A and vitamin D.19
Now the amount, because it is small. The FSSAI standard for fortified rice, atta and maida is 0.75 to 1.25 µg of B12 per kilogram.19 Cook 250 g of dry fortified rice in a day, a generous amount, and you have added about 0.2 to 0.3 µg before any cooking loss, a tenth of the target. That is the rice supplied free under PMGKAY, which the Cabinet extended to December 2028 with iron, folic acid and B12 in the kernels.20 It helps at population scale, where a tenth across hundreds of millions of people matters. On your plate it is a rounding error. Read the label. Always the label. Fortified cereal products are allowed 0.08 to 0.16 µg per 100 g, a similar order.19
Compare that with a US fortified breakfast cereal at 0.6 µg a serving, or fortified nutritional yeast at 8.3 µg and up per quarter cup. The gap is between ten and several hundred times, which is the difference between a label claim and a dose.2 Read the label; "fortified with vitamins" on an Indian pack can mean a quantity you would need a kilogram to notice.
When food is not enough Copy link
Food can hold a normal level. It is slow at repairing a low one, and sometimes unable to, and in four situations it is the wrong first tool altogether.
If you already have symptoms or a low result, replacement comes first and food second. Numbness or tingling in the feet, a sore red tongue, unusual fatigue, palpitations, or a report showing large red cells are reasons to test and treat before you change what you eat, and a normal blood count does not take the question away.28 How you are treated depends on the cause: injections for life where the stomach cannot make intrinsic factor, oral or injected replacement for the rest. The vitamin B12 deficiency page covers the test, the cut-offs and those choices.
If you take metformin or a daily acid reducer such as pantoprazole or omeprazole, your absorption from food is reduced. Both appear on the NICE list of medicines that raise the risk of deficiency. Ask your doctor to check your level; assuming diet will hold it is the common mistake.82
If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, the target rises and the baby's reserve depends on yours. NICE suggests at least 1 mg a day of oral B12 where deficiency is found in pregnancy; your own doctor will set the dose. If you have had stomach or bowel surgery, including bariatric surgery, or have atrophic gastritis, intrinsic factor and acid both fall, and a supplement is the usual advice.82
And if a diet with no animal foods is your choice, a daily low-dose supplement or a properly fortified staple is the reliable route for prevention. In a 12-month randomized trial in a B12-deficient rural community near Pune, published in 2026, daily oral doses of 2 or 10 µg improved B12 status, and how much a person improved depended on the dose, where they started, how well they absorbed it and how regularly they took it.21 Small, daily, and actually swallowed. Food does the rest.
Frequently asked questions Copy link
Which food has the highest vitamin B12?
Liver. Pan-fried beef liver carries about 70.7 µg per 85 g and braised lamb liver 76.5 µg per 100 g, more than thirty times the daily figure, though one sitting absorbs only a small part of that. Clams, Atlantic mackerel and sardines follow at 17, 19 and 8.9 µg per serving. Among everyday foods, milk and curd are the best absorbed.
Does boiling milk destroy vitamin B12?
Part of it. One Indian household-practice study measured a 21% fall on boiling, and heating studies have reported about 30% after 2 to 5 minutes and 50% after 30 minutes; the exact loss varies with time and method. Boiled milk is still a worthwhile source. The avoidable loss is reboiling the same milk several times a day.
Can you get enough vitamin B12 from milk alone?
It can cover most of the intake target if you drink about three servings spread through the day, since Pune milk measured 0.78 µg per 200 ml against a 2.2 µg target, but that is a contribution rather than a guarantee. Milk alone repairs a low level slowly: two glasses a day for 14 days raised levels but left most deficient adults below the cut-off.
Do dry fruits have vitamin B12?
No. Almonds, cashews, walnuts, raisins, dates and figs contain no vitamin B12, because plants neither make nor need it. Dry fruits are useful for iron, fiber and energy. The only plant foods with measurable B12 are certain seaweeds and dried mushrooms, and their content varies too much to rely on.
Is chicken a good source of vitamin B12?
Not a strong one. Roasted chicken breast has 0.34 µg per 100 g and thigh 0.42 µg, so even a 150 g portion gives about a quarter of a day's need. Goat meat gives 1.19 µg per 100 g, and sardines or mackerel several times the daily figure. Pair chicken with eggs or dairy.
How long does it take to raise vitamin B12 with food?
Weeks to months, and often not to normal. Two glasses of milk a day raised blood B12 from 92.8 to 122.1 pmol/L in 14 days in deficient young adults, still under the 148 pmol/L cut-off. In a 12-month trial near Pune, small daily doses improved status gradually, and dose, starting level and regularity decided how far. Established deficiency is treated first.
References Copy link
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. A Brief Note on Nutrient Requirements for Indians, the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) and the Estimated Average Requirements (EAR). Hyderabad: ICMR-NIN; 2020. Tables 3 and 4, vitamin B12 RDA 2.2 µg/d, EAR 2 µg/d. Accessed 20 October 2026.
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin B12 - Health Professional Fact Sheet. Updated 2 July 2025. Tables 1 and 2; absorption section. Accessed 20 October 2026.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. USDA FoodData Central. SR Legacy entries: chicken breast, meat only, cooked, roasted (171477); chicken thigh, meat only, cooked, roasted (172388); game meat, goat, cooked, roasted (175304); lamb liver, cooked, braised (172532); fish, mackerel, Atlantic, cooked, dry heat (175120); sardine, Atlantic, canned in oil, drained solids with bone (175139). Accessed 20 October 2026.
- Naik S, Mahalle N, Greibe E, et al. Comparative Bioavailability of Synthetic B12 and Dietary Vitamin B12 Present in Cow and Buffalo Milk: A Prospective Study in Lactovegetarian Indians. Nutrients. 2019;11(2):304. doi:10.3390/nu11020304. Four-week randomized trial, 200 ml milk twice daily; milk B12 about 0.78 µg per 200 ml.
- Kashyap S, Gowda P, Pasanna RM, Sivadas A, Sachdev HS, Kurpad AV, Devi S. The Oral Bioavailability of Vitamin B12 at Different Doses in Healthy Indian Adults. Nutrients. 2024;16(23):4157. doi:10.3390/nu16234157. Cross-over [13C]-cyanocobalamin tracer study, 9 healthy adults, Bengaluru; active absorption plateau about 1.2 µg at a 2.5 µg dose; passive share about 1% (2.3% when doses to 1,000 µg are included).
- Watanabe F. Vitamin B12 Sources and Bioavailability. Experimental Biology and Medicine. 2007;232(10):1266-1274. doi:10.3181/0703-MR-67. Table 1 bioavailability by food; absorption saturation at about 1.5–2.0 µg per meal; heating losses in milk and meat.
- Longvah T, Ananthan R, Bhaskarachary K, Venkaiah K. Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Hyderabad: ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition; 2017. Water-soluble vitamin set excludes vitamin B12; B12 was last analyzed in the 1971 and 1989 editions (preface, pp. ix–x).
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Vitamin B12 deficiency in over 16s: diagnosis and management. NICE guideline NG239; 6 March 2024. Box 2 risk factors; recommendations 1.5.11, 1.5.13, 1.5.14, 1.5.15.
- Watanabe F, Yabuta Y, Bito T, Teng F. Vitamin B12-Containing Plant Food Sources for Vegetarians. Nutrients. 2014;6(5):1861-1873. doi:10.3390/nu6051861. Nori, shiitake, tempeh, kimchi and spirulina values; cottage cheese recovery of milk B12.
- Marchi M, et al. Lettuce fortification through vitamin B12-producing bacteria – proof of concept study. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 2025. doi:10.1002/jsfa.14095. Cited for the statement that plants neither synthesize nor require vitamin B12.
- Naik S, Bhide V, Babhulkar A, et al. Daily milk intake improves vitamin B-12 status in young vegetarian Indians: an intervention trial. Nutrition Journal. 2013;12:136. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-12-136. Small uncontrolled trial, 29 deficient adults, 14 days; milk B12 2.50–3.85 µg/L.
- Bahman S, Yadav N, Kumar A, Ganguly S, Garg V, Marwaha SS. Impact of household practices on the nutritional profile of milk. Indian Journal of Public Health. 2012;56(1):82-87. doi:10.4103/0019-557X.96983. Industry-funded (Nestlé India with Punjab Biotechnology Incubator); 21% vitamin B12 loss on boiling.
- NHS. Vitamin A - Vitamins and minerals. Liver and liver products not more than once a week; avoid in pregnancy. Accessed 27 October 2026.
- Sivaprasad M, Shalini T, Balakrishna N, et al. Status of Vitamin B12 and Folate among the Urban Adult Population in South India. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism. 2016;68(2):94-102. doi:10.1159/000442677. Cross-sectional, 630 adults, Hyderabad; deficiency 54% in vegetarians, 31% on a mixed diet.
- Mandhania MH, Paul D, Suryavanshi MV, et al. Diversity and Succession of Microbiota during Fermentation of the Traditional Indian Food Idli. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2019;85(13). doi:10.1128/AEM.00368-19. Vitamin B12 detected during batter fermentation by an E. coli auxotroph plate assay; no quantity reported.
- Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University. Vitamin B12. Micronutrient Information Center. Reviewed November 2023. Passive absorption of about 1% to 2% of an oral dose. Accessed 20 October 2026.
- Corichi M. Eight-in-ten Indians limit meat in their diets, and four-in-ten consider themselves vegetarian. Pew Research Center; 8 July 2021. From the survey "Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation" (29,999 adults, 2019–20).
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. Dietary Guidelines for Indians. 2024 edition. Hyderabad: ICMR-NIN; 2024. Guideline 1 rationale (p. 2), Guideline 2 key points (p. 13), water-soluble vitamins (p. 10).
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2018. Compendium version V, 1 June 2022. Schedule I items 3 (milk), 4 (atta), 5 (maida), 6 (rice); Schedule III cereal products and bakery wares.
- Prime Minister's Office, Government of India. Cabinet approves continuation of supply of free Fortified Rice under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKAY) and other welfare schemes from July, 2024 to December, 2028. 9 October 2024.
- Yajnik CS, Deshmukh US, Bhat DS, et al. Vitamin B12 absorption and factors associated with the response to long-term oral B12 supplementation: a secondary analysis of data from a B12-deficient Indian rural community. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Published online 21 September 2026. doi:10.1038/s41430-026-01825-z. 313 participants (children, mothers, fathers), 12-month double-blind randomized trial of 0, 2 or 10 µg cyanocobalamin daily; ISRCTN59289820.
This article is general health information for readers in India and is not a substitute for a consultation. Food values are averages from the cited tables and vary by source, season and preparation. If you have symptoms of low vitamin B12, or take metformin or acid-reducing medicines, a blood test with your doctor comes before a change in diet. Report an error on this page.