Foods high in protein: ranked by France's official Ciqual table
According to the 2025 Ciqual table from ANSES, France's food safety agency, the top three everyday foods highest in protein: “Egg white, powder” (81.1 g per 100 g), “Cod, salted, dried” (47.6 g) and “Beef, cheek, braised or boiled” (39.2 g).
What it does
Protein is what your body is built from: muscle, skin, hair, nails and the matrix of your bones. It also keeps the machinery running as enzymes, hormones, antibodies and hemoglobin. Proteins are assembled from 20 amino acids, and 9 of them your body can't make in sufficient amounts: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. Those can only come from your plate. As France's food safety agency ANSES points out, animal proteins generally contain more of them and are slightly more digestible than plant proteins.
The ranking: the 25 everyday foods highest in protein
| Rank | Food | Group | g / 100 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Egg white, powder | Eggs | 81.1 |
| 2 | Cod, salted, dried | Fish products | 47.6 |
| 3 | Beef, cheek, braised or boiled | Cooked meat | 39.2 |
| 4 | Viande des Grisons or dried beef meat | Delicatessen meat and similar | 38.9 |
| 5 | Veal, knuckle or shank, braised or boiled | Cooked meat | 37.4 |
| 6 | Pork, round steak, cooked | Cooked meat | 36.9 |
| 7 | Soybean, seed, whole | Nuts and seeds | 36.5 |
| 8 | Lupin, seed, dried | Legumes | 36.2 |
| 9 | Milk powder, skimmed | Milk | 35.3 |
| 10 | Lamb, leg, braised | Cooked meat | 35.2 |
| 11 | Dry sausage, reduced fat | Delicatessen meat and similar | 34.6 |
| 12 | Mimolette cheese, old, from cow's milk (cured 12 months minimum) | Cheese and similar | 34 |
| 13 | Grana Padano cheese, from cow's milk | Cheese and similar | 33.9 |
| 14 | Mimolette cheese, extra old, from cow's milk (cured 18 months minimum) | Cheese and similar | 33.7 |
| 15 | Rabbit, wild, meat, cooked | Cooked meat | 33 |
| 16 | Bresaola | Delicatessen meat and similar | 32.8 |
| 17 | Venison, roebuck, roasted/baked | Cooked meat | 32.6 |
| 18 | Squid, boiled/cooked in water | Seafood, cooked | 32.5 |
| 19 | Pheasant, meat, roasted/baked | Cooked meat | 32.4 |
| 20 | Preserved gizzards, duck, canned | Cooked meat | 32.4 |
| 21 | Asiago cheese, from cow's milk | Cheese and similar | 32.1 |
| 22 | Beef, braised | Cooked meat | 32.1 |
| 23 | Cheese mix, grated, from cow's milk | Cheese and similar | 32 |
| 24 | Duck confit (conserved in rendered fat), meat (leg) without skin, canned, reheated | Delicatessen meat and similar | 32 |
| 25 | Albacore, in olive oil, canned, drained | Fish products | 31.3 |
How much you need
There is no nutrient reference value (NRV) for protein: EU labels only use a reference intake of 50 g a day for an average adult (Regulation 1169/2011, Annex XIII). Your real need scales with your weight. EFSA (2012) sets the adult reference at 0.83 g per kg of body weight per day (about 0.38 g per lb), roughly 58 g for a 70 kg (154 lb) adult, with extra during pregnancy and breastfeeding. If you train, the International Society of Sports Nutrition's 2017 position stand puts the range at 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg a day to build and maintain muscle. EFSA considers intakes up to twice the reference safe.
Best sources, food group by food group
| Food group | Food | g / 100 g |
|---|---|---|
| Meat | Beef, cheek, braised or boiled | 39.2 |
| Veal, knuckle or shank, braised or boiled | 37.4 | |
| Pork, round steak, cooked | 36.9 | |
| Fish and seafood | Cod, salted, dried | 47.6 |
| Squid, boiled/cooked in water | 32.5 | |
| Albacore, in olive oil, canned, drained | 31.3 | |
| Eggs and dairy | Egg white, powder | 81.1 |
| Milk powder, skimmed | 35.3 | |
| Mimolette cheese, old, from cow's milk (cured 12 months minimum) | 34 | |
| Legumes, grains, tubers | Lupin, seed, dried | 36.2 |
| Lentil, pink or red, dried | 27.7 | |
| Broad bean, dried | 26.1 | |
| Fruits and vegetables | Pigeon pea, whole, steamed (Martinique) | 16.3 |
| Tomato, dried | 14.1 | |
| Goji berry, dried | 12.1 | |
| Nuts and seeds | Soybean, seed, whole | 36.5 |
| Hemp, seed, hulled | 30.8 | |
| Alfalfa, seeds | 29.7 |
Highest in protein per 100 kcal
Useful when you are cutting or counting calories: grams of protein per 100 kcal of the food (foods with at least 40 kcal per 100 g).
| Rank | Food | Group | g / 100 kcal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ling, cooked | Fish, cooked | 25 |
| 2 | Common sole, grilled/pan-fried without added fat | Fish, cooked | 25 |
| 3 | Pollock, cooked | Fish, cooked | 24.9 |
| 4 | Nursehound or lesser spotted dogfish, cooked | Fish, cooked | 24.4 |
| 5 | Ray, roasted/baked | Fish, cooked | 23.9 |
| 6 | Cod, roasted/baked | Fish, cooked | 23.6 |
| 7 | Haddock, grilled/pan-fried without added fat | Fish, cooked | 23.6 |
| 8 | Anglerfish, grilled/pan-fried without added fat | Fish, cooked | 23.4 |
| 9 | Whiting, steamed | Fish, cooked | 23.4 |
| 10 | Haddock, smoked | Fish products | 23.3 |
| 11 | Saithe, cooked | Fish, cooked | 23.2 |
| 12 | Northern pike, roasted/baked | Fish, cooked | 23.1 |
| 13 | Cod, salted, boiled/cooked in water | Fish, cooked | 23 |
| 14 | Turkey, escalope, grilled/pan-fried | Cooked meat | 23 |
| 15 | Frog, leg, grilled/pan-fried without added fat | Seafood, cooked | 22.9 |
| 16 | Egg white, powder | Eggs | 22.8 |
| 17 | Pinkspotted shrimp, boiled | Seafood, cooked | 22.7 |
| 18 | White shrimp or tropical shrimp (rose), boiled | Seafood, cooked | 22.7 |
| 19 | Shrimp or prawn, wild, boiled | Seafood, cooked | 22.6 |
| 20 | Grey shrimp, peeled, boiled, refrigerated, prepacked | Seafood, cooked | 22.6 |
Practical tips
- Look at protein per 100 kcal too. Ranking per 100 g favors dried foods like egg white powder or salt cod. The density ranking shows what you get per calorie: in the Ciqual table, cooked white fish (sole, pollack, cod) deliver more than 23 g of protein per 100 kcal.
- Spread it over the day. The ISSN suggests about 0.25 g of high-quality protein per kg per meal, or 20 to 40 g, ideally every 3 to 4 hours.
- Vegetarian? No need to combine at every meal. Grains are low in lysine and legumes in sulfur amino acids, but ANSES sees no reason to systematically pair them when your sources are varied. 100 g (3.5 oz) of cooked lentils provides about 10 g of protein (Ciqual).
- Food first. The ISSN notes that you can meet your needs with whole foods; powders are just a practical option when training volume is high.
How this ranking is built
Values per 100 g of the food as described (raw, cooked, drained…), as published by ANSES, France's food safety agency, in the 2025 Ciqual table (3484 foods; protein content known for 3455 of them). The everyday ranking leaves out spices, herbs, seaweed and condiments, supplements and foods for special medical purposes, baby foods, alcohol, and raw meat or fish (the cooked version is kept). To keep the examples varied, only one food per main name is kept (the richest). Values listed as “traces” count as zero; values below the quantification limit are not ranked.
Frequently asked questions
Which food has the most protein?
Top of the everyday foods in the 2025 Ciqual table from ANSES: “Egg white, powder”, with 81.1 g per 100 g, ahead of “Cod, salted, dried” (47.6 g) and “Beef, cheek, braised or boiled” (39.2 g).
How much protein do I need per day?
For an adult, EFSA's reference is 0.83 g per kg of body weight per day, about 58 g for a 70 kg (154 lb) person. If you lift weights or train a lot, the International Society of Sports Nutrition puts the range at 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg, or 98 to 140 g for 70 kg.
Which plant foods are highest in protein?
In the Ciqual table, whole soybeans (36.5 g per 100 g), dried lupin (36.2 g), hulled hemp seeds (30.8 g) and dried red lentils (27.7 g) come out on top. Mind the state they're in: once cooked, lentils soak up water and drop to about 10 g per 100 g.
Sources
- Anses. Table de composition nutritionnelle des aliments Ciqual 2025. doi:10.5281/zenodo.17550133
- EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA). Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for protein. EFSA Journal. 2012. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2557
- Anses. Protéines : rôle, sources et apports recommandés. 2025. anses.fr
- Jäger R, Kerksick CM, Campbell BI, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017. doi:10.1186/s12970-017-0177-8
- Règlement (UE) n° 1169/2011 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 25 octobre 2011 concernant l'information des consommateurs sur les denrées alimentaires, annexe XIII. Journal officiel de l'Union européenne. 2011. eur-lex.europa.eu
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