Oysters, canned

Listed nutrients, per 100 g

For each nutrient, the value this page uses is marked “used”. A row marked “second database” is another database’s figure for a matching food, kept so you can see how far databases disagree (they can differ in the samples analysed, lab methods and rounding). Its own cells are worked out from it, but none of the page’s words or scores are.

Change the amount to rescale the first column. Nutrients a database doesn't list are missing, not zero.

Hazard rows as the dataset rates them

• Arsenic, all forms · Context · Context only, not rated (total arsenic is mostly arsenobetaine in bivalves). Inorganic arsenic in canned oysters: not found. · CFIA mercury and metals in fish (2000–2021) · B
• BPA from can linings · Not rated yet · Not rated: no bisphenol A value for canned oysters has been found yet. EFSA's 2023 tolerable daily intake gives a grams limit, so a measured canned-oyster value would turn this into a rated row. Whether the can is lined, and with what, varies by brand. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, BPA · C
• Cadmium · Limit it: weekly or less · Weekly or less: EFSA's 2009 tolerable weekly intake (TWI) for cadmium is 2.5 µg/kg body weight/week, 175 µg a week for 70 kg. No market sample of canned oysters exists yet, so raw Pacific oyster meat stands in (CFIA, 39 samples, mean 1.43 µg/g): eaten alone, about 120 g a week would reach it, and a 55 g serving carries 78.7 µg. The only canned sample, 7.59 µg/g, is shown beside it. · CFIA mercury and metals in fish (2000–2021) · B
• Cadmium · Limit it: weekly or less · Weekly or less: shown beside the headline figure. The one canned sample measured (CFIA, 7.59 µg/g) would reach EFSA's tolerable weekly intake for cadmium (2.5 µg/kg body weight/week, 175 µg a week for 70 kg) at about 23 g a week; a 55 g serving carries 417 µg. It is one sample from a harvest-area plan, with more cadmium than its zinc would suggest, so it is not a market figure. · CFIA mercury and metals in fish (2000–2021) · C
• Copper · Go easy: within 2 servings of the limit · No cap: EFSA's 2023 acceptable daily intake (ADI) for copper is 0.07 mg/kg body weight/day, 4,900 µg a day at 70 kg, all sources. Eaten alone, about 110 g in one day on USDA's value would reach it, and 729 g on the CFIA sample (6.72 µg/g). A 55 g serving (2.45 mg) is 50% of the ADI on USDA's value or 8% on CFIA's. Health Canada's upper intake level is 10 mg a day. · US food database (USDA SR Legacy) · C
• Dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs · Worth knowing · Flagged: EFSA's 2026 tolerable weekly intake for dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs is 0.6 pg WHO 2022 toxic equivalents/kg body weight/week, 42 pg a week. Eaten alone, about 133 g a week would reach it at the upper bound (0.3147 pg/g) and 309 g at the lower bound (0.136). The average adult's intake (18.7–56.4 pg a day) is already above the limit, and a 55 g serving adds 13% (lower bound over the highest background) to 93% (upper bound over the lowest). The data are 4 imported oyster samples from 2017 (CFIA); the form, canned or raw, is not stated, so this is a category figure, not a canned-oyster measurement. · CFIA dioxins survey (2014–2019) · B
• Lead · Nothing to watch: rated by margin of exposure · No cap: no safe limit is set for lead (EFSA 2010 benchmark dose lower limit (BMDL01) of 0.5 µg/kg body weight/day), so no grams figure. The single CFIA canned sample was a non-detect, which cannot be rated against the average adult intake of 35 µg a day; it is treated as no added intake, at a detection limit that is unknown. For scale, raw eastern oysters average 0.034 µg/g (66 samples), which at 55 g would be 1.9 µg a day (5% of average intake). · CFIA mercury and metals in fish (2000–2021) · B
• Methylmercury · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's 2012 tolerable weekly intake for methylmercury is 1.3 µg/kg body weight/week as mercury, 91 µg a week. The one canned sample was below the 0.05 reporting limit, so at that upper bound about 1,820 g a week would reach it (a floor). A 55 g serving carries at most 2.75 µg, against a daily allowance of 13 µg. In the same file, raw eastern oysters were below the detection limit for total mercury in 48 of 57 samples. · CFIA mercury and metals in fish (2000–2021) · B
• Mollusc allergy · Worth knowing · Flagged for people with a mollusc allergy: Health Canada lists crustaceans and molluscs among the priority food allergens, and oysters are molluscs. No source shows that canning removes the allergen, and allergen labelling applies to the product. · Health Canada, Crustaceans and Molluscs - Priority food allergens · A
• Purines and gout · Not rated yet · Not rated for people with gout or hyperuricemia: the only reference is a Japanese dietary recommendation of 400 mg purines a day, seen through Kaneko 2014 rather than an agency document, so no reference is established. Oysters measure 184.5 mg purines per 100 g (HPLC, Kaneko 2014, four purine bases; the species and whether raw are not stated). No canned figure was found, so that value stands in. A 55 g serving carries about 102 mg. For scale only, 400 mg would be reached at about 217 g. · Kaneko 2014 · C
• Zinc · Go easy: can push past the limit · May exceed, on USDA's listing: Health Canada's tolerable upper intake level (UL) for zinc in adults is 40 mg a day from all sources. Eaten alone, about 44 g of canned oysters in one day on USDA's listing would reach it; 213 g on the CFIA Pacific sample and 632 g on the unspecified sample. A 55 g serving carries 50 mg on USDA's value (125% of the UL) and 10 mg on CFIA's. The three sources span a 14-fold range, which is the finding; the UL is a ceiling for long-term daily intake. · US food database (USDA SR Legacy) · C

Sources

• CFIA, Food Safety Action Plan Targeted Survey: Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in Selected Foods 2014-2019 (data and 2-page overview PDF; report page inspection.canada.ca)
  cfia-dioxins-2014-2019 · dataset · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
• CFIA, Mercury and Metals in Fish Products, 2000-2021 (inspection results; compilation of raw data)
  cfia-metals-fish-2000-2021 · dataset · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
• Health Canada, Canadian Nutrient File 2026 (14th edition)
  cnf-2026 · dataset · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, 2018-04
  fdc-sr-legacy-2018-04 · dataset · CC0 1.0 (public domain)
• Health Canada, Crustaceans and Molluscs - Priority food allergens (2017, Cat. H164-156/5-1-2017E-PDF)
  hc-priority-allergens-crustaceans-molluscs · secondary source · Government of Canada terms (Crown copyright)
• Health Canada, Canadian Total Diet Study - Bisphenol A (BPA) 2008-2012, 2016 (open.canada.ca, dataset 0497695c-dd4c-42d6-8201-45d63509f416, resource a75e3f05-5de9-4ae6-8da6-4d8d1b4bc75c)
  hc-tds-bpa · dataset · Open Government Licence - Canada 2.0
• Kaneko K, et al. (2014) Total purine and purine base content of common foodstuffs for facilitating nutritional therapy for gout and hyperuricemia. Biol Pharm Bull 37(5):709-721 · doi:10.1248/bpb.b13-00967 · PMID 24553148
  kaneko-2014-purines · secondary source · J-STAGE open access

Body map 2026-10-25.1: each nutrient’s job comes from an agency fact sheet, linked beside it under Good for.

The plain words: “a lot” means one serving (100 g when the food has no serving size) gives at least 20% of the daily amount (the reference intake), “some” at least 10%, “a little” at least 2% (the cut-offs are ours, one set for every page: 20% and 10% are borrowed from the US labelling terms “high” and “good source” and applied to Health Canada’s daily amount, whereas Health Canada’s own shopper rule says 15%; provisional: they may change in a later method version). The daily amount is Health Canada’s Dietary Reference Intake for adults 19–30; where men and women need different amounts we use the higher one (protein: 56 g for men, 46 g for women). The percentage printed under each nutrient is the printed amount as a share of that daily amount, rounded to the nearest whole number, and the word is read from that percentage, so the amount, the percentage and the word always agree. Calcium with a measured absorption is scaled by how well it gets in compared with milk.

The scale: “Nothing to watch” means a serving a day stays under the limit at ordinary amounts; “Go easy” means a serving a day can push past the limit for adults who already take in the most, or fewer than 2 servings reach it; “Limit it” means once a week or less. The dataset’s own rating is under “How we got this”. Provisional: the scale may change in a later method version.

Measured absorption under Good for: grade-A studies in adults that tested this preparation of this food, as a share of the listed amount (the share digested, for protein), quoted once each source has passed our evidence check; animal studies and other variants stay in the table above. Provisional: this screen may change in a later method version.