Butternut squash, baked

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

• Aluminum · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's 2008 tolerable weekly intake for aluminium is 1 mg/kg body weight/week, 70,000 µg a week. At the CFIA lower-bound mean of 614.4 µg/kg (raw squash, winter and summer together, 151 samples), about 113,932 g a week, eaten alone, would reach it, and an 85 g serving carries 52.2 µg. This is a raw basis, not a baked butternut figure. · CFIA chemical residue monitoring (2016–2023) · B
• Arsenic, all forms · Not rated yet · Not rated: the FDA found total arsenic averaging 2 µg/kg in 27 boiled-squash samples (8 detected, reporting limit 3 ppb), but EFSA's 2024 reference point of 0.06 µg/kg body weight/day (BMDL05) applies to inorganic arsenic, which was not measured. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · A
• Cadmium · Nothing to watch: under the limit · A daily serving adds 1% to an average adult's cadmium intake (EFSA 2012 adult median, 1.77 µg/kg body weight/week; Canadian adults in 2007: 1.2-1.75), far from doubling it, so no cap. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · A
• Cucurbitacins (bitter squash) · Worth knowing · Flagged for bitter squash: the German BfR gives no concentration or threshold for cucurbitacins, only the rule to taste a raw piece before cooking and discard the vegetable if it is bitter. Edible cultivars are bred not to form them, and BfR knew of no poisonings from zucchini or pumpkins in 24 years; a French poison-centre series counted 353 patients after non-edible squash (2012-2016). Baking does not change the advice. · BfR 2015 · A
• Histamine · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's 2011 no-effect level for histamine is 50 mg per person per meal. At the mean of 0.28 mg/kg in pumpkin (12 samples, fresh), about 178,571 g in one meal would reach it, and 26,316 g at the highest value, 1.90 mg/kg. Histamine appeared in only a few samples, all under 2 mg/kg. · Sanchezperez 2018 · B
• Inorganic arsenic · Not rated yet · Not rated: EFSA's 2024 reference point for inorganic arsenic is a benchmark dose lower limit (BMDL05) of 0.06 µg/kg body weight/day, with no safe limit, but inorganic arsenic was not measured in this food; only total arsenic was. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · A
• Lead · Nothing to watch: doesn’t double average intake · No cap: no safe limit is set for lead; EFSA's 2010 reference point is a benchmark dose lower limit (BMDL01) of 0.5 µg/kg body weight/day. In the FDA Total Diet Study none of 27 boiled-squash samples had lead above the 4 ppb reporting limit, so an 85 g serving carries at most 0.34 µg, up to 0.97% of the average adult's 35 µg a day, and zero if the true value is below the limit. CFIA found lead in 33 of 151 raw squash samples (lower-bound mean 3.49 µg/kg), so the non-detect is a detection limit, not proof of absence; the data are boiled squash, not baked. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · A
• Nickel · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's 2020 tolerable daily intake for nickel is 13 µg/kg body weight/day, 910 µg a day. At the FDA mean of 68 µg/kg (27 boiled samples, 13 detected), about 13,382 g of squash a day, eaten alone, would reach it, and an 85 g serving carries 5.78 µg. CFIA's raw squash is higher at 101 µg/kg, about 9,000 g a day; the FDA data are boiled, not baked. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · A
• Nitrate · Context · Shown as context, not rated: EFSA's 2017 acceptable daily intake for nitrate is 3.7 mg/kg body weight/day, 259,000 µg a day at 70 kg. At the mean of 894 mg/kg in raw pumpkin (EU data, 32 samples, used as a proxy for butternut), about 290 g a day, eaten alone, would reach it; 661 g at the median of 392 and 56 g at the 95th percentile, 4,617. The mean is driven by a few French outliers (maximum 5,665). · EFSA 2008 · B
• Pesticide residues · Context · Shown as context, not rated: 303 of 617 CFIA screens of raw squash (winter and summer together) had a residue, 34.9% of 232 domestic and 57.7% of 385 imported samples. The pesticide screen lines themselves show 0 violations; two pooled 2022-23 import lines show one each (dithiocarbamate, 1 of 41; acephate, 1 of 47). This is not specific to butternut. · CFIA chemical residue monitoring (2016–2023) · B

Oxalate, phytate and gut-tolerance measurements

• fodmap excess fructose: none: fructose 0.99 g/100 g equals glucose 0.99 g/100 g in raw butternut (SR Legacy); polyols, fructan and GOS not found g/100 g · fresh weight (raw) · raw (the baked entry gives total sugars 1.97 g/100 g only) · grade B · US food database (USDA SR Legacy)
• histamine: pumpkin mean 0.28 mg/kg (standard deviation 0.54), n 12, nd-1.90; tyramine not detected mg/kg · fresh weight · raw / fresh · grade B · Sanchezperez 2018

Sources

• BfR (Bundesinstitut fur Risikobewertung), Caution when eating bitter-tasting courgettes (zucchini), BfR Communication No. 027/2015 of 4 September 2015; German: Vorsicht beim Verzehr von bitteren Zucchini (Mitteilung Nr. 027/2015)
  bfr-2015-bitter-courgettes · full text read · licence not recorded
• CFIA, National Chemical Residue Monitoring Program, Annex B1 (domestic) and B2 (import) results summaries 2016-17 to 2022-23 (open.canada.ca); rows Watermelon, Melon - Cantaloupe, Cucumber, Zucchini
  cfia-ncrmp-annexes-2016-2023 · secondary source · Government of Canada terms (Crown copyright)
• Health Canada, Canadian Nutrient File 2026 (14th edition)
  cnf-2026 · dataset · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
• EFSA CONTAM Panel (2008) Nitrate in vegetables. EFSA Journal 689 · doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2008.689
  efsa-2008-nitrate · full text read · EFSA Journal: CC BY-ND 4.0
• US FDA. Total Diet Study elements FY2018-FY2020 summary (media159749).
  fda-tds-elements-fy2018-2020 · dataset · US public domain
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, 2018-04
  fdc-sr-legacy-2018-04 · dataset · CC0 1.0 (public domain)
• Sánchez-Pérez S et al. 2018, Foods 7:205, Table 1 (histamine in plant foods; PMC6306728)
  sanchezperez2018 · full text read · CC BY 4.0

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.