Foods high in Vitamin C

Vitamin C breaks down under heat, so fresh produce ranks higher than cooked. Freezing stops the clock; frozen fruit retains nearly as much as the day it was picked. Fortification adds it back to some juices and cereals, which is why processed items sometimes beat whole foods on this table. What you see here is what reaches your mouth, not what left the farm.

Citrus, berries, peppers and leafy greens concentrate vitamin C most densely. Your body cannot store it, so repeated small amounts across the day matter more than one large dose. The ranking captures a single snapshot; ripeness, storage time and how a food was handled shift these figures considerably.