Vitamin B12 is naturally found in animal foods such as fish, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and milk products. Vitamin B12 is generally not present in plant foods. Fortified breakfast cereals are a readily available source of vitamin B12. The vitamin is more available to the body from these cereals for vegetarians. Some nutritional yeast products also contain vitamin B12.

You can get the recommended amounts of vitamin B12 by eating a variety of the foods including:

Organ meats (beef liver)

Shellfish (clams)

Meat, poultry, eggs, milk and other dairy foods

Some fortified breakfast cereals and nutritional yeasts

To find out if vitamin B12 has been added to a food product, check the nutrition fact panel on the food label.

The body absorbs vitamin B12 from animal sources much better than plant sources. Non-animal sources of vitamin B12 have different amount of B12. They are not thought to be good sources of the vitamin.