Where MSM Occurs in Food—and How Little Those Foods Provide

MSM occurs naturally in dairy, coffee, tomatoes, tea, beer, corn, Swiss chard, alfalfa, chicken, and other foods. Reported concentrations are variable and measured in parts per million. These occurrence data do not show that ordinary servings provide gram-level supplement exposure—or that eating foods containing MSM produces effects claimed for purified MSM supplements.

The short answer: MSM occurs in food, but only in trace amounts

Here, MSM means methylsulfonylmethane, an organosulfur compound also called dimethyl sulfone or DMSO₂. MSM can form when dimethyl sulfoxide, or DMSO, is oxidized. The two compounds are chemically related, but they are not interchangeable.

Reported dietary sources include:

• Bovine dairy, including cow’s milk
• Coffee
• Fresh tomatoes and tomato paste
• Tea
• Beer
• Corn
• Swiss chard
• Chicken tissue
• Alfalfa
• Broader groups of fruits, vegetables, grains, animal products, and some algae

A scientific review describes MSM as occurring in fruits, vegetables, grains, beer, coffee, tea, and cow’s milk. It also emphasizes that dietary concentrations are small (review of MSM occurrence and applications).

Chicken is identified as a source in a secondary research summary, although no concentration is provided. Other references report MSM in certain algae. These qualitative occurrence reports do not establish how much a person would consume in an ordinary serving.

Foods should not be presented as therapeutic sources of MSM. Detecting a compound answers whether it is present in a tested sample; it does not establish a meaningful dose, absorption into relevant tissues, or a health effect. Choose these foods for their overall nutritional value rather than as a way to reproduce a supplement serving.

There are also two common search ambiguities. “MSM foods” may refer to Treats in the game My Singing Monsters or to an MSM supplement sold by the NOW Foods brand. Both meanings are addressed briefly below; the rest of this article concerns methylsulfonylmethane in food.

Reported MSM concentrations in foods and drinks

The figures below are approximate values reported through secondary references. They help show the scale of food concentrations, but they do not create a definitive ranking of the “richest” MSM foods.

Unless otherwise noted, the common-food figures come from an MSM research summary that reports the listed concentrations without providing equally complete laboratory details for every item (Examine’s MSM research breakdown). The upper end of the beer range, the alfalfa figure, and the qualitative horsetail report also appear in an archived review page.

Common foods and drinks

Food or drink	Approximate reported MSM concentration	Evidence limitation
Bovine dairy	3.3–8.2 ppm	The range combines reports that differ by source and sample
Coffee	1.6 ppm	Beverage preparation and measurement basis are not consistently described
Tomato paste	0.64–0.86 ppm	Processing complicates comparisons with fresh tomatoes
Tea	0.3 ppm	Tea type and preparation details are not specified
Fresh tomatoes	0.20–0.32 ppm	Variety, ripeness, and sample conditions may differ
Beer	Approximately 0.14–0.18 ppm	The endpoints come from different secondary reports
Swiss chard	0.05–0.18 ppm	The reported range is wide relative to the small concentration
Corn	Up to 0.11 ppm	“Up to” does not represent a typical serving or sample
Chicken tissue	Reported source; no value given	The report is qualitative rather than quantitative

Repetition of a figure across secondary summaries also should not be mistaken for independent laboratory confirmation.

Agricultural and herbal examples

Item	Approximate reported MSM concentration	Evidence limitation
Alfalfa	0.07 ppm	The tested form may not reflect ordinary human consumption
Horsetail	No quantitative value reported	MSM has been isolated from the plant, but the report does not define dietary exposure
Certain algae	No quantitative value reported	Broad occurrence reports do not provide serving-level quantities

Alfalfa, horsetail, and algae should be distinguished from familiar everyday foods. Their presence in source lists does not mean people need to consume them or that they are practical ways to increase MSM exposure.

What parts per million means in practical terms

For a mass-based concentration, 1 part per million is approximately 1 milligram per kilogram. That conversion is useful only when the measurement basis supports it. Values reported on a dry-weight basis, for example, cannot be treated as directly equivalent to the same value measured in a prepared beverage or another wet food.

Coffee offers a scale illustration. Using the reported concentration of 1.6 ppm, one kilogram of the measured material would contain approximately 1.6 milligrams of MSM under the same mass-based assumptions.

For comparison, NOW Foods lists 2,000 mg of MSM in a two-capsule serving of its MSM 1000 mg product (NOW Foods product label). That is a gram-level labeled amount. The food figures describe milligrams per kilogram—or fractions of a milligram per kilogram—before accounting for actual serving size.

This comparison does not mean that dietary MSM is inadequate, and it is not a recommendation to take a supplement. It shows only that detecting trace MSM in food and consuming a concentrated supplement are very different forms of exposure.

Do MSM-containing foods provide the benefits claimed for supplements?

Four separate questions are often collapsed into one:

1. Presence: Is MSM chemically detectable in the food?
2. Exposure: How much MSM is consumed in a realistic serving?
3. Absorption: How much of that amount is absorbed and reaches relevant tissues?
4. Clinical effect: Does the exposure measurably change pain, skin, exercise recovery, inflammation, or another outcome?

A food-occurrence measurement addresses the first question. Without dependable serving-level exposure, absorption, and clinical-outcome evidence, it cannot establish joint, skin, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, or exercise-recovery effects from eating that food.

The available concentration reports also do not show that a normal diet can reproduce the gram-level exposures investigated in supplement research. Even if a trial reports an effect from purified supplemental MSM, that finding cannot automatically be transferred to milk, coffee, tomatoes, or another food containing trace MSM among many other compounds.

Readers evaluating purified supplements can consult Bulk MSM’s separate review, MSM Supplement Benefits: What the Trials Actually Show. Supplement trials and food-occurrence measurements answer different questions and should be evaluated separately.

Cooking, processing, and the limits of the evidence

Some secondary references state that heating or dehydration may reduce MSM in fresh foods. However, the cited support is old and does not provide dependable retention percentages for particular foods, temperatures, cooking times, or processing methods (Drugs.com’s medically reviewed MSM monograph).

The evidence therefore does not justify broad claims that:

• Cooking always destroys MSM.
• Raw foods are categorically better sources of MSM.
• Pasteurization removes a known percentage of MSM from milk.

It also does not support choosing raw or unpasteurized milk as an MSM strategy. Uncertain retention of a trace compound is not a sound reason to change established food-handling choices.

Another source of confusion is the distinction between MSM and DMSO. Some food lists include numerical measurements for beets and cabbage, but those measurements concern DMSO, not MSM. Because they are different compounds, DMSO measurements cannot be relabeled as direct measurements of MSM.

Evidence-quality check

• Many concentration figures circulate through secondary summaries rather than complete primary laboratory reports.
• Sample preparation, analytical methods, and wet- versus dry-weight reporting are often unclear.
• Some figures conflict, including reported concentrations for dairy and beer.
• Reliable retention percentages for cooking, drying, and pasteurization are not available from the cited evidence.
• Parts of the literature have commercial or industry affiliations; one scientific review, for example, includes an author affiliated with an MSM manufacturer.
• Product labels and retailer articles require separate scrutiny from independent clinical evidence.

These limitations do not mean MSM is absent from food. They mean the reported values are more useful for understanding approximate scale than for calculating exact daily intake or declaring one food the best source.

If you meant My Singing Monsters or NOW Foods

In My Singing Monsters, food is called Treats. Treats are mainly baked in Bakeries using Coins and then fed to Monsters to increase their levels. They may also come from selected rewards and purchases. The available community-edited Treats guide describes these mechanics, but its supplied recipe information is incomplete and should not be treated as a comprehensive official guide.

If you meant NOW Foods, that is a brand name rather than a category of food naturally containing MSM. Its capsule product supplies the concentrated label amount used in the comparison above. Statements on the manufacturer’s page about joints, cartilage, skin, or connective tissue are marketing claims, not independent clinical evidence.

For dietary purposes, the conclusion is straightforward: MSM has been reported in several familiar foods, but the measured amounts are trace and variable. Eat dairy, tomatoes, corn, leafy vegetables, and other listed foods for their place in a balanced diet—not as a strategy for obtaining a gram-level MSM exposure used in supplement research.