Bean Sprouts (Mung & Lentil Sprouts): Nutrients, What Research Shows and Safety

Bean sprouts are young seedlings grown from dried legume seeds. The common ones are mung bean sprouts (Vigna radiata) and lentil sprouts (Lens culinaris), both in the pea family (Fabaceae). The part eaten is the whole seedling: the seed, its first root and a short shoot. People eat them for crunch and for vitamins such as vitamin C and folate. This page keeps the sprout apart from the dried bean it grew from, and apart from hype. Sprouts also carry a food-safety warning that dried beans do not.

Read this first

• Food poisoning is the main safety point. The FDA says sprouts are grown in warm, humid conditions that also suit Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli, and that a few germs on a seed can multiply to high levels while it sprouts, even when sprouts are grown at home under clean conditions. [3]
• Who should avoid raw or lightly cooked sprouts: the FDA names children, older adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. Its list of foods for higher-risk people includes raw sprouts of any kind, with bean sprouts named. [3] [4]
• Cooking: the FDA says cooking produce thoroughly kills harmful bacteria. [3] We did not read a sprout-specific cooking time, so this page gives none.
• Warfarin: a cup of mung bean sprouts has about 29% of the Daily Value for vitamin K (USDA). [1] MedlinePlus advises people on warfarin to keep vitamin K intake steady week to week. [10]
• Allergy: for trouble breathing or swelling of the face, lips or throat, call 911 (or your local emergency number). [11]
• Evidence in one line: we found no human trial of eating bean sprouts for a health outcome. The heart and blood sugar research is on cooked, mature beans and lentils, not sprouts. [13] [14]

What is in it (USDA values)

The values are for raw sprouts. Mung bean sprouts are USDA FoodData Central item 169957 (SR Legacy); the serving is the USDA portion of 1 cup, 104 g. [1] Per-cup figures are the per-100-g values multiplied by 1.04. Lentil sprouts are a different food with a very different make-up; see the second table. [2]

% Daily Value uses the FDA 2016 Daily Values; values vary with variety, how long the seeds sprouted, and storage. USDA lists no fiber value for lentil sprouts, so none is shown. [2] Mung bean sprouts are mostly water (USDA lists 90.4 g per 100 g), which is why they are low in calories. [1]

Plant compounds: USDA lists 15 mg of phytosterols per 100 g of mung bean sprouts. [1] A 2026 laboratory study of green gram (the same species as mung bean, Vigna radiata) found that short germination raised total phenolic and flavonoid content and antioxidant activity measured in test tubes. [7] That is lab chemistry. We did not find a human trial showing these compounds act in people who eat sprouts.

What research says

Dried or cooked beans versus sprouts. Benefits seen in trials of cooked beans and lentils should not be assumed for sprouts: a sprout is a different food, usually eaten raw or lightly cooked, with different nutrients and a different safety profile. The lab results above come from controlled sprouting of seeds for a set number of hours. They do not tell you how much vitamin C is in sprouts on a shelf: USDA lists 13.2 mg per 100 g for mung bean sprouts, [1] while the lab study measured 55 to 85 mg per 100 g in its germinated grain, a different product. [7]

How much is a normal serving

The USDA household portions are 1 cup (104 g) of mung bean sprouts, which has about 31 kcal, and 1 cup (77 g) of lentil sprouts, which has about 82 kcal. [1] [2] USDA also lists a 12 ounce package of mung bean sprouts (340 g). [1] This is information from the USDA data, not a prescription. We did not find an official daily amount for sprouts in the sources we read. Lentil sprouts hold much more energy and protein per 100 g than mung bean sprouts, so do not swap one for the other in a nutrient count. [1] [2]

Safety, allergy and medicines

• Food poisoning from raw sprouts. The FDA advises people who are more vulnerable to foodborne illness to avoid raw or lightly cooked sprouts of any kind, naming onion, alfalfa, clover, radish and mung bean sprouts. [3] The FDA's list of higher-risk groups includes pregnant people and their unborn babies, children under 5, older adults, and people with cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, organ transplants or autoimmune diseases. [4]
• Why home sprouting is not a fix. A CDC journal review explains that contamination often starts with the seed, and that bacteria can reach more than 10 million per gram while the sprouts look normal. [5] The same review found chemical seed washes did not reliably cut germs by more than about a thousand-fold, and it advised high-risk groups not to eat raw sprouts. [5] The review is from 1999; we did not read a newer one.
• Mung bean sprouts specifically. The 1999 review records a 1988 Salmonella outbreak in the United Kingdom linked to raw mung bean sprouts and a Thai market survey that found Salmonella in 8.7% of mung bean sprout samples. [5] A 2026 CDC page describes a current multistate E. coli and Salmonella outbreak (76 illnesses, 6 hospitalizations) linked to alfalfa sprouts; that is a different sprout but shows the same pattern. [6]
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding. The FDA lists pregnant women among those who should avoid raw or lightly cooked sprouts. [3] The NHS "foods to avoid in pregnancy" page we read does not mention bean sprouts, so ask your midwife or doctor. [15] We did not read a source on sprouts and breastfeeding.
• Children and older adults. Both are named by the FDA as higher risk. [3] [4] The FDA's general statement is that cooking produce thoroughly kills harmful bacteria. [3]
• Medicines: warfarin. USDA lists 33 mcg of vitamin K per 100 g of mung bean sprouts. [1] MedlinePlus says foods with vitamin K can affect how warfarin works and advises steady week-to-week intake and checking diet changes with a doctor. [10] We did not read a trial of bean sprouts with warfarin.
• Allergy. Legumes can cause allergy. A review ranks the most allergenic legumes as peanut, soybean, lentil, chickpea, pea, mung bean and red gram, in decreasing order. [12] MedlinePlus lists soy and peanuts among the common food allergens. [11] For anaphylaxis (trouble breathing, throat swelling, faintness) MedlinePlus says call 911. [11]
• Kidney disease and diabetes. USDA lists 149 mg of potassium per 100 g of mung bean sprouts and 322 mg per 100 g of lentil sprouts. [1] [2] If you follow a potassium limit, ask your care team. See foods, kidney disease, potassium and oxalates. A cup of mung bean sprouts has about 6 g of carbohydrate (USDA). [1] We did not read blood sugar research on sprouts.

Choosing, storing and food safety

• The FDA's general produce advice is to refrigerate perishable produce at 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) or below. [3] The page does not give sprout-specific storage advice.
• You cannot tell contaminated sprouts by looks. The CDC review says germs can grow to high numbers without visibly changing the sprouts. [5]
• If a sprout product is recalled, CDC advice is not to eat it, to throw it away or return it, and to wash items that touched it with hot soapy water. [6]
• See the sibling food-safety pages below for raw sprouts and for pasteurized foods.

Related pages

• Mung beans
• Lentils
• Raw sprouts, raw milk and undercooked foods: risks
• Sprouting, soaking and fermenting grains and legumes
• Foods in pregnancy: what official bodies advise
• Foods and medicine interactions: vitamin K, grapefruit and others