Beef liver and spleen capsules have become a common way for Australians to add iron-rich organ meat to their diet without cooking it. The category has grown quickly, and the products in it vary far more than the packaging suggests.

Two tubs sitting side by side can differ by a factor of two in how much iron each capsule delivers, and neither label will tell you that directly. You have to work it out.

This guide sets out what to compare and how to do the arithmetic. It takes about five minutes and it is the difference between choosing on marketing and choosing on numbers.

Why liver and spleen?

Both are organ meats, and both are dense in nutrients relative to muscle meat. They are not interchangeable.

Liver is the storage organ. It concentrates vitamin A, vitamin B12, copper, riboflavin and folate to a degree almost no other food matches. Its iron content is respectable but not exceptional.

Spleen is the blood-filtering organ, and it is the iron specialist. Gram for gram, spleen carries substantially more iron than liver does, which is why products aimed at iron content usually include it and why spleen-only products exist.

Iron from animal tissue is haem iron, bound inside a porphyrin ring, and it is absorbed by a different intestinal pathway from the non-haem iron in plants and in most iron tablets. That pathway is less affected by dietary inhibitors such as phytates, polyphenols and calcium.

An isotope study published in Nutrients in 2022 measured adjusted non-haem iron absorption at 21.7 percent from a beef protein meal against 4.2 percent from a plant protein meal. A 2024 meta-analysis in the European Journal of Nutrition found fewer total side effects with haem iron than non-haem, though it graded the certainty of that finding as very low and called for better trials.

So the honest position: haem iron is better absorbed, and the evidence on whether that produces better clinical outcomes than an iron tablet is not settled.

A combination of liver and spleen gives you the iron density of spleen alongside the broader nutrient profile of liver. That is the reason the two are usually paired.

The ten things worth comparing.

Work through these in order. The first four decide most purchases.

Read the milligrams, not the percentage.

The most common mistake is comparing percentages between products. There is a specific reason those percentages mislead, and for once it is not the manufacturers' doing.

The reference value on an Australian food label is from 1991.

Percentages in a Nutrition Information Panel are calculated against reference values set out in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. Those values are based on the Recommended Dietary Intakes for Use in Australia published in 1991, together with some 1989 United States figures.

The NHMRC replaced those 1991 RDIs in 2006. The Food Standards Code has not caught up. FSANZ opened Proposal P1047 in 2018 specifically to update the Code's reference values to the 2006 and 2017 figures, and as at early 2025 it had not been finalised.

So every food business in Australia is legally required to calculate its percentages against a nutritional reference that the country's own nutrition authority superseded two decades ago. A brand showing you a percentage is complying with the law. The law is just using an old number.

For iron, the gap is wide:

Now apply that to a real number. Take a product providing 10.9 mg of iron per serve:

The label says 91 percent. For the person most likely to be standing there reading it, a woman of reproductive age, the honest figure is 60 percent.

That is not a small rounding difference. A compliant Australian food label systematically overstates iron coverage by about 50 percent for the demographic that buys most iron supplements.

Three practical consequences:

1. Compare milligrams, never percentages. Milligrams mean the same thing on every product. Percentages depend on a reference value the manufacturer did not choose and you cannot see.
2. Work out your own number. Find your NHMRC RDI for your life stage, then divide the milligrams by that. It is the only percentage that describes you.
3. If a percentage does not divide out to a 12 mg reference, ask why. Products that also sell overseas sometimes carry a percentage calculated on a different country's basis.

None of this means any particular brand is misleading you. It means the number on the front of the pack was never designed to answer the question you are asking it.

Do the per-capsule arithmetic.

This is the step almost nobody takes, and it is the one that separates products.

Divide the iron per serve by the number of capsules in that serve.

Products A and B advertise the same iron per serve. Product A gets there in four capsules, Product B needs six. That is a 47 percent difference in density, invisible if you only read the front of the pack.

It has three practical consequences.

How many capsules you swallow every day. Four versus six is not nothing when it is every morning for six months.

How long a tub lasts. A 120-capsule tub at four per day is 30 days. A 160-capsule tub at six per day is 26 days. The bigger tub runs out sooner.

What you are actually paying for. Work out cost per milligram of iron, not cost per tub. Divide the price by the number of serves, then by the iron per serve.

Product C illustrates the other direction: a lower total that is just as dense. If you want a smaller daily dose, density still tells you what you are buying.

Is the iron figure tested, or estimated?

Worth asking, and rarely mentioned.

There are two ways a brand can arrive at the iron number on its label.

Estimated. Take a published food composition table, look up the typical iron content of beef liver and spleen, multiply by how much of each is in a serve. Quick, free, and it describes an average animal rather than the material actually in the tub.

Tested. Obtain a certificate of analysis for each organ powder, showing the iron measured in that material, then calculate the serve from those figures. Slower, costs money, and it describes what you are actually buying.

Both produce a number that looks identical on a label. Only one of them was measured.

If it matters to you, ask the brand where the figure came from and whether they can provide a certificate of analysis. A company that tests will usually be pleased to be asked.

One honest caveat that applies either way: organ meat is a natural product and iron content varies between animals, herds and seasons. Any figure on a pack is an average or a typical value, not a guarantee for every capsule. That is normal and unavoidable. It is a reason to treat small differences between products as noise, and to pay attention only when the gap is large.

Source matters, and "organic" is not one thing.

Sourcing claims vary in how much they actually commit to.

Country of origin. Australian cattle means a traceable supply chain and Australian production standards. Many organ supplements sold here use imported raw material, which is not automatically worse but is harder to verify.

Grass-fed versus grass-finished. These are different claims. Cattle can be grass-fed for most of their lives and grain-finished in the last months. A product stating grass-fed and grass-finished is committing to the whole life of the animal. One that says only "grass-fed" may not be. 
Healthy Grass-fed and finished cattle have shown to contain higher amounts of nutrients, including vitamin E, carotenoids, iron, copper and selenium, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Certified organic versus organic. "Organic" on its own is a description. Certified organic means an accredited body has audited it, and the certifier should be named. In Australia that is usually ACO, NASAA or a comparable body. If a product says organic without naming a certifier, it is fair to ask which one.

Traceability. Some producers name the region their cattle come from. That is a stronger claim than a country, because it can be checked.

None of these individually makes a product good or bad. Together they tell you how much the manufacturer is willing to be held to.

Processing matters.

Organ meat has to be dried and powdered to become a shelf-stable capsule. How that is done is a genuine quality variable.

Freeze-drying removes water by sublimation at low temperature, under vacuum. Because it does not cook the material, it is the method generally used where retaining heat-sensitive nutrients matters. It is also the most expensive, which is why products that use it tend to say so.

Air-drying and heat-drying are cheaper and involve higher temperatures. Minerals such as iron are not degraded by heat, so iron content survives either way. Heat-sensitive vitamins are a different question.

Defatted versus non-defatted is worth asking about. Some producers remove the fat, which affects fat-soluble vitamin content. Non-defatted products usually state it because it is a point of difference.

If a label does not state the drying method at all, that absence is itself information.

What a good product looks like.

A beef liver and spleen supplement worth buying should tell you, on the label or the product page:

• ✓ Iron in milligrams per serve, not only a percentage
• ✓ Serving size in capsules, so you can calculate per capsule
• ✓ Capsule size in milligrams, so you can calculate density per gram
• ✓ Both organs named, with an indication of the ratio
• ✓ Country of origin for the cattle
• ✓ Grass-fed and grass-finished, stated separately
• ✓ The organic certifier's name, not just the word organic
• ✓ The drying method
• ✓ A full ingredient list, including the capsule material and any flow agents
• ✓ Third-party testing, and ideally what was tested for
• ✓ An iron figure derived from testing, not from a food composition table

If three or more of those are missing, you cannot properly compare the product with anything, and that is a reason to look elsewhere.

About Nourishing Energy.

For transparency, here are our own numbers against the criteria above.

Honour Wellness Nourishing Energy is made from certified organic, grass-fed and grass-finished Australian beef liver and spleen. It contains no added fillers or preservatives, and the organs are freeze-dried.

We have shown both percentages deliberately. The 91 percent is the figure we are required to display. The 60 percent is the more useful one if you are a woman of reproductive age, and we would rather you had it.

We have set the numbers out this way so you can run the same arithmetic on any product you are considering, including ours. If a competitor's figures stack up better for what you need, that is the right outcome of a comparison.

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Frequently asked questions

How much iron is in beef liver and spleen capsules?

It varies substantially between products. A typical serve of a liver and spleen supplement provides somewhere between 5 mg and 12 mg of naturally occurring iron, but the serving size needed to reach that ranges from two capsules to eight. Compare the milligrams per serve first, then divide by the number of capsules to get the density.

Is spleen higher in iron than liver?

Yes. Spleen is the blood-filtering organ and carries considerably more iron per gram than liver does. Liver is richer in vitamin A, vitamin B12, copper and riboflavin. Products combining both aim to get the iron density of spleen alongside the broader nutrient profile of liver.

What does the percentage on an iron supplement label mean?

It is the milligram content divided by a reference value set in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. For iron that reference is 12 mg, and it is based on the Recommended Dietary Intakes published in 1991. The NHMRC replaced those figures in 2006 and now sets iron at 18 mg for women aged 19 to 50, but the Food Standards Code has not been updated, and FSANZ Proposal P1047 to do so has been open since 2018. In practice this means 10.9 mg of iron shows as 91 percent on a label while covering about 60 percent of what a woman of reproductive age actually needs. Compare milligrams between products, not percentages.

Why does the label percentage not match the NHMRC recommendation?

Because they use different reference values. Food labels in Australia must use the values in the Food Standards Code, which are based on 1991 Recommended Dietary Intakes. The NHMRC Nutrient Reference Values, updated in 2006, are the current nutritional guidance. For iron the two differ substantially: 12 mg on the label basis against 18 mg for women aged 19 to 50. FSANZ has had a proposal open since 2018 to align them. Until that concludes, the percentage on any Australian food label will be calculated on the older figure.

Why does iron per capsule matter more than iron per serve?

Because it tells you the density of what you are buying. Two products both stating 10 mg per serve are not equivalent if one needs four capsules and the other needs six. That difference determines how many capsules you swallow daily, how quickly the tub runs out, and the real cost per milligram of iron.

Is haem iron better absorbed than iron tablets?

It is better absorbed. An isotope study measured adjusted non-haem iron absorption at 21.7 percent from a beef protein meal against 4.2 percent from a plant protein meal, and haem iron uses a separate absorption pathway less affected by dietary inhibitors. Whether that produces better clinical outcomes than iron supplementation is not established. A 2024 meta-analysis comparing them graded its evidence as very low certainty.

What does freeze-dried mean, and does it matter?

Freeze-drying removes water at low temperature under vacuum rather than by heating, so the material is never cooked. It is generally used where retaining heat-sensitive nutrients matters, and it costs more than air-drying or heat-drying. Iron is a mineral and is not degraded by heat, so drying method matters more for vitamins than for iron content.

Can beef organ capsules treat iron deficiency?

No. If you have diagnosed iron deficiency or iron deficiency anaemia, that is treated with iron at doses prescribed by your doctor, and no food product reaches those amounts. Organ supplements are food. If you are tired and suspect low iron, ask your GP for a full blood count and ferritin before choosing any product.

Is the iron content on an organ supplement label actually measured?

Not always. Some brands calculate it from published food composition tables, which describe a typical animal rather than the material in the tub. Others obtain a certificate of analysis for each organ powder and calculate the serve from measured values. Both look identical on a label. It is reasonable to ask a brand which method it used and whether a certificate of analysis is available. Either way, organ meat is a natural product and iron content varies between animals and seasons, so any label figure is a typical value rather than a guarantee for every capsule.

How do I compare the cost of two organ supplements?

Work out cost per milligram of iron. Divide the tub price by the number of serves it contains, which gives cost per serve, then divide by the iron milligrams per serve. Comparing tub prices alone is misleading, because tubs contain different numbers of capsules and capsules contain different amounts.

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References

1. Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Regulatory nutrient reference values. (States the Code's values are based on the 1991 Recommended Dietary Intakes for Use in Australia and 1989 US ESADDIs.)
2. Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Proposal P1047: review of regulatory nutrient reference values, opened 2018.
3. Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, Schedule 1: RDIs and ESADDIs.
4. Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Standard 1.2.7: Nutrition, health and related claims.
5. National Health and Medical Research Council. Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand: Iron. Updated 2006.
6. Mayer Labba IC, et al. Lower non-heme iron absorption in healthy females from single meals with texturized fava bean protein compared to beef and cod protein meals. Nutrients. 2022.
7. Kalman D, et al. Dietary heme iron: a review of efficacy, safety and tolerability. Nutrients. 2025.
8. Gallo Ruelas M, et al. A comparative analysis of heme vs non-heme iron administration: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. European Journal of Nutrition. 2024.

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Disclaimer

This article is for general educational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual medical advice. It does not diagnose, treat or claim to prevent any medical condition. Iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia require diagnosis and treatment by a health professional. Excess iron is harmful, and iron supplementation is not appropriate for everyone, including people with haemochromatosis or other iron-loading conditions. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking prescription medication, or living with a diagnosed health condition, speak with your GP, midwife or pharmacist before starting any supplement.