German report: Vegan diets have no ‘ubiquitous deficiency’ in vitamins and minerals The common perception that vegan diets are deficient in key nutrients has been dispelled by German food safety authorities. In an analysis of vegan diets that included observational data it began collecting in 2017, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) found no widespread deficiencies in calcium, zinc, selenium or iron among those pursuing plant-based diets in a sample of about 60 Berlin residents. While “vegan test subjects had lower values than the mixed-food group for the minerals zinc, selenium and calcium” the deficit was not considered to be substantial, similarly for iron.