Cod, baked

Listed nutrients, per 100 g

For each nutrient, the value this page uses is marked “used”. A row marked “second database” is another database’s figure for a matching food, kept so you can see how far databases disagree (they can differ in the samples analysed, lab methods and rounding). Its own cells are worked out from it, but none of the page’s words or scores are.

Change the amount to rescale the first column. Nutrients a database doesn't list are missing, not zero.

Absorption studies

Studies of how much of a nutrient gets in; those done in animals are marked. This page quotes a figure only from a study that passes our screen: adults, graded A, of this food in this preparation, with a test dose on record and a source that has passed our evidence check. The exception is calcium on our calcium card: its figure comes from the card’s own study, checked with the card, and is marked “used” even where that study misses a step of this screen. The others are listed so nothing is hidden, each with the first check it fails.

No study of this food passes the screen yet, so no absorption figure is quoted.

Hazard rows as the dataset rates them

• Arsenic, all forms · Context · Shown as context, not rated: total arsenic has no reference value. The FDA mean for baked cod is 4,915 ppb (27 composites, all detected), 491.5 µg a serving. Fish arsenic is mostly organic forms, but the inorganic share was not measured in any source read, so no inorganic figure is given. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · A
• Cadmium · Nothing to watch: under the limit · A daily serving adds 1.2% to an average adult's cadmium intake (EFSA 2012 adult median, 1.77 µg/kg body weight/week; Canadian adults in 2007: 1.2-1.75), far from doubling it, so no cap. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · A
• Fish allergy · Worth knowing · Flagged for people with a fish allergy: fish is one of Health Canada's priority allergens. · Health Canada, priority allergens · A
• Inorganic arsenic · Not rated yet · Not rated: EFSA's 2024 reference point for inorganic arsenic is a benchmark dose lower limit (BMDL05) of 0.06 µg/kg body weight/day. The inorganic fraction of the 4.9 mg/kg total arsenic in cooked cod was not found, and FDA and CFIA report total arsenic only, so no figure is estimated. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · B
• Too much iodine · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: the tolerable upper intake level for iodine is 1,100 µg/day for adults 19-50 and in pregnancy (Health Canada, table of 2025-11-19). On the FDA mean of 1.696 µg/g for baked cod (27 composites, all detected), about 649 g a day eaten alone would reach it, and one serving is 15% of the limit. Iodine is also a nutrient: a serving carries 170 µg against an adult recommended intake of 150 µg. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · A
• Lead · Nothing to watch: doesn’t double average intake · No cap: no safe limit is set for lead; EFSA's 2010 reference point is a benchmark dose lower limit (BMDL01) of 0.5 µg/kg body weight/day. FDA's baked cod found no lead in 27 of 27 composites (reporting limit 4 ppb), so FDA has no mean; the figure here is Health Canada's composite of haddock, cod and sole, 6.0156 µg/kg, not cod alone. A serving carries 0.6016 µg. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · B
• Methylmercury · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's tolerable weekly intake for methylmercury is 1.3 µg/kg body weight/week as mercury, 91 µg a week for 70 kg. At the FDA mean of 0.083 µg/g for baked cod (27 composites, all detected), about 1,096 g a week eaten alone would reach it, roughly 11 servings. Health Canada's limit for women of child-bearing age and children is 0.2 µg/kg body weight/day, 14 µg/day, reached at 169 g a day; one 100 g serving is 59% of that daily limit for a 70 kg adult, with less margin for a child. Total mercury is read as methylmercury, as on the salmon and tuna rows; the methylmercury share of cod mercury was not looked up. Whether a daily serving stays below double the average adult's intake depends on background, which was not checked. Cod is not named among Health Canada's low-mercury fish, and the figure is about 4 times farmed cooked salmon's 21 µg/kg. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · A
• Nickel · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's 2020 tolerable daily intake for nickel is 13 µg/kg body weight/day, 910 µg a day. On the FDA mean of 1.7 ppb for baked cod, about 535,000 g a day would reach it. The mean is uncertain: only 1 of 27 composites had a detect, at a reporting limit of 40 ppb. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · A
• Sodium · Context · Context: Health Canada's chronic disease risk reduction intake (CDRR) for sodium is 2,300 mg a day. A 100 g serving of baked cod carries 78 mg on the USDA listing, 3.4% of it; about 2,950 g would reach it. FDA's Total Diet Study measured four times as much in US baked cod as eaten (319 mg per 100 g, 790 to 6,100 ppm across samples), which points to salted or brined fish in some samples. · US food database (USDA SR Legacy) · C

Sources

• Health Canada, Canadian Nutrient File 2026 (14th edition)
  cnf-2026 · dataset · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
• US FDA, Total Diet Study FY2018–FY2020 Elements Report Supplement
  fda-tds-fy2018-2020 · dataset · US government work (17 USC 105), public domain
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, 2018-04
  fdc-sr-legacy-2018-04 · dataset · CC0 1.0 (public domain)
• Health Canada, Common food allergens (priority allergens list)
  hc-priority-allergens · page · Government of Canada terms (Crown copyright; not OGL)
• Health Canada. Total Diet Study trace elements, open.canada.ca dataset 83934503, English resource 9c988c19-07ae-4aa4-8496-84658b6b0c45; composites pooled as an equal-weight mean per TDS food code, non-detects stored as 0.
  hc-tds-trace-elements-open-canada · secondary source · Open Government Licence - Canada
• Fox TE, Atherton C, et al. (2005 May). Absorption of selenium from wheat, garlic, and cod intrinsically labeled with Se-77 and Se-82 stable isotopes. Int J Vitam Nutr Res · PMID 16028633
  pmid:16028633 · abstract only · licence not recorded
• Mayer Labba IC, Hoppe M, Gramatkovski E, 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;14:3162 · doi:10.3390/nu14153162 · PMID 35956338
  pmid:35956338 · full text read · CC BY 4.0

Body map 2026-10-25.1: each nutrient’s job comes from an agency fact sheet, linked beside it under Good for.

The plain words: “a lot” means one serving (100 g when the food has no serving size) gives at least 20% of the daily amount (the reference intake), “some” at least 10%, “a little” at least 2% (the cut-offs are ours, one set for every page: 20% and 10% are borrowed from the US labelling terms “high” and “good source” and applied to Health Canada’s daily amount, whereas Health Canada’s own shopper rule says 15%; provisional: they may change in a later method version). The daily amount is Health Canada’s Dietary Reference Intake for adults 19–30; where men and women need different amounts we use the higher one (protein: 56 g for men, 46 g for women). The percentage printed under each nutrient is the printed amount as a share of that daily amount, rounded to the nearest whole number, and the word is read from that percentage, so the amount, the percentage and the word always agree. Calcium with a measured absorption is scaled by how well it gets in compared with milk.

The scale: “Nothing to watch” means a serving a day stays under the limit at ordinary amounts; “Go easy” means a serving a day can push past the limit for adults who already take in the most, or fewer than 2 servings reach it; “Limit it” means once a week or less. The dataset’s own rating is under “How we got this”. Provisional: the scale may change in a later method version.

Measured absorption under Good for: grade-A studies in adults that tested this preparation of this food, as a share of the listed amount (the share digested, for protein), quoted once each source has passed our evidence check; animal studies and other variants stay in the table above. Provisional: this screen may change in a later method version.