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Cod
Cod (Gadus morhua), Lean and low in mercury; the problem with Baltic cod is the stock, not the fillet.. The national eating advice, why it applies, the rules that matter when you catch it, and what the kitchen changes about the numbers.
The eastern Baltic stock is in collapse; the targeted fishery has been closed since 2019.
Where it lives
Cod needs salty, oxygenated deep water to spawn, and the Baltic has been steadily losing both. The eastern Baltic stock, once the great fishery of the region, collapsed to the point that the EU closed the targeted fishery in 2019 and has since allowed only bycatch. The western Baltic stock is managed separately and is also in poor shape. Most cod eaten here now comes from the North Atlantic.
Why the advice says what it says
For once the contaminant story is the easy part. Cod is a lean fish — well under a gram of fat per 100 g — so it carries very little of anything fat-soluble in the fillet, and although it eats other fish it does not reach the mercury levels of a lake pike. It sits in no national advisory as a fish to limit. The complications are elsewhere. The liver is the fatty organ, and cod liver is the classic concentrate of both vitamins A and D and of fat-soluble contaminants; cod liver oil is a supplement with a dose on the label for exactly that reason. And salt cod, still a common preparation, is a completely different nutritional object from fresh cod: the dried, salted product runs to around 18 g of salt per 100 g, so it must be soaked and its salt figure has nothing to do with the fish.
The advice
| Who it applies to | What the advice says | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone | No frequency restriction. Cod is one of the lean white fish the general "two to three fish meals a week" advice is built around. | Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023 |
| Anyone eating cod liver or its oil | Treat it as a supplement with a dose, not as a food. Preformed vitamin A is the reason. | Standard national advice on liver and vitamin A |
| Anyone choosing which cod to buy | The sustainability question is the live one here. Eastern Baltic cod is not a stock to target. | EU emergency closure of the eastern Baltic cod fishery, 2019, and subsequent bycatch-only quotas |
The rules
What the rule book says about this fish, described by instrument rather than printed as a number:
- The targeted eastern Baltic cod fishery has been closed since the EU emergency measure of 2019; quotas since then have covered bycatch only.
- Recreational cod fishing is restricted in parts of the Baltic, including daily bag limits in some areas — a rule anglers coming from other species often do not expect.
- Minimum sizes and closed areas differ between the eastern and western Baltic management units.
- Because the stock position changes annually, this is a species where last year's knowledge is actively misleading.
In the kitchen
Cod flakes into large, wet leaves and is very easy to overcook past that point; it is the archetypal fish for gentle poaching and for oven-baking under something that keeps it moist. Salt cod needs a long soak with several changes of water before it is a food rather than a preservative.
This is a reference page, not a fishing licence and not medical advice. Minimum sizes, closed seasons, bag limits and licence prices are set per country and per water body and change most years, so no number for them is printed here — each species page says which instrument sets the rule and where to look up the figure for the water you are standing on. If a clinician has given you a fish frequency or a contaminant instruction, that instruction outranks anything on this page.
Nutrition figures
| Per 100 g, raw | Amount |
|---|---|
| Energy | 82 kcal |
| Protein | 17.8 g |
| Fat | 0.7 g |
| Carbohydrate | 0 g |
| Fibre | 0 g |
| Salt | 0.1 g |
| Published row | Atlantic cod, raw |
Related published rows:
- Atlantic cod, cooked — 105 kcal per 100 g
- Salt cod — 290 kcal per 100 g
- Cod liver oil — 902 kcal per 100 g
Typical round weight for the calculator: 1.0–4.0 kg.
Eating advice: Finnish Food Authority and Swedish Food Agency national advice on Baltic and inland fish. Contaminant ceilings and the Baltic derogation: Regulation (EU) 2023/915; weekly tolerable intakes: EFSA methylmercury (2012) and dioxins/dioxin-like PCBs (2018). Nutrition figures: USDA FoodData Central rows published on this site. Checked 2026-09-06.
Frequently asked questions
Why can I buy cod when the Baltic fishery is closed?
Because most cod on sale here is North Atlantic cod from stocks that are managed separately and, in several cases, in far better condition. The closure concerns the eastern Baltic stock specifically. The label's catch area is what tells you which fish you are holding.
Fish in the same advice group
Flounder
A lean bottom-feeder low in the food chain; watch for local harbour advisories.
Garfish
A spring visitor with alarming green bones that are entirely harmless.
All species compared
The full table, grouped the way the advice groups it.
Eat the fish, log the fish
TempoLife tracks what you actually ate against the same food data linked on this page, so a fish meal shows up in your omega-3, vitamin D and salt totals without a second thought.