Cod

Studies in people

• Open question

  Appetite and calorie burn³

  In overweight adults, cod meals burned the same calories and left people just as hungry as veal meals.

• Open question

  Fish allergy⁵

  Cooking or pressure-treating cod did not change how allergic patients' blood reacted to cod parvalbumin.

Found in some samples or products

These come from where it was grown, how it was processed or cooked, or what it was made into. They are not about the ingredient itself, so the signal does not count them.

• Flame retardants in fish⁷

  Cod liver oils and canned cod livers contained flame-retardant chemicals called PBBs, though at very low levels.

• Pollutant levels in supplements⁸

  Cod liver oils and canned cod livers contained PBDEs, with the highest levels in Baltic oils from 1993 to 2001.

Allergies and intolerances

These are about people with an allergy, an intolerance or coeliac disease. The signal is about the ingredient itself, and these are about the person eating it, so the signal does not count them.

• Fish allergy triggers⁴

  Cod, salmon and tuna hold allergens called enolase and aldolase that some fish-allergic people react to.

Single cases of misuse or overdose

One person or one incident, such as an accidental overdose or a mistake in a kitchen or factory. They are real, but a single case does not show what happens at normal amounts, so the signal does not count them.

• Stomach infection from fish²

  In one person, eating cod caused a stomach infection that doctors cleared by removing the worm.

How it’s made and used

• How much selenium the body absorbs⁶

  People absorbed less selenium from cod than from wheat or garlic, and it showed up lower in their blood.

The signal at the top counts the findings in people and in animal and lab studies. A concern in studies of people outranks animal and lab studies, and “No concerns” needs at least one finding in people. When most findings in people point one way, the page leans that way (“Mostly”), and every finding is still shown. Findings whose study type is not stated are shown but not counted. This page is a reference, not medical advice. It describes what regulators and published research say. Talk to a doctor or dietitian about your own diet.