Cod vs Salmon: which has more purines?
Salmon is the higher of the two — 147 mg per 100 g against 110.3 mg for Cod — but both count as fairly high on this scale. The 36.7 mg between them is smaller than the 488.9 mg spread between preparations of one of them, so the choice matters less than how it is cooked.
110.3mg per 100 g
Fairly high · 75–150 mg
A 150 g serving works out to 165 mg. Across 5 measured preparations, 71–559.9 mg.
147mg per 100 g
Fairly high · 75–150 mg
A 150 g serving works out to 221 mg. Across 9 measured preparations, 88–259.8 mg.
Cod vs Salmon purine content, per serving
Per 100 g is how the databases publish, and it is not how anyone eats. At the default servings above, Cod contributes 165 mg and Salmon contributes 221 mg. The gap between two foods matters much less than how much of either one ends up on the plate — which is the argument for weighing the portion rather than memorising a chart.
It is also why the single number at the top of a purine chart misleads. Salmon at 147 mg per 100 g and Cod at 110.3 mg swap places the moment one portion is half the size of the other, and portions of cod and salmon are rarely the same weight in practice.
Why the two numbers differ
Less than the charts imply. Salmon and Cod land in the same band on the scale this site uses. The 36.7 mg between them is smaller than the 488.9 mg spread between the measured preparations of one of them — so how it is cooked decides more than which one you pick. Treating one as the safe option and the other as the risky one is reading more into the data than it supports.
Every measurement behind the two cod and salmon figures
The headline numbers are medians across the preparations each database measured, and the spread underneath them is the part most charts hide. Here are the highest and lowest measured preparations of each, with the database that produced them.
Cod — 5 measurements, 71–559.9 mg per 100 g
| Food as measured | Per 100 g | Level | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milt, cod | 559.9 mg | Extremely high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Cod | 230 mg | Very high | NHC 2024 |
| Cod, Atlantic, wild, raw | 110.3 mg | Fairly high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Cod, fresh | 97.9 mg | Fairly high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Cod | 71 mg | Fairly low | NHC 2024 |
Salmon — 9 measurements, 88–259.8 mg per 100 g
| Food as measured | Per 100 g | Level | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salmon, sockeye, wild, raw | 259.8 mg | Very high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Salmon, mixed species, raw | 250 mg | Very high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Salmon, Atlantic, farmed, raw | 249.9 mg | Very high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Salmon, chum, raw | 124.7 mg | Fairly high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
| Chum salmon | 117 mg | Fairly high | NHC 2024 |
| Salmon, canned | 88 mg | Fairly high | ODS-NIH 2.0 |
Showing 6 of 9. All 9 measurements of salmon.
Why other charts rank cod and salmon differently
Because the band lines move between countries. The same milligram figure is called different things depending on whose scheme you read, which is most of the reason two purine charts can disagree about a food without either being wrong. Here is what each published scheme calls these two:
Cod, 110.3 mg
| Scheme | This food is | Band covers |
|---|---|---|
| NHC dietary guidelineChina | Fairly high | 75–150 mg |
| Common three-tier chartEnglish-language | Moderate | 50–150 mg |
| Gout treatment guidelineJapan | Unnamed in the guideline | 100–200 mg |
- NHC dietary guideline — Dietary Guideline for Adults with Hyperuricaemia and Gout (2024 Edition), National Health Commission of China
- Common three-tier chart — The split used across English-language dietetic handouts and purine charts A widely repeated convention rather than a scheme published by one named body.
- Gout treatment guideline — Guideline for the Management of Hyperuricaemia and Gout, Japanese Society of Gout and Uric & Nucleic Acids, as published by the Gout and Uric Acid Foundation of Japan The guideline names four bands and leaves 100–200 mg unnamed; Japanese charts commonly fill that gap with an informal 'moderate'.
Salmon, 147 mg
| Scheme | This food is | Band covers |
|---|---|---|
| NHC dietary guidelineChina | Fairly high | 75–150 mg |
| Common three-tier chartEnglish-language | Moderate | 50–150 mg |
| Gout treatment guidelineJapan | Unnamed in the guideline | 100–200 mg |
- NHC dietary guideline — Dietary Guideline for Adults with Hyperuricaemia and Gout (2024 Edition), National Health Commission of China
- Common three-tier chart — The split used across English-language dietetic handouts and purine charts A widely repeated convention rather than a scheme published by one named body.
- Gout treatment guideline — Guideline for the Management of Hyperuricaemia and Gout, Japanese Society of Gout and Uric & Nucleic Acids, as published by the Gout and Uric Acid Foundation of Japan The guideline names four bands and leaves 100–200 mg unnamed; Japanese charts commonly fill that gap with an informal 'moderate'.
Lower-purine alternatives to Salmon
If the reason for the comparison is to bring a meal down rather than to settle which of two foods wins, these measure lower than both and sit in the same part of the shop:
A purine number is not a risk score
Worth saying on any page that ranks two foods against each other. Beer measures low and is the drink most consistently linked with gout attacks, because alcohol slows how quickly the kidneys clear urate. Sugary soft drinks contain essentially no purines and are associated with substantially higher risk, because fructose prompts the body to manufacture uric acid after the drink.
So this comparison answers exactly what it says: which of these two foods delivers more purines per 100 g. More on the gap between the number and the risk.
Where these values come from
- USDA and ODS-NIH Database for the Purine Content of Foods, Release 2.0 (2025)
- Dietary Guideline for Adults with Hyperuricaemia and Gout (2024 Edition)
Every preparation measured for each food, with its own citation, is on the two food pages: Cod and Salmon. You can also compare any two of the 372 foods or add up a whole day.
Reference information only. Purine values describe foods, not people: they cannot tell you what is safe for you to eat, and nothing here diagnoses or treats gout. Talk to your doctor or dietitian about your own diet and medication.
Common questions
Which has more purines, cod or salmon?
Salmon is the higher of the two — 147 mg per 100 g against 110.3 mg for Cod — but both count as fairly high on this scale. The 36.7 mg between them is smaller than the 488.9 mg spread between preparations of one of them, so the choice matters less than how it is cooked.
Is cod a safe swap for salmon with gout?
Not really — they sit in the same band, so swapping one for the other changes the purine total very little. If the aim is a lower-purine meal, the useful move is a bigger step down the scale rather than a sideways one, and portion size will change the number more than this substitution does.
Do these numbers change with cooking?
Substantially. Boiling moves purines into water that is then poured away, while grilling and drying remove water and concentrate what is left. Both foods here list every preparation measured, with the source for each — the range within one food is often wider than the gap between the two.