FDA and EPA Update Their Advice About Eating Fish (2021)

On October 29, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a revised version of the advice it publishes jointly with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about which fish to eat, and how often, based on their mercury levels. The advice is written for people who might become or are pregnant or breastfeeding and for parents and caregivers of children ages 1 to 11. The 2021 revision brought it into line with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025. The metal itself is described on the site’s Mercury page.

This page reports what the FDA’s own documents and the Federal Register records say: what was published and when, why it was revised, how the chart sorts fish, what the advice says about children, the background the agencies give on mercury and nutrients, what the advice does not do, its status as of October 18, 2026, and how it fits earlier and later steps. The servings and food choices described below are the agencies’ advice, reported as such; no brand or company is named here.

Table of Contents

  1. What the FDA and EPA Published in October 2021
  2. Why the Advice Was Revised
  3. The Chart: Three Categories by Mercury Level
  4. How the Agencies Sorted Fish by Mercury
  5. What the Advice Says About Children
  6. Nutrients and Benefits the Advice Describes
  7. Mercury, Methylmercury and Other Contaminants
  8. What the Advice Does Not Do
  9. Dates and Status as of October 18, 2026
  10. How It Fits Earlier and Later Actions
  11. Primary Documents
  12. Key Research Papers
  13. Connections
  14. Featured Videos

1. What the FDA and EPA Published in October 2021

The FDA published a notice of availability in the Federal Register on October 29, 2021 (86 FR 60053; Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0595). The Federal Register is the U.S. government’s daily publication of rules and official notices; a notice of availability simply announces that a document, here the revised advice, has been released. A docket is the public file for an action, kept on regulations.gov, where its documents and public comments are stored. This docket has held every version of the fish advice since 2014.

The notice is titled “Advice About Eating Fish: For Those Who Might Become or Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding and Children Ages 1-11 Years, From the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration; Revised Fish Advice; Availability.” Its summary states that the revised advice “updates advice that FDA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly issued in January 2017 and subsequently revised in July 2019,” and that it is intended to help “those who might become or are pregnant or breastfeeding, and parents and caregivers of children make informed choices about fish that are nutritious and safe to eat.”

The advice itself lives on the FDA’s “Advice about Eating Fish” page, which is marked “Advice revised October 2021.” It has three parts: a chart that sorts fish by mercury level, a page of questions and answers, and a technical page that sets out the calculations behind the chart. The FDA notes that the advice uses the word “fish” for fish and shellfish together.

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2. Why the Advice Was Revised

The Federal Register notice gives one reason: “We are revising the advice in accordance with a recent directive from Congress.” The notice’s summary does not name the directive, and this page does not either.

The FDA’s technical page describes the content of the change. Its October 2021 entry reads: “FDA and EPA have updated their Advice about Eating Fish to incorporate the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, which includes new dietary recommendations for children under age 2 years and additional guidance for those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.” The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are the federal nutrition recommendations issued every five years by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, as the 2015 Federal Register notice in this docket describes them.

The change in audience shows in the titles of the two most recent versions. The July 2019 version was titled “For Women Who Are or Might Become Pregnant, Breastfeeding Mothers, and Young Children,” and its notice described it as advice for “parents of children over 2 years.” The October 2021 version is titled “For Those Who Might Become or Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding and Children Ages 1-11 Years.” The technical page notes that a row for age 1 was added to its table of child serving sizes on December 7, 2020, “as a technical reference for use and development of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025.”

The fetched documents do not list chart entries that moved between the 2019 and 2021 versions, so none is listed here.

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3. The Chart: Three Categories by Mercury Level

The FDA page describes the chart as one that “can help you choose which fish to eat, and how often to eat them, based on their mercury levels.” It sorts commercial fish into three groups. The names of the groups are the agencies’ own:

The advice’s stated amounts, in the agencies’ words on the FDA page, are for pregnancy and breastfeeding a serving of 4 ounces and “2 to 3 servings a week from the ‘Best Choices’ list (OR 1 serving from the ‘Good Choices’ list).” For children the page gives smaller servings by age and two servings a week from the “Best Choices” list (section 5). These figures are the FDA and EPA’s advice; they are reported here, not offered as a serving guide.

The questions-and-answers page explains why one kind of fish can appear in two groups. Tuna species differ: “Some types of tuna that are bigger or live longer tend to have higher mercury levels,” which is why canned light tuna, albacore and yellowfin, and bigeye tuna fall in three different groups. Location matters too: tilefish appear twice because those from the Gulf of Mexico have higher mercury levels than those from the Atlantic Ocean. The same page states that albacore tuna “typically contains three times more mercury than canned light tuna.” A fish missing from the chart, mussels for example, is missing because the agencies “did not have enough reliable mercury data to include it.”

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4. How the Agencies Sorted Fish by Mercury

The technical page sets out the arithmetic. The starting point is EPA’s reference dose for methylmercury: 0.1 microgram of mercury per kilogram of body weight per day. The page defines a reference dose as “a rate of exposure that a person can experience over a lifetime without appreciable risk of harm,” and says the mercury reference dose “is protective of neurodevelopmental effects from a critical window of development for a fetus during pregnancy.” It includes a 10-fold uncertainty factor “to allow for variability among individuals and groups.”

The agencies applied that dose to a body weight of 75 kilograms (165 pounds), which the page gives as the average weight of a pregnant woman, and to an adult serving of 4 ounces (113 grams) of fish before cooking. From these they worked out the highest average mercury level a fish could have and still be eaten one, two or three times a week without going over the reference dose. The page gives the cut-off values (micrograms of mercury per gram of fish):

The questions-and-answers page calls this “a cautious and highly protective approach.” The mercury figures come mainly from the FDA’s own monitoring database for commercial fish and shellfish. For species with fewer than 30 samples, the agencies checked other data sets, including two published studies listed in the Key Research Papers below, and moved a fish to another category where those data or the upper end of a statistical confidence range called for it. The technical page’s table gives, for example, average levels of about 0.01 for sardines, shrimp and canned salmon, 0.13 for canned light tuna, 0.35 for canned albacore, and 1.45 for Gulf of Mexico tilefish.

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5. What the Advice Says About Children

The advice states that children’s portions are smaller than adults’ and scaled to age and body weight. The FDA page lists average servings of about 1 ounce at ages 1 to 3, 2 ounces at ages 4 to 7, 3 ounces at ages 8 to 10 and 4 ounces at age 11, with two servings a week from the “Best Choices” list. The technical page derives these from the same reference dose, using average body weights for girls from national survey data “to be more health protective because girls generally weigh less than boys.”

The 2021 revision deals with a gap between two sets of federal numbers. In its section on children, the technical page says: “The FDA/EPA Fish Advice has not changed. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 now provides additional advice on feeding fish to children.” For many children, it explains, the Dietary Guidelines’ eating pattern includes more ounces of fish per week than the mercury-based servings allow. For those children the advice points to a subset of 22 “Best Choices” fish that are even lower in mercury (a mean of 0.07 microgram per gram or less in cooked form): anchovies, Atlantic mackerel, catfish, clams, crab, crawfish, flounder, haddock, mullet, oysters, plaice, pollock, salmon, sardines, scallops, shad, shrimp, sole, squid, tilapia, trout and whiting. The FDA page attributes this subset to the Dietary Guidelines themselves.

The questions-and-answers page adds the Dietary Guidelines’ statement that foods like fish can be introduced at about 6 months of age, and it notes that “Fish is a common food allergy” and that there is “no evidence that delaying introduction of allergenic foods, beyond when other foods are introduced, helps to prevent food allergy.” Food allergy is described on the site’s Food Allergy page. Decisions about a particular child’s diet belong with a clinician.

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6. Nutrients and Benefits the Advice Describes

The FDA page lists the nutrients in fish that it says support a child’s brain development during pregnancy, breastfeeding and early childhood: omega-3 fats (DHA and EPA) and omega-6 fats, iron, iodine (during pregnancy) and choline. It adds that choline also supports development of the baby’s spinal cord, that iron and zinc support children’s immune systems, and that fish supply protein, vitamin B12, vitamin D and selenium. These fats are described on the site’s Omega-3 Fatty Acids page.

The page reports the strength of evidence in the Dietary Guidelines’ own terms: “moderate scientific evidence” that fish intake during pregnancy “can help your baby’s cognitive development”; “strong evidence” that eating fish as part of a healthy eating pattern “may have heart health benefits”; and moderate evidence linking eating patterns relatively higher in fish (and in vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains and other foods) with bone health, lower risk of becoming overweight or obese, and lower risk of colon and rectal cancers.

The Dietary Guidelines’ amounts, as the advice reports them, are at least 8 ounces of seafood a week on a 2,000-calorie diet (less for children), and 8 to 12 ounces a week of a variety of lower-mercury seafood during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The questions-and-answers page states that, on average, people who are pregnant eat only 4.2 ounces and those who are breastfeeding 7 ounces of fish a week, and that “Almost all children do not eat the recommended amount of fish.”

On supplements, the same page says that omega-3 supplements “do not provide the protein, omega-6 fatty acids, vitamins, or minerals found in fish,” and that “The research is still underway on the health benefits of omega-3 supplements.” It also states: “You can have a healthy baby even if you don’t eat fish,” since the same nutrients can come from other foods.

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7. Mercury, Methylmercury and Other Contaminants

The questions-and-answers page gives the agencies’ background on the hazard. Mercury “occurs naturally in the environment and is also released to the environment through many types of human activity.” It collects in streams, lakes and oceans and is turned into methylmercury in the water or sediment, and “It is this type of mercury that is present in fish.” The page states that methylmercury “can be harmful to the brain and nervous system if a person is exposed to too much of it over time.”

According to the same page, “Nearly all fish contain at least traces of methylmercury,” and it builds up most in larger fish that eat other fish and in fish that live longer. Because mercury is found throughout the tissue, the FDA states that cleaning or cooking fish does not reduce it. Mercury that has built up in the body is removed naturally, but the page says the process “can take several months,” which is the reason the advice gives for applying to people who might become pregnant within the next year. The FDA’s Closer to Zero page adds that mercury “is unique as bioaccumulation in seafood is the primary dietary source.” Mercury alongside lead, arsenic and cadmium is covered on the site’s Heavy Metals page.

For other contaminants, the questions-and-answers page states that the FDA “has found that the levels of other contaminants in commercial fish generally do not raise human health concerns,” and that levels of contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) vary by location and species. It points to state, local and tribal fish advisories for fish caught by family and friends, and gives the agencies’ fallback advice where no advisory exists: one serving that week and no other fish. The page also reports the Dietary Guidelines’ and the FDA’s recommendation that people who are pregnant and children eat fish only when cooked to safe internal temperatures, because of the risk of foodborne illness.

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8. What the Advice Does Not Do

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9. Dates and Status as of October 18, 2026

Status as of October 18, 2026: current federal consumer advice, not a binding rule. The FDA’s fish advice page still carries the line “Advice revised October 2021” (content current as of March 5, 2024). A check of the Federal Register through October 18, 2026 found no later notice of a revised fish advice; the most recent document under this title is the October 29, 2021 notice.

The technical page reports that among the NASEM report’s conclusions, “there is not enough evidence to suggest a need to revise the amounts of seafood recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” and that there is not enough evidence to assess the impact of contaminants from seafood other than mercury. It says the agency is considering the findings “to inform the joint FDA and EPA Advice About Eating Fish and the Closer to Zero Initiative.” The Closer to Zero page (content current as of January 6, 2025) states that the FDA and EPA are reviewing the report and other data “to determine if updates to the Advice About Eating Fish are warranted,” that the FDA “will consider whether additional regulatory action would be beneficial,” and that seafood sampling for methylmercury began in 2023 and continues.

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10. How It Fits Earlier and Later Actions

The Federal Register records in Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0595 trace the advice through five notices:

The 2021 update came in the same year the FDA launched its Closer to Zero plan for toxic elements in baby food, which covers lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury. The technical page’s October 2021 entry links the two: “As part of the Closer to Zero Action Plan, we will continue to evaluate the science and identify actions to reduce exposure to toxic elements like methylmercury while balancing the nutritional benefits of fish as part of a healthy diet.” Later steps under that plan for lead are reported on the 2022 draft lead-in-juice action levels and 2025 lead action levels for baby food pages; as of the Closer to Zero page’s January 2025 content, mercury was still under evaluation.

Other 2021 FDA food actions are reported on the voluntary sodium reduction targets and onion Salmonella outbreak pages.

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11. Primary Documents

  1. Food and Drug Administration, HHS (2021). Advice About Eating Fish: For Those Who Might Become or Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding and Children Ages 1-11 Years, From the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration; Revised Fish Advice; Availability. Notice of availability. Federal Register 86 FR 60053, October 29, 2021. Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0595 — FR Doc. 2021-23666
  2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Advice about Eating Fish: For Those Who Might Become or Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding and Children Ages 1 - 11 Years. Advice revised October 2021; content current as of March 5, 2024 — fda.gov Advice about Eating Fish
  3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Questions & Answers from the FDA/EPA Advice about Eating Fish for Those Who Might Become or Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding and Children Ages 1 to 11 Years. Content current as of February 17, 2022 — fda.gov questions and answers
  4. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Technical Information on Development of FDA/EPA Advice about Eating Fish for Those Who Might Become or Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding and Children Ages 1-11 Years. Dated entries October 2021 to June 7, 2024 — fda.gov technical information
  5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Closer to Zero: Reducing Childhood Exposure to Contaminants from Foods. Content current as of January 6, 2025 — fda.gov Closer to Zero page
  6. Food and Drug Administration, HHS (2019). Advice About Eating Fish: For Women Who Are or Might Become Pregnant, Breastfeeding Mothers, and Young Children, From the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration; Revised Fish Advice; Availability. Federal Register 84 FR 32747, July 9, 2019. Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0595 — FR Doc. 2019-14524
  7. Food and Drug Administration, HHS (2017). Advice About Eating Fish, From the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration; Revised Fish Advice; Availability. Federal Register 82 FR 6571, January 19, 2017. Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0595 — FR Doc. 2017-01073
  8. Food and Drug Administration, HHS (2015). Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration Advice About Eating Fish; Closure of the Public Comment Period. Federal Register 80 FR 9732, February 24, 2015. Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0595 — FR Doc. 2015-03691
  9. Food and Drug Administration, HHS (2014). Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration Advice About Eating Fish: Availability of Draft Update. Notice; establishment of docket; request for comments. Federal Register 79 FR 33559, June 11, 2014. Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0595 — FR Doc. 2014-13584
  10. Public docket FDA-2014-N-0595 — regulations.gov FDA-2014-N-0595

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Key Research Papers

  1. Cladis DP, Kleiner AC, Santerre CR (2014). Mercury content in commercially available finfish in the United States. Journal of Food Protection 77(8):1361-1366 — PubMed PMID: 25198598
  2. Karimi R, Fitzgerald TP, Fisher NS (2012). A quantitative synthesis of mercury in commercial seafood and implications for exposure in the United States. Environmental Health Perspectives 120(11):1512-1519 — PubMed PMID: 22732656
  3. Hibbeln JR, Spiller P, Brenna JT, Golding J, Holub BJ, Harris WS, Kris-Etherton P, Lands B, Connor SL, Myers G, Strain JJ, Crawford MA, Carlson SE (2019). Relationships between seafood consumption during pregnancy and childhood and neurocognitive development: Two systematic reviews. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids 151:14-36 — PubMed PMID: 31739098
  4. Hibbeln JR, Davis JM, Steer C, Emmett P, Rogers I, Williams C, Golding J (2007). Maternal seafood consumption in pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes in childhood (ALSPAC study): an observational cohort study. The Lancet 369(9561):578-585 — PubMed PMID: 17307104
  5. Oken E, Wright RO, Kleinman KP, Bellinger D, Amarasiriwardena CJ, Hu H, Rich-Edwards JW, Gillman MW (2005). Maternal fish consumption, hair mercury, and infant cognition in a U.S. Cohort. Environmental Health Perspectives 113(10):1376-1380 — PubMed PMID: 16203250
  6. Mozaffarian D, Rimm EB (2006). Fish intake, contaminants, and human health: evaluating the risks and the benefits. JAMA 296(15):1885-1899 — PubMed PMID: 17047219
  7. Grandjean P, Weihe P, White RF, Debes F, Araki S, Yokoyama K, Murata K, Sørensen N, Dahl R, Jørgensen PJ (1997). Cognitive deficit in 7-year-old children with prenatal exposure to methylmercury. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 19(6):417-428 — PubMed PMID: 9392777
  8. Davidson PW, Myers GJ, Cox C, Axtell C, Shamlaye C, Sloane-Reeves J, Cernichiari E, Needham L, Choi A, Wang Y, Berlin M, Clarkson TW (1998). Effects of prenatal and postnatal methylmercury exposure from fish consumption on neurodevelopment: outcomes at 66 months of age in the Seychelles Child Development Study. JAMA 280(8):701-707 — PubMed PMID: 9728641

The first two papers are measurements of mercury in commercial fish and seafood sold in the United States; the FDA’s technical page lists both among the supplemental data sets the agencies used for species with few samples in the FDA’s own database. The next three concern seafood eaten during pregnancy and childhood and children’s neurodevelopment: two systematic reviews, a cohort study, and a U.S. cohort that measured both fish intake and hair mercury. The sixth is a review weighing the risks and benefits of fish intake. The last two are long-running child cohort studies of prenatal methylmercury exposure in fish-eating populations.

PubMed Topic Searches

  1. PubMed: methylmercury, fish consumption and pregnancy
  2. PubMed: seafood consumption and child neurodevelopment
  3. PubMed: mercury in commercial fish and consumption advice

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Connections

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