Perch Nutrition Calculator — Calories & Nutrition per Serving

Baked yellow perch provides 102mg calcium per 100g (8% DV) — a genuinely unusual number for a boneless fish fillet ^[1]. Most white fish have 10-35mg calcium per 100g: cod has 14mg, haddock 14mg, sole 25mg, and ocean perch 34mg. Yellow perch delivers 3-7x more calcium than its closest competitors.

The high calcium is consistent across USDA analyses and reflects the species' biology rather than processing or bone fragments. At 117 kcal per 100g, yellow perch provides calcium at a cost of just 1.15 kcal per mg of calcium — more efficient than milk (0.71 kcal/mg) but remarkable for a food that also delivers 24.9g protein ^[1].

Research on freshwater perch nutrition has documented that mineral uptake from freshwater environments differs substantially from marine species, with calcium and manganese concentrations particularly sensitive to the mineral composition of the lake or river habitat ^[2].

The name 'perch' covers at least three distinct market fish with substantially different nutritional profiles. Yellow perch (freshwater, Great Lakes): 117 kcal, 24.9g protein, 79mg sodium. Ocean perch (Atlantic/marine): 96 kcal, 18.5g protein, 347mg sodium. Walleye (freshwater, also called pike-perch): 119 kcal, 24.5g protein, 65mg sodium ^[1].

The biggest tracking-relevant difference is sodium: ocean perch has 347mg sodium per 100g — 4.4x more than yellow perch (79mg) and 5.3x more than walleye (65mg). A 6-oz serving of ocean perch delivers 590mg sodium, while the same serving of walleye has just 111mg ^[1].

Selenium also diverges dramatically: ocean perch has 34.6mcg (63% DV) compared to yellow perch's 16.1mcg (29% DV). Logging the wrong perch species creates substantial errors in both sodium and selenium tracking ^[1].

Baked yellow perch contains 0.9mg manganese per 100g — 39% of the daily value ^[1]. This is an extraordinary outlier: most fish contain 0.01-0.05mg manganese per 100g. Ocean perch has 0.01mg. Salmon has 0.02mg. Cod has 0.01mg. Yellow perch has 45 to 90x more manganese than comparable fish.

This makes yellow perch one of the few animal-based dietary sources of meaningful manganese. Most dietary manganese comes from plant foods — whole grains, nuts, leafy greens, and tea. A single 170g serving of yellow perch provides 1.53mg manganese (67% DV) ^[1].

The elevated manganese appears consistent across USDA analyses and likely reflects the mineral uptake from freshwater environments where manganese concentrations are higher than in ocean water. This is not typical of all freshwater fish — trout and bass have normal (low) manganese levels ^[2].

A classic Great Lakes-style perch fry — small fillets breaded and pan-fried — runs approximately 195 kcal per 100g ^[1]. The breading and oil add 78 calories per 100g compared to plain baked, turning a lean protein into a moderate-calorie dish.

A typical Friday fish fry plate serves 4-5 small perch fillets totaling about 225g, which means 439 kcal from the fish alone. Add tartar sauce (130 kcal), coleslaw (95 kcal), and fries (approximately 350 kcal), and a traditional fish fry dinner logs at roughly 1,014 kcal ^[1].

For a lower-calorie alternative: the same four fillets baked rather than fried deliver 263 kcal — a 176-calorie saving from the fish portion alone. The protein stays nearly identical (56g baked vs. 46g fried), but fat drops from 19g to under 3g ^[1].

Baked yellow perch delivers 24.9g protein at 117 kcal per 100g — a protein-to-calorie ratio of 21.3g per 100 kcal ^[1]. This is nearly identical to skinless chicken breast (18.8g protein per 100 kcal), with the bonus of 2.2mcg B12 (92% DV) — chicken breast provides less than 3% DV of B12.

The protein in perch is also exceptionally lean at 1.2g total fat per 100g — leaner than chicken breast (3.6g) and comparable to shrimp (1.7g) or cod (0.86g). For high-protein, low-fat macro targets, yellow perch is among the most efficient whole-food options ^[1].

However, yellow perch's 115mg cholesterol per 100g (38% DV) is notably higher than chicken breast (85mg) — a tracking variable worth noting for those monitoring cholesterol intake alongside protein ^[1].