How to Find Saturated Fat in Food

Saturated fat is a fat that contributes significantly to high cholesterol. According to the American Heart Association, you should limit the amount of saturated fat you eat to less than 7 percent of your daily caloric intake. In order to fulfill this, you must be able to identify saturated fat in foods. This can be tricky because sometimes when there is a small amount of the fat, food manufacturers do not have to list it on the nutritional facts. These small amounts can add up in a day, however, so learning how to identify saturated fat is the key to a healthy life.

Instructions

• 1

  Learn the foods where saturated fat can be found. Saturated fat is particularly high in dairy products such as cheese and milk, as well as any meat with fat on it including beef, poultry with skin, pork, lamb and veal. Saturated fats can even come from plant products including coconut oil and cocoa butter. Also consider most packaged products.

• 2

  Look on the nutritional label for the saturated fat content. It is usually located beneath "Total Fat" and will have a percentage next to it. This is the percentage of saturated fat out of your recommended daily amount that this product contains.

• 3

  Examine the ingredients if the nutritional label indicates that there is no saturated fat. If the amount of saturated fat in the product is less than .5 percent, it will show as zero on the nutritional label. Look in the ingredients for the words "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated." If they appear, then there is saturated fat in the product.