The short answer

Plain sliced turkey or chicken breast is the best deli meat for high cholesterol: the ones we compared had 0 to 0.4g of saturated fat per 2 oz. Salami, pepperoni and bologna had 7 to 9.5g, more than half of a 13g daily limit in one sandwich's worth.

Our picks from the table:

  • Best overall: plain roasted turkey or chicken breast, such as Boar's Head Roasted Turkey Breast, Applegate Natural Herb Turkey Breast and Hormel Natural Choice Deli Chicken Breast (US, 0g on the label)
  • Best in the UK: Asda Wafer Thin Cooked Chicken (0.3g) and Bernard Matthews Chicken Breast Slices (0.4g)
  • Lowest-fat ham: Mattessons Honey Roast Ham (0.3g), Tesco Cooked Ham (0.4g), Hillshire Farm Black Forest Ham (0.5g), but it is still processed red meat and salty
  • Limit: Peperami (9.5g), Boar's Head pepperoni (9g), Hillshire Farm Hard Salami and Oscar Mayer Beef Bologna (7g each)

Label data only, not medical advice

This ranking compares what each pack's nutrition label says about saturated fat. It isn't a health rating of any brand, and no lunch meat here lowers cholesterol. Deli meats are also high in salt, which the table doesn't show. Recipes change, so check the label on the pack you buy. If your doctor or dietitian has given you specific limits, follow those.

23 deli meats ranked by saturated fat

Every meat is compared on 2 oz (56g), the US label serving for deli meat, which is about 3 to 6 thin slices. UK packs usually give figures for 2 slices, about 30 to 40g, so a typical UK sandwich portion has a bit less than the figure shown. Bands: Better 2g or less per serving, Occasional over 2g up to 4.5g, Treat over 4.5g. "Processed red meat" marks cured, smoked or salted pork and beef.

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Sorted by saturated fat per serving, lowest first. Tap a column heading to re-sort. Data fetched from Open Food Facts on 2026-11-10.
1 Boar's Head Roasted Turkey BreastUS · 2 oz (56g) 0g 0% 0g 60 Better
2 Applegate Natural Herb Turkey BreastUS · 2 oz (56g) 0g 0% 0g 51 Better
3 Hormel Natural Choice Deli Chicken BreastUS · 2 oz (56g) 0g 0% 0g 50 Better
4 Mattessons Honey Roast HamUK · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 0.3g 2% 0.6g 57 Better
5 Asda Wafer Thin Cooked ChickenUK · 2 oz (56g) 0.3g 2% 0.6g 59 Better
6 Tesco Cooked HamUK · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 0.4g 3% 0.7g 62 Better
7 Bernard Matthews Chicken Breast SlicesUK · 2 oz (56g) 0.4g 3% 0.7g 58 Better
8 Hillshire Farm Black Forest HamUS · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 0.5g 4% 0.9g 60 Better
9 Hormel Natural Choice Cooked Deli HamUS · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 0.5g 4% 0.9g 60 Better
10 Tesco Roast Beef SlicesUK · 2 oz (56g) 0.5g 4% 0.9g 73 Better
11 Bernard Matthews Wafer Thin Turkey HamUK · 2 oz (56g) 0.7g 5% 1.3g 62 Better
12 Sainsbury's British Honey Roast HamUK · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 0.9g 7% 1.6g 78 Better
13 Hillshire Farm Roast BeefUS · 2 oz (56g) 1g 8% 1.8g 70 Better
14 Hormel Natural Choice Deli Roast BeefUS · 2 oz (56g) 1g 8% 1.8g 60 Better
15 Land O'Frost Honey TurkeyUS · 2 oz (56g) 1.5g 12% 2.6g 88 Better
16 Buddig Original Oven Roasted TurkeyUS · 2 oz (56g) 2g 15% 3.6g 90 Better
17 Buddig Original PastramiUS · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 3g 23% 5.4g 103 Occasional
18 Sainsbury's Corned Beef SlicesUK · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 3.4g 26% 6g 128 Occasional
19 Sainsbury's Chorizo SlicesUK · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 4.9g 38% 8.7g 183 Treat
20 Hillshire Farm Hard SalamiUS · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 7g 54% 12.5g 240 Treat
21 Oscar Mayer Beef BolognaUS · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 7g 54% 12.5g 180 Treat
22 Boar's Head Sandwich Style PepperoniUS · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat 9g 69% 16.1g 260 Treat
23 Peperami OriginalUK · 2 oz (56g) · processed red meat; one stick is 22.5g 9.5g 73% 17g 281 Treat

Nutrition data from Open Food Facts, available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Product names link to each product's Open Food Facts page.

What the ranking shows

  • Whole poultry breast is lowest. Sliced turkey and chicken breast made from whole breast meat had 0 to 0.4g per 2 oz, under 5% of the daily limit. Read more in is turkey good for cholesterol? and is chicken bad for cholesterol?
  • Not all turkey is equal. Buddig Original Oven Roasted Turkey (2g) and Land O'Frost Honey Turkey (1.5g) are chopped and formed, and both list mechanically separated turkey, which brings in more fat. They had 3.6 and 2.6g per 100g, against 0g for Boar's Head and Applegate turkey breast.
  • Lean ham is low in saturated fat, but it is still processed meat. Every cooked ham we compared had 0.3 to 0.9g per 2 oz. The issue with ham is not fat: it's cured, salty, and counts as processed red meat.
  • Lean roast beef sits in between. Tesco Roast Beef Slices (0.5g), Hillshire Farm Roast Beef and Hormel Natural Choice Deli Roast Beef (1g each) were all in the Better band.
  • Cured sausages are in a different league. Chorizo (4.9g), salami and bologna (7g) and pepperoni (9 to 9.5g) had roughly 15 to 30 times as much saturated fat as the UK chicken slices (0.3g). A single 22.5g Peperami stick has about 3.8g, close to a third of the daily limit.
  • US labels round. US Nutrition Facts round saturated fat under 0.5g per serving down to 0g, so the three US meats showing 0g could have up to about 0.5g. UK labels give per 100g figures to one decimal place.

How to choose a lunch meat

  1. Pick whole turkey or chicken breast. Look for "turkey breast" or "chicken breast" first in the ingredients, not "mechanically separated" or "turkey" with added skin or fat.
  2. Check saturated fat, not just total fat. In the UK, 1.5g or less per 100g counts as low and more than 5g per 100g as high. Every product in our Better band was under 4g per 100g; every cured sausage (salami, pepperoni, bologna, chorizo) was over 8g.
  3. Watch the salt. Deli meats are one of the biggest sources of sodium in the diet, and salt raises blood pressure, another risk for heart disease. Look for "lower sodium" versions, and in the UK, compare the salt traffic light.
  4. Treat processed red meat as an occasional food. Ham, bologna, salami, pepperoni, pastrami, corned beef and chorizo are processed meats. See is red meat bad for cholesterol? for how it fits in.
  5. Mind the portion and what's with it. UK packs list 2 slices; a deli-counter sandwich can hold 4 oz or more.

Easy swaps

  • Salami or pepperoni on a sandwich: swap for turkey breast with roasted peppers or a little pesto for flavour.
  • Bologna: swap for sliced chicken breast.
  • Ham every day: alternate with chicken, turkey, tinned salmon or tuna, egg, or hummus.
  • Peperami as a snack: a handful of unsalted nuts or edamame.

More ideas in our low-cholesterol lunch ideas.

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How we ranked them

We picked best-selling US lunch meats, from Oscar Mayer, Hillshire Farm, Boar's Head, Land O'Frost, Applegate, Hormel Natural Choice and Buddig, and popular UK sliced meats from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Mattessons, Bernard Matthews and Peperami. We took each one's nutrition data from Open Food Facts, an open database built from product labels. To catch mistakes, we compared each product's current record with an earlier copy and left out any where the saturated fat, fat or sugar didn't match, or where a value was missing. That excluded five products, including Oscar Mayer Smoked Uncured Ham, Boar's Head Bologna and a Waitrose Milano salami.

All meats are compared on 56g, calculated from the per 100g values. Percentages are of 13g, the American Heart Association's suggested daily limit for saturated fat on a 2,000 calorie diet. The NHS upper limit is 20g a day for women and 30g for men. The full dataset and the script that builds it are kept with this page and refreshed periodically.

Deli meat and cholesterol: quick answers

What lunch meat is best for high cholesterol?

Sliced turkey breast and chicken breast made from whole breast meat. In our comparison, Boar's Head Roasted Turkey Breast, Applegate Natural Herb Turkey Breast and Hormel Natural Choice Deli Chicken Breast showed 0g saturated fat per 2 oz on the US label, and UK chicken slices from Asda and Bernard Matthews had 0.3 to 0.4g. Lean roast beef and cooked ham were also low in saturated fat but are processed red meat.

Is turkey deli meat good for cholesterol?

Plain turkey breast is one of the best choices: the whole-breast turkey we compared had 0g of saturated fat per 2 oz on the label. Chopped and formed turkey can have more. Buddig Original Oven Roasted Turkey, made with mechanically separated turkey, had 2g per 2 oz. Choose a low-sodium version if you can, as sliced turkey is salty.

Is ham bad for cholesterol?

Lean cooked ham is low in saturated fat: the hams we compared had 0.3 to 0.9g per 2 oz, so it won't do much to your LDL cholesterol. But ham is cured, high in salt and counts as processed red meat, which the NHS and WHO advise limiting. Have it some of the time rather than every day, and swap in chicken or turkey breast.

Is salami bad for cholesterol?

Salami and pepperoni were the highest in our table. Hillshire Farm Hard Salami had 7g of saturated fat per 2 oz, over half of a 13g daily limit, and pepperoni had 9 to 9.5g. If you love it, keep it to a few thin slices for flavour rather than a whole sandwich filling.

Is roast beef lunch meat good for cholesterol?

Lean deli roast beef was low in saturated fat in our comparison: 0.5g per 2 oz for Tesco Roast Beef Slices and 1g for Hillshire Farm and Hormel Natural Choice. It is still red meat, so it fits best as one of several sandwich fillings rather than the everyday choice.

Which deli meats should I avoid with high cholesterol?

The highest in saturated fat were Peperami (9.5g per 2 oz), pepperoni (9g), salami and bologna (7g each) and chorizo (4.9g). Pastrami and corned beef were in between at 3 to 3.4g. These are all processed red meats, so they are best kept as an occasional treat.

Sources

Related reading

Low-cholesterol lunch ideas

13 easy lunches with saturated fat for each, plus three recipes.

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Is turkey good for cholesterol?

Breast vs dark meat, skin, and how turkey compares with other meats.

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