Foods Highest in Cholesterol

This ranking surfaces the top 50 whole foods for Cholesterol, pulled from USDA Standard Reference Legacy and Foundation databases. Those two sources intentionally exclude branded and processed entries, which keeps the list focused on raw ingredients where nutrient content reflects the food itself rather than fortification or recipe adjustments. The FDA Daily Value for Cholesterol is 300MG, so every row translates directly into a percent-DV figure for an adult on a 2,000-calorie diet.

At the top of the ranking sits Veal, variety meats and by-products, brain, cooked, braised, delivering 3100.0MG per 100g, 1033% of the Daily Value in a 100g portion. The top three (Veal, variety meats and by-products, brain, cooked, braised, Beef, variety meats and by-products, brain, cooked, simmered, Beef, variety meats and by-products, brain, raw) together form a practical "big lever" set, foods where a single serving meaningfully moves daily intake. The visual bars beside each row scale against the top food, so you can see at a glance whether a lower-ranked food is still a strong source or a distant runner-up.

Because this page excludes branded products, it is the right tool for comparing whole-food cooking choices rather than packaged-food shopping decisions, for those, the per-food pages and the branded search tools cover the same nutrient at product level. All values are reported per 100g edible portion, which means the raw numbers can be directly compared but real-world servings differ (a 100g portion of spinach is very different from 100g of almonds by volume). The nutrition guides linked below explain how to translate % DV and per-100g figures into practical daily targets and how to read nutrition labels when comparing whole foods to their processed equivalents.