Labelgrade

Bologna Is More Fat Than Protein. It Scored a C-.

The one-line verdict: bologna isn't a protein food wearing a fun name — it's a fat emulsion with a little meat in it. Oscar Mayer Bologna carries about 7g of fat to 3g of protein per slice — more than twice the fat — and earns Labelgrade C- (58/100). Because fat carries more than double the calories of protein gram-for-gram, the calorie split is even more lopsided than the label numbers: most of the slice is fat. That's the whole story of why it grades near the floor of the deli case.

The receipts: the deli case, ranked

Every cured and deli meat we grade, best to worst, pulled live. Read the protein and fat columns together — the pattern is stark.

  1. Field Roast Smoked Apple & Sage Plant-Based Sausages — Labelgrade B (77/100) · 23g protein vs 8g fat (protein ≥ fat)
  2. Boar's Head Turkey Breast — Labelgrade B (75/100) · 13g protein vs 1g fat (protein ≥ fat)
  3. Hillshire Farm Ultra Thin Oven Roasted Turkey Breast — Labelgrade B- (70/100) · 10g protein vs 0.498g fat (protein ≥ fat)
  4. Oscar Mayer Oscar Mayer, Deli Fresh, Blackened Turkey Breast — Labelgrade C+ (68/100) · 9g protein vs 1.5g fat (protein ≥ fat)
  5. Oscar Mayer Smoked Ham — Labelgrade C+ (68/100) · 10g protein vs 2g fat (protein ≥ fat)
  6. Applegate The Great Organic Uncured Beef Hot Dog — Labelgrade C+ (67/100) · 6g protein vs 7g fat (fat > protein)
  7. Hillshire Farm Farm Classics Honey Roasted Turkey Breast — Labelgrade C+ (66/100) · 7g protein vs 1.5g fat (protein ≥ fat)
  8. Johnsonville Original Bratwurst — Labelgrade C (61/100) · 14g protein vs 21g fat (fat > protein)
  9. Boar's Head Genoa Salami — Labelgrade C (60/100) · 12g protein vs 15g fat (fat > protein)
  10. Hebrew National Beef Franks — Labelgrade C (60/100) · 5g protein vs 8g fat (fat > protein)
  11. Jimmy Dean Premium Pork Sausage with Bacon — Labelgrade C- (59/100) · 13g protein vs 20g fat (fat > protein)
  12. Ball Park Beef Franks — Labelgrade C- (58/100) · 12.3g protein vs 22.8g fat (fat > protein)
  13. Hormel Pepperoni — Labelgrade C- (58/100) · 7g protein vs 10g fat (fat > protein)
  14. Oscar Mayer Bologna — Labelgrade C- (58/100) · 3g protein vs 7g fat (fat > protein)
  15. Smithfield Thick Cut Bacon — Labelgrade C- (57/100) · 3g protein vs 5g fat (fat > protein)
  16. Nathan's Famous Beef Cocktail Franks — Labelgrade C- (56/100) · 7g protein vs 15g fat (fat > protein)

Every score traces to the product's USDA-sourced label. Slice it your own way in the filterable explorer →

Two kinds of deli meat, one case

The list above splits cleanly into two families. At the top are the muscle meats — roasted turkey and chicken breast — sliced thin. They're lean by nature, so they post high protein against very little fat (a turkey breast can run 13g protein to 1g fat), and they grade in the B range. At the bottom are the emulsified meats — bologna, salami, franks, pepperoni, bacon — where the meat is ground with fat into a uniform paste, cased, and cooked. Fat is the point of that texture, which is why these foods invert the ratio: more fat than protein, every time.

Bologna is the emblem of the second family. There's nothing exotic in it — it's just that the recipe is built around fat and salt, not lean protein, so on a scale that rewards protein density and penalizes saturated fat and sodium, it has almost nothing to score with. It's not that the grade dislikes bologna; it's that there isn't much nutrition in a slice for the grade to find.

The fix is one shelf over

You don't have to give up the sandwich to fix this. The upgrade is sitting in the same refrigerated case: swap the emulsified meat for a sliced muscle meat. Roasted turkey or chicken breast flips the ratio — high protein, low saturated fat — and jumps the grade from the C- basement into the B range. The one thing that carries over is sodium: deli meats are brined, so even the lean options run 350–560mg a serving, which is why none of them score an A. Rinse-free, the move that matters most is protein-up, fat-down — and that's a different slice, not a different sandwich.

The honest caveat

A C- is "occasional," not "never." A bologna sandwich now and then is a normal food, and the grade isn't telling you it's poison — it's telling you it's a treat-tier lunch meat, not a protein source you'd build a high-protein day around. Two fair footnotes: the score is for the meat as sold, so a thin layer of bologna inside an otherwise good sandwich is a smaller deal than a pile of it; and processed meats carry a separate, well-established caution — the WHO classifies them as a Group 1 carcinogen for regular, high intake — that our macro-and-ingredient grade doesn't directly encode but that points the same way. Enjoy it occasionally; don't mistake it for protein. For exactly how the six dimensions are weighed, see the methodology page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is bologna more fat than protein?

Yes — by weight and by calories. A standard slice of Oscar Mayer bologna has about 3g of protein and 7g of fat. That's more than twice as much fat as protein on the label, and because fat carries 9 calories per gram versus protein's 4, the gap in calories is even wider: roughly 63 of the slice's ~80 calories come from fat, against about 12 from protein. Bologna is an emulsified-fat product with a little meat protein along for the ride, which is why it earns a Labelgrade C- (58) and sits near the bottom of the deli case.

Why does bologna score so low?

Two dimensions sink it: a weak protein density (only ~3g per slice, so it can't earn the points a real protein food does) and saturated fat (about 2.5g per slice from the fat emulsion). Sodium adds to it at ~250mg a slice. The grade isn't a moral judgment on bologna — it's the math of a food that's mostly fat and salt with very little of the protein or fiber that lifts a score. A C- means "fine occasionally, not a protein strategy."

What deli meat should I buy instead?

Sliced turkey or chicken breast is the upgrade, and it's a big one. A real roasted turkey breast deli meat flips bologna's ratio on its head — often 10–13g of protein against 1–2g of fat per serving — which is exactly the profile (high protein, low saturated fat) the grade rewards. That's the difference between "lean muscle meat, sliced" and "fat emulsion, sliced." Watch the sodium even on the lean options, though: deli meats are brined, so most still carry 350–560mg per serving.

Is bologna processed meat? Is that a cancer risk?

Bologna is processed meat — emulsified, cured, and packaged — and the World Health Organization classifies processed meats as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning regular high intake is associated with a modest increase in colorectal-cancer risk. The key words are "regular" and "high": an occasional sandwich is not the concern; daily processed meat is the pattern the evidence points at. Our grade doesn't encode cancer risk directly — it scores the macros and ingredients — but the low grade and the processing flag point the same direction: treat it as an occasional food.

Is turkey bologna any better?

A little, usually, but don't assume it's a health food. Turkey bologna is still an emulsified, processed product — it just starts from a leaner meat, so it typically carries somewhat less total and saturated fat than beef-and-pork bologna. The sodium and the processing are the same story. It's a step in the right direction within the bologna category, but a slice of plain roasted turkey breast is a bigger step than a slice of turkey bologna.

How is the Labelgrade calculated?

One 0–100 score from the same six weighted dimensions — protein density, ingredient quality, added sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and fiber — applied to every food alike. Bologna lands at C- because it scores poorly where it counts (low protein density, real saturated fat, meaningful sodium) and has nothing on the good side of the ledger to offset it. Every number comes from the product's USDA-sourced label; the full weighting is on the methodology page.