History of Dairy Products: Cream

About the dairy product cream, information about its nutrition, fat and calories compared to other creams.

CREAM

Cream is that part of the milk which has the highest percentage of butterfat. Whole milk usually has 4% to 5% butterfat, depending on the individual cow and on the breed. Cream has little in the way of essential fatty acids, but it does have a lot of calories, around 430 in half a cup. This compares with 170 calories in half a cup of light cream or half-and-half. However, the same amount of cream (half a cup) contains 1,900 IU of vitamin A, compared with only 500 IU, which is all half-and-half supplies.