The present study was undertaken to determine whether decreases in fat contents result in lower vitamin E contents. Milk samples of varying fat contents (half and half, whole milk, reduced-fat milk, low-fat milk, and nonfat milk) were obtained from a local dairy on six different occasions. alpha-Tocopherol was the major form of vitamin E (>85%); gamma-tocopherol and alpha-tocotrienol were present to a lesser extent. As the fat contents of milk products decreased from 11 to 0.3%, the vitamin E contents decreased. For example, raw milk as compared to nonfat milk had both higher (-tocopherol contents (45.5 +/- 4.6 vs. 4.5 +/- 0.5 microg/100 g; P < or = 0.0001) and higher total lipids (3.46 +/- 0.49 vs. 0.30 +/- 0.07 g/100 g; P < or = 0.0001). Vitamin E, cholesterol, and total lipids increased as cream was added back to nonfat milk during production. For every 1 mg cholesterol increase, there was an increase of approximately 4 microg of alpha-tocopherol; for every 1 g total lipids increase, the alpha-tocopherol content increased by 17 microg. These data demonstrate that removal of milk fat markedly decreases the vitamin E content of various milk products.