What is the state of saturated fats at room temperature?

Saturated fats are typically solid at room temperature. This characteristic is due to their chemical structure, which contains no double bonds between carbon atoms. The absence of double bonds allows the fatty acid chains to pack closely together, resulting in a higher melting point. This close packing of saturated fat molecules contributes to the solid state at room temperature.

In contrast, unsaturated fats, which contain one or more double bonds, tend to be liquid at room temperature because the double bonds introduce kinks in the fatty acid chains that prevent them from packing tightly. Therefore, recognizing the structure of saturated fats and understanding how that influences their physical properties helps clarify why they are solid at room temperature.