How do food manufacturers calculate calories

We think about calories in terms of body weight: eat fewer calories to lose weight, eat more calories to gain weight, run on the treadmill to burn more calories.

But just what is a calorie? A calorie is a measure of energy. More specifically, one calorie is the amount of energy it takes to heat one kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius at sea level. When scientists first started to measure the energy, or calories in food, they used a bomb calorimeter. A sample of food like that large portion of fries is placed into a metal container called a bomb. The bomb is filled with oxygen and placed in another container where it is surrounded by water.

These numbers were originally determined by burning and then averaging. Thus the label on an energy bar that contains 10 g of protein, 20 g of carbohydrate and 9 g of fat would read kcals or Calories. At this site you can also download the food database to a handheld computer.

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