Calories and kilojoules: how do we know the energy content of food, and how accurate are the labels?

By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland
Emily Burch, Dietitian, Researcher & Lecturer, Southern Cross University
Katelyn Barnes, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland

Everything we consume contains energy our bodies use to move, grow and maintain health. To work out how much energy is in different foods and drinks, we need to first look at a few core concepts.

Firstly, you’ve probably heard of the units of measurement for energy – calories – as well as the metric equivalent, which is joules. One calorie is defined as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1℃.

In human nutrition, the amounts of energy needed to maintain health, and to fuel a body, are much larger than the tiny singular calories used…

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