Kcal and  Kilojoule
by trish routley on 07/07/04 at 14:59:25

I Am keen to know the difference between Kcal as described on the back of food packaging and kilojoules and for that matter a plain calorie.
Is a kcal actually just a calorie?
I don't care if I use Calorie or  kj but need it to be just one
I can convert it if I know what it is?
8)

Re: Kcal and  Kilojoule
by Robert Fogt on 07/08/04 at 01:37:10

There are different types of calories, and it gets confusing.

There is the Calorie and the calorie.  Notice the only difference is the uppercase/lowercase letter c.

The Calorie is the nutritional calorie, equal to 1000 calories, or 1 kilocalorie.  It is the kind of calorie you find on food labels.  It is equal to 4.1868 kilojoules. The Calorie is sometimes called the large calorie or kilogram calorie.

The calorie is the calorie used by scientists, sometimes called the gram calorie or small calorie (because it is smaller than the Calorie). It has several definitions because it is defined as raising the temperature of a 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius, which differs with the starting temperature of the water.  There is the 15° calorie (4.1858 joules) and the international steam table (IT) calorie (4.1868 joules) and others.

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