calories and kcal

Hi!
I just want to know if the unit of measure for calories is kcal?
I saw one label with this:
calories = 27kcal
Is it correct?
I thought kcal is for energy.
I hope you can help.

thanks,
RR

[Robert Fogt]

Are you reading a nutritional label?

If so, a Calorie is the same as a kcal.

The nutritional Calorie is 1000 standard calories. A kcal is a kilocalorie which is 1000 calories. So a nutritional Calorie is the same as a kcal.

Notice the capitalization, the nutritional Calorie is capitalized, while the standard calorie is not. Very confusing I know.

I know it's late and I'm digging up an old thread but thanks Robert, this information was helpful to me. Keep it up.

In New Zealand all our food is labelled in kilojoules (it makes math soooooo much easier imho) but when comparing notes with Americans and others it means you have to start doing odd conversions......

What is "energyKJ"?
on a US label something is 120 calories
KCal would also be 120?
What would be the equivalent energyKJ?
Is it 120 calories/4.1868 joules?

[JohnS]

Originally Posted by Jean

What is "energyKJ"?
on a US label something is 120 calories
KCal would also be 120?
What would be the equivalent energyKJ?
Is it 120 calories/4.1868 joules?

The calorie heats 1 g of water 1 °C. The Calorie (capital C) heats 1 kg of water 1 °C. Nutritional calories are ALWAYS Calories (or kilocalories)
1 nutritional calorie (as on a food label) = 4.184 kJ.
(or close to it. Since the specific heat of water is not precisely constant, there are several calories based on the starting temperature of the water. The differences amount to a few digits in the fourth place of the above conversion.)