I always wonder how “they” can know the exact amount of fiber, protein, carbs and sugars, etc when I’m reading ingredient labels.
PS: couldn’t decide between biology or chemistry flair since I guess my question relates to biochemistry! Haha
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Scientists use what’s called a calorimeter to measure the number of calories something has. This device burns the food in pure oxygen and then measures the amount of heat given off. This is relatively close to the amount of energy your body gets because with uses the oxygen you breathe to react with the food you eat.
More specifically how a calorimeter works is this;
A calorimeter is a device that you place a small bit of weighed out food (e.g. 10 grams), then fill with pure oxygen and ignite it with a fuse. Then you can measure the rise in temperature of the (measured amount of water) to know exactly how much energy that released, (e.g. 35 calories/10 grams, so 100g of food would be 350 calories.
I sometimes produce labels for products. Sometimes you can wing it and use existing values. Sometimes you have to say to food manufacturers to send them to labs.
I’ve done all the labs to extract fat from food and various other nutrients. It’s great fun chemistry
Scientists use what’s called a calorimeter to measure the number of calories something has. This device burns the food in pure oxygen and then measures the amount of heat given off. This is relatively close to the amount of energy your body gets because with uses the oxygen you breathe to react with the food you eat.
More specifically how a calorimeter works is this;
A calorimeter is a device that you place a small bit of weighed out food (e.g. 10 grams), then fill with pure oxygen and ignite it with a fuse. Then you can measure the rise in temperature of the (measured amount of water) to know exactly how much energy that released, (e.g. 35 calories/10 grams, so 100g of food would be 350 calories.
I sometimes produce labels for products. Sometimes you can wing it and use existing values. Sometimes you have to say to food manufacturers to send them to labs.
I’ve done all the labs to extract fat from food and various other nutrients. It’s great fun chemistry
Scientists use what’s called a calorimeter to measure the number of calories something has. This device burns the food in pure oxygen and then measures the amount of heat given off. This is relatively close to the amount of energy your body gets because with uses the oxygen you breathe to react with the food you eat.
More specifically how a calorimeter works is this;
A calorimeter is a device that you place a small bit of weighed out food (e.g. 10 grams), then fill with pure oxygen and ignite it with a fuse. Then you can measure the rise in temperature of the (measured amount of water) to know exactly how much energy that released, (e.g. 35 calories/10 grams, so 100g of food would be 350 calories.
I sometimes produce labels for products. Sometimes you can wing it and use existing values. Sometimes you have to say to food manufacturers to send them to labs.
I’ve done all the labs to extract fat from food and various other nutrients. It’s great fun chemistry
The definition of a calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise 1 gram of water 1°C.
The way they measure this is by putting food into a tool called a bomb calorimeter. Like how you can use natural gas to boil water on a stove, they burn the food as a fuel source and see how much it heats the water.
That’s a lot of work to do for every single thing on grocery store shelves so they can just estimate it and add the ingredients used.
They can also back into it if they know what’s in it by approximating it. Fat is about 9 calories, while protein and and carbohydrates are 4 calories.
The definition of a calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise 1 gram of water 1°C.
The way they measure this is by putting food into a tool called a bomb calorimeter. Like how you can use natural gas to boil water on a stove, they burn the food as a fuel source and see how much it heats the water.
That’s a lot of work to do for every single thing on grocery store shelves so they can just estimate it and add the ingredients used.
They can also back into it if they know what’s in it by approximating it. Fat is about 9 calories, while protein and and carbohydrates are 4 calories.
The definition of a calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise 1 gram of water 1°C.
The way they measure this is by putting food into a tool called a bomb calorimeter. Like how you can use natural gas to boil water on a stove, they burn the food as a fuel source and see how much it heats the water.
That’s a lot of work to do for every single thing on grocery store shelves so they can just estimate it and add the ingredients used.
They can also back into it if they know what’s in it by approximating it. Fat is about 9 calories, while protein and and carbohydrates are 4 calories.
Raw materials ie flour sugar butter etc already have approximately known macronutrient composition based on weight. For the meal plans I wrote for myself, I usually calculate everything based on this. Fats 9 cal per gram, protein and net carbohydrates, 4 cal per gram, etc.
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