Tool · United Kingdom
Recipe nutrition calculator — UK data
Enter the ingredients of your recipe and their weight in grams. The calculator works out the back-of-pack nutrition declaration per 100 g — energy in kJ and kcal, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, fibre, protein and salt — from CoFID, the food composition dataset the UK government publishes. Free, no sign-up, everything stays in your browser.
Type and pick from the list. Calculated in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere.
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Values per 100 g of the ingredients as weighed, without cooking loss, and without the rounding of the guidance — our nutrition information calculator applies that and says where it comes from.
Why CoFID and not a European table
Article 31(4) of the retained Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 allows three routes to a declared value, and treats them as equals:
“The declared values shall, according to the individual case, be average values based on: (a) the manufacturer’s analysis of the food; (b) a calculation from the known or actual average values of the ingredients used; or (c) a calculation from generally established and accepted data.”
Route (c) is why a food composition table is enough, and CoFID — McCance and Widdowson’s The Composition of Foods — is the one published for the United Kingdom. A German or French table would also be “generally established”, but it describes a different food supply: different wheat, different fortification rules, different dairy. For a British product CoFID is the nearer answer.
Two of the nine values are not measured but derived: protein is nitrogen × 6.25 and salt is sodium × 2.5 — both defined that way in Annex I, points 10 and 11.
The energy value is calculated, not converted
Article 31(1): “The energy value shall be calculated using the conversion factors listed in Annex XIV.” Each of the two columns has its own factors, and they are not in a constant ratio:
| Per gram of | kJ | kcal | ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| fat | 37 | 9 | 4.111 |
| carbohydrate, protein | 17 | 4 | 4.25 |
| fibre | 8 | 2 | 4.0 |
| polyols | 10 | 2.4 | 4.167 |
| alcohol | 29 | 7 | 4.143 |
That is why the kJ figure above is not the kcal figure times 4.184, and why it should not be. The kJ to kcal page works the difference through on a real example.
What the calculation does not do
- No cooking loss. Article 31(3) wants the values of the food as sold. A loaf that leaves the oven lighter than it went in has concentrated every value per 100 g.
- No rounding. The thresholds come from Commission guidance, not from the Regulation, and rounding twice is how figures drift. The declaration calculator applies them and marks them as guidance.
- No portion column and no %RI. Both are optional additions under Articles 33 and 32(4), and both carry conditions.
- No allergens. They come from the ingredients, and they have to be emphasised inside the ingredient list — Article 21(1).
From these figures to a finished declaration
- Calculate the averages here.
- Correct for cooking loss, so the values describe the food as sold.
- Round and lay out the table — the declaration calculator does both, in the Annex XV order.
- Add the rest of the label: name, ingredient list with emphasised allergens, QUID, net quantity, date marking, business address.
Frequently asked questions
Which food composition data should a UK label use?
CoFID, the dataset the UK government publishes — which is what this page works with.
Is a calculation allowed, or do I need a laboratory?
Allowed — Article 31(4) names three equal routes, and two of them are calculations.
Why does the energy value not match kcal × 4.184?
Because each column is calculated from its own Annex XIV factors, and they are not in a constant ratio.
Does this page apply the rounding of the guidance?
No, on purpose — the rounding belongs to the finished declaration.
Does cooking loss change the figures?
Yes. Article 31(3) wants the food as sold, and this page works with the weights you enter.
Do these values go on the label as they are?
They are averages of your ingredients — round them, and check that the recipe is representative of what you sell.
Nutrient values from McCance and Widdowson’s The Composition of Foods (CoFID), published under the Open Government Licence. Wording quoted from the retained Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 as it applies in Great Britain, Articles 31 and Annexes I and XIV, on legislation.gov.uk. The calculated figures are averages of the ingredients as entered; whether they are representative of what you sell depends on your recipe and your suppliers. This page is information, not legal advice — the responsibility for a label stays with the food business operator.