Food energy is the amount of energy in food that is available through digestion. The values for food energy are expressed in kilocalories (kcal) and kilojoules (kJ).

One food Calorie (1 kcal or 1,000 calories) is the amount of digestively available food energy (heat) that will raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius. The large Calorie is sometimes abbreviated kcal, to indicate clearly that is 1000 times as large as the small calorie formerly common in chemistry and physics usage. Consequently, the prefix kilo- is not used with large Calories. Food calories are also more specifically called kilocalories on the basis of the small calorie usage. This term, which makes it clear that large calories are intended, is widely used by professional nutritionists when speaking in terms of calories rather than joules, but the term kilocalorie for the large calorie is less often used by laypersons.

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