How does a recipe nutrition calculator work out per-serving values?

It converts every ingredient to grams, multiplies each ingredient's per-100-gram nutrient profile by its weight, sums those across the recipe, then divides by the number of servings the batch yields. That last division is the only place the serving count enters the maths, which is why changing the yield from eight to twelve moves every number by exactly a third.

Should I use raw or cooked ingredient weights?

Raw, matching how you wrote the recipe, and then tell the calculator the finished weight separately. Water leaves during cooking; calories, fat, sodium and sugar do not. One eighth of a pot of chili carries one eighth of everything that went into the pot regardless of how much steam came off it. The finished weight only changes the gram figure printed beside the household measure.

Why is the sodium so high in a recipe with one teaspoon of salt?

Usually it is not the salt. In the chili loaded on this page the canned beans and canned tomatoes carry more sodium between them than the added salt does, because canning liquid is brine. Switching to a no-salt-added can is the single largest lever on the sodium line, and the ingredient-by-ingredient breakdown below the panel shows exactly how much each one contributes.

Does the calculator account for nutrient loss during cooking?

No, and neither does any free calculator. Retention factors exist — USDA publishes them for vitamins and minerals by cooking method — but they apply per nutrient, per method and per time, and applying them wrongly is worse than not applying them. Macronutrients, sodium and total sugars are essentially unaffected by domestic cooking, which is most of what a label declares.

Can I get a printable label from this, not just numbers?

The panel above the arithmetic is the label, in whichever of the six FDA formats you pick, and it exports as PNG at 300 dpi, as vector SVG and as vector PDF. There is no separate paid step.

USDA FoodData Central · per serving

Recipe nutrition calculator

This recipe nutrition calculator gives you calories, macronutrients, sodium and the four mandatory micronutrients per serving — from real USDA composition data, with every step of the arithmetic visible. A pot of turkey chili for eight is loaded and calculated below. Edit the ingredients, change the yield, and watch which line actually drives the sodium.

No sign-up. No watermark. No limit.

Ingredient and allergen statements

INGREDIENTS: Canned red kidney beans, Canned tomatoes, Ground turkey, Onion, Green bell pepper, Chili powder, Olive oil, Garlic, Salt.

No major allergen detected, so no “Contains” statement is required.

Alternative wording using the 2%-or-less grouping — 21 CFR 101.4(a)(2)

INGREDIENTS: Canned red kidney beans, Canned tomatoes, Ground turkey, Onion, Green bell pepper. Contains 2 percent or less of chili powder, olive oil, garlic, salt.

Show the arithmetic

Nutrient

Sodium contributed by each ingredient
Ingredient	Weight	Per 100 g	Contributes
Salt	6.0 g	38758.00 mg	2325.48 mg
Canned red kidney beans	512.0 g	256.00 mg	1310.72 mg
Canned tomatoes	480.0 g	115.00 mg	552.00 mg
Chili powder	16.0 g	2867.00 mg	458.72 mg
Ground turkey	453.6 g	58.00 mg	263.09 mg
Onion	150.0 g	4.00 mg	6.00 mg
Green bell pepper	74.0 g	3.00 mg	2.22 mg
Garlic	9.0 g	17.00 mg	1.53 mg
Olive oil	13.5 g	2.00 mg	0.27 mg
Whole recipe			4920.03 mg

4920.03 mg ÷ 8 servings = 615.004 mg per serving

Above 140 mg rounds to the nearest 10 mg increment. → declared as 620mg (101.9(c)(4))

620mg ÷ Daily Value = 26.96% → 27% DV (101.9(d)(7)(ii))

Incomplete USDA data: Olive oil. Missing values are treated as zero, which can understate a nutrient. Vitamin D is the usual gap.

Product

Product name

Servings in batch

Serving, as written

Finished weight after cooking (g)Raw ingredients weigh 1714 g. Leave blank for no cooking loss.

Serving weight: 188.5 g
Calories per serving: 180
Cooking loss: 12.0%

Ingredients

453.6 gUSDA #171505
512.0 gUSDA #175195counts as added sugars
480.0 gUSDA #170051counts as added sugars
150.0 gUSDA #170000counts as added sugars
74.0 gUSDA #170427counts as added sugars
9.0 gUSDA #169230counts as added sugars
16.0 gUSDA #171319counts as added sugars
13.5 gUSDA #171413
6.0 gUSDA #173468

Add an ingredient

USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy. No API key, no rate limit.

Where the sodium in this chili actually comes from

People assume the salt jar. In this recipe it is third. Canned kidney beans in brine and canned tomatoes carry the bulk of it, which is why swapping to no-salt-added cans is a far bigger lever than halving the salt.

The per-serving figure that lands on the panel is this total divided by the yield and then put through the sodium increment ladder in the FDA rounding rules. If you are not sure how many servings a pot of chili is supposed to declare, the answer is not your preference — it comes from the reference amount customarily consumed for the category, and the finished panel can be rendered in any of the six FDA label formats.

Sodium contributed by each ingredient of the turkey chili recipe
Ingredient	Weight	Sodium	Share
Salt	6 g	2325 mg	47%
Canned red kidney beans	512 g	1311 mg	27%
Canned tomatoes	480 g	552 mg	11%
Chili powder	16 g	459 mg	9%
Ground turkey	454 g	263 mg	5%
Onion	150 g	6 mg	0%
Green bell pepper	74 g	2 mg	0%
Garlic	9 g	2 mg	0%
Olive oil	14 g	0 mg	0%
Whole pot	1714 g	4920 mg	100%

The whole pot, nutrient by nutrient

This is the intermediate result most calculators hide: the total for the entire recipe, before it is divided by the yield. If you scale the recipe, this column scales with it and the per-serving column does not — which is the fastest way to sanity-check a batch that has been doubled.

Nutrient totals for the whole recipe and per serving
Nutrient	Whole recipe	÷ 8	Declared	%DV
Calories	1416	176.9	180	—
Total Fat	53.9 g	6.74 g	7 g	9%
Saturated Fat	12.3 g	1.54 g	1.5 g	8%
Trans Fat	0.5 g	0.06 g	0 g	—
Cholesterol	313.0 mg	39.12 mg	40 mg	13%
Sodium	4920.0 mg	615.00 mg	620 mg	27%
Total Carbohydrate	121.0 g	15.12 g	15 g	5%
Dietary Fiber	40.7 g	5.09 g	5 g	18%
Total Sugars	31.1 g	3.89 g	4 g	—
Added Sugars	0.0 g	0.00 g	0 g	0%
Protein	124.7 g	15.59 g	16 g	—
Vitamin D	1.8 mcg	0.23 mcg	0.2 mcg	2%
Calcium	505.6 mg	63.20 mg	63 mg	4%
Iron	17.7 mg	2.21 mg	2 mg	10%
Potassium	4020.2 mg	502.53 mg	503 mg	10%

Recipe measurement conversions live elsewhere

If what you actually need is to convert a recipe between cups and grams, scale a batch up or down, or work out baker’s percentages, those are a different job and gramstocups.io does them properly. This calculator is about what the food contains and what has to be printed on it.

Frequently asked questions

How does a recipe nutrition calculator work out per-serving values?: It converts every ingredient to grams, multiplies each ingredient's per-100-gram nutrient profile by its weight, sums those across the recipe, then divides by the number of servings the batch yields. That last division is the only place the serving count enters the maths, which is why changing the yield from eight to twelve moves every number by exactly a third.
Should I use raw or cooked ingredient weights?: Raw, matching how you wrote the recipe, and then tell the calculator the finished weight separately. Water leaves during cooking; calories, fat, sodium and sugar do not. One eighth of a pot of chili carries one eighth of everything that went into the pot regardless of how much steam came off it. The finished weight only changes the gram figure printed beside the household measure.
Why is the sodium so high in a recipe with one teaspoon of salt?: Usually it is not the salt. In the chili loaded on this page the canned beans and canned tomatoes carry more sodium between them than the added salt does, because canning liquid is brine. Switching to a no-salt-added can is the single largest lever on the sodium line, and the ingredient-by-ingredient breakdown below the panel shows exactly how much each one contributes.
Does the calculator account for nutrient loss during cooking?: No, and neither does any free calculator. Retention factors exist — USDA publishes them for vitamins and minerals by cooking method — but they apply per nutrient, per method and per time, and applying them wrongly is worse than not applying them. Macronutrients, sodium and total sugars are essentially unaffected by domestic cooking, which is most of what a label declares.
Can I get a printable label from this, not just numbers?: The panel above the arithmetic is the label, in whichever of the six FDA formats you pick, and it exports as PNG at 300 dpi, as vector SVG and as vector PDF. There is no separate paid step.