Our nutrition and Recommended Daily Amounts (RDA) calculator provides nutritional information and RDA’s for every recipe, including protein, fibre, calories, fat, sugars, vitamins and minerals. The detail below will help you understand how we try to ensure that we are giving the most reliable values for our recipes that we can.

We’ve built our own nutrition calculator

We built and curate our own food dataset and nutrition calculator within our service in order to improve the accuracy, reliability and transparency of the data that we use.

How does our nutrition calculator work?

It works by breaking down the amounts and nutrient values for each ingredient in a given recipe. It then calculates the total nutrient values – including calories, protein, fats, carbs, sugars, fibre, minerals and vitamins. RDA values have been averaged across ages (15 upwards) and genders to return a single RDA value, so the RDA values are guideline percentages only. Values shown are for RDA’s, so whilst one of our recipes is unlikely to return all of your RDA we suggest that your evening meal would only be contributing to the daily amount you should be aiming for.

Trusting our values

The nutrition and RDA data we use is taken from reputable sources, such as:

• Public England Health: "Government Dietary Recommendations"
• Public Health England provided Foods Integrated Dataset 2021 from McCance and Widdowson

If you spot any potential inaccuracies then your feedback is always welcome.

The cooking costs displayed for each recipe are intended as a guideline only. Given the wide range of gas and electricity tariffs our users may be on - and the variety of ovens, hobs, air fryers, grills, microwaves, kettles, and other appliances available - our figures are based on carefully researched averages. Here's how we calculate the most accurate estimates possible:

• All values are tailored to the UK market. Costs are shown in GBP (£), and we use UK-specific kWh pricing.
• For hobs, we use the average price per kWh for both gas and electricity.
• We've analysed energy consumption data from the most popular ovens, air fryers, grills, microwaves, kettles, and hobs sold in the UK to establish average usage figures for each appliance type.
• Estimates are based on the typical cooking time and the heat level or power setting required by each recipe.
• We use the latest Ofgem price cap rates for energy costs - currently £ per kWh for electricity and £ per kWh for gas.
• All costs shown include the 5% VAT that applies to domestic energy use.
• Our estimates do not include the daily standing charge for energy, as this is a fixed cost regardless of usage.
• Where a kettle boil is required the cost is estimated based on the kettle being 1/3rd full.
• When a food processor, hand mixer, or blender is needed, we use the average cost of running the relevant device for a set period of time.
• When a toaster is required, we assume the average cost of running a standard UK toaster for one cycle, calculated from the average of 2 and 4 slice models.