Calorie estimates for expressing the energy content of food are common, however they are inadequate for the purpose of estimating the chemically defined heat of formation of foodstuffs for two reasons. First, they assume utilization factors by the body.1,2,3 Second, they are usually based on average values for their components. The best way to solve this problem would be to measure the heat of combustion of each material of interest. The heat of formation can then be calculated from the elemental composition and the heats of formation of CO2, H2O, and SO2. However, heats of combustion are not always available. Sometimes elemental analysis only is available, or in other cases, a breakdown into protein, carbohydrates, and lipids. A simple way is needed to calculate the heat of formation from various sorts of data commonly available. This report presents improved correlations for relating the heats of combustion and formation to the elemental composition, moisture content, and ash content. The correlations are also able to calculate heats of combustion of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids individually, including how they depend on elemental composition. The starting point for these correlations are relationships commonly used to estimate the heat of combustion of fossil fuels, and they have been modified slightly to agree better with the ranges of chemical structures found in foodstuffs and biomass.