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Portions and preparation · USDA nutrition

Taco calories per cup: 200–330 across all 19 named USDA examples

Across all 19 named USDA examples, a cup contains 200–330 calories. Each included example lists 120 g for that measure. The same household label can carry a different gram weight elsewhere in USDA data.

Portion calculator

Estimate your portion

Choose a source measure or enter the weight you ate.

Preparation and portion

Named measures come from this exact source record.

Estimated for 1 large · 140 g

385calories

Taco, cheese only

Protein
17.1 g
Carbs
38.9 g
Fat
18.8 g

These values scale the selected reference food by weight. Ingredients, preparation, and portion size can change your meal’s estimate.

FoodData Central Survey Foods (FNDDS) · FDC 2708533 Full nutrition profile →

Compare all 19 food records, nutrition tables and USDA sources

The 19 exact records in this guide report 167–385 calories in the records' own listed source servings and 167–275 calories per 100 grams. Those are observations from named database records—not a universal range or an estimate of an unseen plate.

Match my meal

Start with the description closest to what you ate

For Taco, begin by separating “Taco, cheese only” from “Taco, with beans, no cheese.” Choosing a card filters this source set; it does not infer the portion or fill in ingredients the chosen description does not name.

Showing the first 6 of 19 linked records.

Equal-weight view

How taco records compare at 100 grams

Five rank landmarks are shown from all 19 cited records: minimum, 25th-ranked, median-ranked, 75th-ranked, and maximum. Weight is held at 100 grams; source-serving weights are listed in the table.

  1. Minimum: Taco, with beans, no cheese 167 kcal
    167 kcal
  2. 25th-ranked landmark: Taco, flour tortilla, chicken, with beans, cheese 202 kcal
    202 kcal
  3. Median-ranked landmark: Taco, flour tortilla, chicken, cheese 220 kcal
    220 kcal
  4. 75th-ranked landmark: Taco, corn tortilla, beef, cheese 249 kcal
    249 kcal
  5. Maximum: Taco, fish 275 kcal
    275 kcal

Shared basis: 100 g · kilocalories

What this page compares

Named source records, not one universal meal

This guide keeps 19 named USDA records in view: 19 direct matches. All sit within “Burritos and tacos.” The exact descriptions remain the unit of comparison; the familiar heading is only the doorway into the evidence.

Why these records appear together: The deterministic grouping rule “normalized first description segment” placed these 19 records together under the exact grouping key “taco.” That rule determines membership before any nutrition result is read.

For Taco, this page can compare 19 named records from FDC 2708533 through FDC 2708532. It cannot observe which preparation was eaten, recover unnamed additions, or supply the eaten grams.

Read the shared calculation, provenance, and uncertainty method →

Editor’s decision brief

The three facts to carry into the table

Carry the denominator, exact identity, and strongest observed contrast into every number below.

Portion

100–140 g before composition

The largest source amount is 1.4× the smallest. Read per-serving calorie differences with that mass gap in view.

Composition

108 kcal separates the fixed-weight endpoints

The lower endpoint is “with beans, no cheese”; the higher is “fish.” This isolates density, not ingredient causation.

Discriminator

12.5 g protein gap per 100 g

Of protein, fiber, and sodium, the strongest normalized contrast is between “with beans, no cheese” (5.0 g) and “flour tortilla, chicken, cheese” (17.5 g).

Observed source examples

Three landmarks inside this source set—not universal endpoints

The cards are ordered by calories in each record's listed serving. Serving weights differ, so use per-100-gram values to compare composition. These selected records do not define a calorie range for every taco.

Important: “Lower” begins with Taco, with beans, no cheese; “higher” ends with Taco, cheese only, using each record’s own source amount. Those labels order this selected set only—they are not endpoints for every taco meal.

Full comparison

Compare every selected FNDDS record

For Taco, serving columns preserve each record’s own listed amount, while calories per 100 g hold weight constant. A dash means the cited record does not supply that field; it does not mean the nutrient is absent.

On smaller screens, focus the table and scroll horizontally to read every column.

USDA records selected for the Taco nutrition guide
Exact source record Match Source amount Calories kcal / 100 g Protein Fiber Sodium USDA
Taco, cheese only Direct name match 140 gUSDA reference amount 385 kcal 275 17.1 g 5.3 g 435 mg FDC 2708533 ↗
Taco, corn tortilla, beef, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 261 kcal 249 16.3 g 2.2 g 394 mg FDC 2708515 ↗
Taco, corn tortilla, beef, with beans, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 223 kcal 212 11.1 g 3.4 g 417 mg FDC 2708516 ↗
Taco, corn tortilla, chicken, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 222 kcal 211 17 g 2.2 g 397 mg FDC 2708519 ↗
Taco, corn tortilla, chicken, with beans, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 203 kcal 193 11.6 g 3.4 g 419 mg FDC 2708520 ↗
Taco, corn tortilla, pork, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 264 kcal 251 15.5 g 2.2 g 387 mg FDC 2708517 ↗
Taco, corn tortilla, pork, with beans, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 225 kcal 214 10.8 g 3.4 g 415 mg FDC 2708518 ↗
Taco, corn tortilla, with beans, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 185 kcal 176 6.1 g 4.4 g 441 mg FDC 2708521 ↗
Taco, fish Direct name match 100 gUSDA reference amount 275 kcal 275 11.6 g 2.5 g 447 mg FDC 2708529 ↗
Taco, flour tortilla, beef, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 270 kcal 257 17.5 g 1.4 g 466 mg FDC 2708522 ↗
Taco, flour tortilla, beef, with beans, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 232 kcal 221 12.4 g 2.5 g 489 mg FDC 2708523 ↗
Taco, flour tortilla, chicken, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 231 kcal 220 18.4 g 1.4 g 468 mg FDC 2708526 ↗
Taco, flour tortilla, chicken, with beans, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 212 kcal 202 12.8 g 2.5 g 490 mg FDC 2708527 ↗
Taco, flour tortilla, pork, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 273 kcal 260 16.9 g 1.4 g 460 mg FDC 2708524 ↗
Taco, flour tortilla, pork, with beans, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 233 kcal 222 12.1 g 2.5 g 486 mg FDC 2708525 ↗
Taco, flour tortilla, with beans, cheese Direct name match 105 gUSDA reference amount 193 kcal 184 7.3 g 3.6 g 512 mg FDC 2708528 ↗
Taco, meat, no cheese Direct name match 100 gUSDA reference amount 243 kcal 243 15.2 g 2.2 g 359 mg FDC 2708530 ↗
Taco, meat, with beans, no cheese Direct name match 100 gUSDA reference amount 205 kcal 205 10.1 g 3.4 g 382 mg FDC 2708531 ↗
Taco, with beans, no cheese Direct name match 100 gUSDA reference amount 167 kcal 167 5 g 4.5 g 405 mg FDC 2708532 ↗

Portion analysis

Serving total and calorie density answer different questions

The listed source amounts run from 100 to 140 grams—a 40-gram gap before composition enters the comparison. Their own source servings run from 167 calories for “with beans, no cheese” to 385 for “cheese only.” At a fixed 100 grams, “with beans, no cheese” is 167 calories and “fish” is 275—a fixed-weight separation of 108 calories. For Taco, the serving view answers “how much is in the database portion?”; the 100-gram view answers “how concentrated is the matched record?” Neither reveals how many grams were actually eaten.

The scaling rule: multiply a per-100-gram value by eaten grams ÷ 100. The arithmetic is exact; the result is only as defensible as the record match and portion estimate.

Preparation analysis

The long description carries the evidence

The published descriptions distinguish forms such as “cheese only”, “corn tortilla, pork, cheese”, “flour tortilla, beef, cheese”, “flour tortilla, pork, with beans, cheese”, and “with beans, no cheese”. The source formulations contain 11 distinct ingredient codes; examples that appear in only part of the set include salt, table, cheese and queso as ingredient, beverages, water, tap, drinking, and tortillas, ready-to-bake or -fry, corn. On this Taco page, those rows make the records inspectable, but they are not a controlled experiment: they cannot tell us that one named input, by itself, caused a nutrient difference.

Database precision is not meal certainty. Retain the exact description beside the number so later corrections remain possible.

What changes the comparison

Four drivers worth checking before choosing a record

The family label “Taco” cannot resolve the differences between Taco, cheese only and Taco, with beans, no cheese. The four checks below identify the record wording, source weight, and formulation evidence that can.

  1. 01

    Source weight before serving calories

    The source amounts span 100–140 grams. Compare per 100 grams before reading a serving-calorie gap as a composition gap.

  2. 02

    The words that split the family

    Representative record-level distinctions include “cheese only”, “corn tortilla, pork, cheese”, “flour tortilla, beef, cheese”, “flour tortilla, pork, with beans, cheese”, and “with beans, no cheese”. Those phrases are evidence for choosing a record, not decorative subtitle text.

  3. 03

    Formulation evidence, with limits

    11 source-input codes appear across the selected records. Their presence and listed weights describe USDA formulations, not finished plated proportions.

  4. 04

    The unresolved plate

    Even “Taco, cheese only” leaves the eaten grams and unnamed oils, sauces, toppings, substitutions, or leftovers unresolved. Preserve those Taco unknowns for correction instead of converting them into false precision.

Record matching

Match identity first; scale quantity second

Read the source name as a sequence of decisions. First confirm that taco is the right meal family. Then resolve the phrases that actually separate this set—“cheese only”, “corn tortilla, pork, with beans, cheese”, “flour tortilla, chicken, with beans, cheese”, and “with beans, no cheese”—before comparing gram weight. If a package, menu, or known recipe provides a closer first-party description, prefer it and keep this USDA record as a transparent fallback.

A practical matching checklist

  1. Read the complete Taco source description, including preparation and additions.
  2. Compare the listed source weight with the amount actually eaten.
  3. Prefer a current package or restaurant source when a specific branded item is known.
  4. Record toppings, sauces, cooking fat, sides, and substitutions that the selected description does not name.

Explore this meal family

2 more-specific taco guides

Use a focused guide when its description matches your meal. Each one keeps its own exact source records and links back to this broader family.

Focused guide Taco, corn tortilla Taco, corn tortilla: compare 7 exact USDA records by source calories, 100-gram values, portions, and citations. Focused guide Taco, flour tortilla Taco, flour tortilla: compare 7 exact USDA records by source calories, 100-gram values, portions, and citations.

Decision support from the exact records on this page

Turn source data into a better next decision

These conclusions and reading paths are computed from 19 exact records behind Taco source-record guide. Links are chosen by record identity, controlled contrast, formulation input, nutrient spread, or serving context—not by loose keyword similarity.

Equal-weight result

Taco, fish is higher in vitamin D per 100 g

Taco, fish reports 2.5 µg versus 0 µg for Taco, corn tortilla, beef, cheese: a 2.5 µg difference when both are normalized to 100 g.

Inspect the underlying evidence

The denominator changes the answer

Taco, meat, with beans, no cheese is denser; Taco, flour tortilla, chicken, with beans, cheese is higher in its source amount

Taco, meat, with beans, no cheese reports 205 kcal per 100 g and 205 kcal in USDA source amount (100 g). Taco, flour tortilla, chicken, with beans, cheese reports a lower 202 kcal per 100 g but a higher 212 kcal in USDA source amount (105 g).

Choose the record before reading the number

Taco, corn tortilla, beef, cheese and Taco, corn tortilla, beef, with beans, cheese are not interchangeable

The page keeps both records at the same 100 g denominator and makes the exact source description the explicit record-description contrast. It does not show that the wording difference caused a nutrient difference. Pick the description that matches the food in front of you rather than averaging away the distinction.

Inspect the underlying evidence

Contextual knowledge graph

Follow the relationship that matches your question

For Taco source-record guide, each path states why the destination belongs here, so you can distinguish a true evidentiary connection from a merely similar label.

Best next guide for this exact record Tacos

Taco, with beans, no cheese and Taco, corn tortilla, with beans, cheese are explicitly linked in this guide, which separates direct name matches from contextual variants.

Follow this evidence path Compare two records on this page Taco, corn tortilla, beef, cheese vs Taco, corn tortilla, beef, with beans, cheese

Both records appear in this page’s evidence set. The explicit record-description contrast is Calories: 249 versus 212 kcal per 100 g; it is a selection cue, not evidence of cause.

Follow this evidence path Compare two records on this page Taco, corn tortilla, beef, with beans, cheese vs Taco, corn tortilla, with beans, cheese

Both records appear in this page’s evidence set. The explicit record-description contrast is Calories: 212 versus 176 kcal per 100 g; it is a selection cue, not evidence of cause.

Follow this evidence path 19 context records in this source topic Burritos and tacos

Taco, cheese only and Taco, corn tortilla, beef, cheese belong to this USDA source-category collection. Its displayed ranges and complete exact-record catalog provide the peer set for a manual comparison; the destination does not preselect this page’s record.

Follow this evidence path A formulation detail that separates records Beef as ingredient in recipes

USDA input 99992100 appears in 6 of 19 context records; its summed listed input weight spans 25–50 g across those source formulations. These are source-formulation input weights, not plated or serving weights. Follow the code to inspect every represented occurrence.

Follow this evidence path A formulation detail that separates records Beverages, water, tap, drinking

USDA input 14411 appears in 14 of 19 context records; its summed listed input weight spans 5–10 g across those source formulations. These are source-formulation input weights, not plated or serving weights. Follow the code to inspect every represented occurrence.

Follow this evidence path Put the observed spread in corpus context Vitamin D: density and serving context

In this page’s records, vitamin D runs from 0 µg in Taco, corn tortilla, beef, cheese to 2.5 µg in Taco, fish, all per 100 g.

Follow this evidence path