Which food has the highest carbon footprint?

Beef from dedicated beef herds, at roughly 85 kg CO₂e per kg in this dataset — hundreds of times more than most vegetables. Chocolate, mutton and cheese follow.

Does buying local reduce a food's carbon footprint?

Far less than most people expect. On nearly every product here, transport is a small share of the total — usually a few percent. What you eat matters much more than how far it travelled.

Does organic mean lower carbon?

Not automatically. Where this dataset holds several production systems for the same product, the spread between the cleanest and dirtiest method is often large — but organic is sometimes higher per kilogram because yields are lower. Each product page shows the actual range.

How is a food's carbon footprint calculated?

By adding emissions at each supply-chain stage: land-use change, animal feed, on-farm emissions, processing, packaging and transport. The figures here come from published life-cycle assessments aggregated by WRAP.

The carbon footprint of food

672 products, each measured in kilograms of CO₂e and broken down by supply-chain stage. For 370 of them we can also show something a label never tells you: how much the production method alone changes the number.

672
products measured: 370
with method comparisons: 54
categories

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672 products

kg CO₂e per functional unit (usually 1 kg) · bar is relative to the highest product

Browse by category

Alcoholic Beverages (Includes De-Alcoholised Variants) 24Avocados 1Baking/Cooking Supplies (Shelf Stable) 1Bananas 4Beans (With Pods) 8Berries/Small Fruit 15Biscuits/Cookies 1Brassica Vegetables 15Bread 22Bulb Vegetables 7Butter/Butter Substitutes 2Cheese/Cheese Substitutes 120Citrus 8Coffee/Coffee Substitutes 3Confectionery Products 20Cream/Cream Substitutes 1Cucumbers 4Cucurbits - Edible Peel 3Desserts/Dessert Sauces/Toppings 2Edible Legume Crops 1Eggs/Eggs Substitutes 8Fish - Prepared/Processed 1Fish - Unprepared/Unprocessed 98Fruits - Unprepared/Unprocessed (Fresh) 1Grains/Flour 18Head Lettuce 3Kiwifruits 1Meat Substitutes 2Meat/Poultry/Other Animals - Prepared/Processed 17Meat/Poultry/Other Animals - Unprepared/Unprocessed 96Milk/Milk Substitutes 23Non Alcoholic Beverages - Ready to Drink 16Nuts/Seeds - Unprepared/Unprocessed (Perishable) 5Oils Edible 28Other Vegetables 4Peas (With Pods) 9Peppers 3Pickles/Relishes/Chutneys/Olives 2Pineapples 1Pome Fruits 2Processed Cereal Products 1Root/Tuber Vegetables 21Sauces/Spreads/Dips/Condiments 5Shellfish Unprepared/Unprocessed 3Solanacea/Others 1Spinach (Fresh) 3Stem Vegetables 5Sugars/Sugar Substitute Products 4Tomatoes 21Vegetable Based Products / Meals 3Vegetables (Non Leaf) - Unprepared/Unprocessed (Fresh) 1Vegetables - Prepared/Processed 1Vegetables - Unprepared/Unprocessed (Shelf Stable) 1Yogurt/Yogurt Substitutes 2

Common questions

Which food has the highest carbon footprint?: Beef from dedicated beef herds, at roughly 85 kg CO₂e per kg in this dataset — hundreds of times more than most vegetables. Chocolate, mutton and cheese follow.
Does buying local reduce a food's carbon footprint?: Far less than most people expect. On nearly every product here, transport is a small share of the total — usually a few percent. What you eat matters much more than how far it travelled.
Does organic mean lower carbon?: Not automatically. Where this dataset holds several production systems for the same product, the spread between the cleanest and dirtiest method is often large — but organic is sometimes higher per kilogram because yields are lower. Each product page shows the actual range.
How is a food's carbon footprint calculated?: By adding emissions at each supply-chain stage: land-use change, animal feed, on-farm emissions, processing, packaging and transport. The figures here come from published life-cycle assessments aggregated by WRAP.

Data from the WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates published life-cycle assessments from Agribalyse (ADEME), GLEAM (FAO), Poore & Nemecek, Foodsteps, the Global Feed LCA Institute and others. Figures are averages for the stated region and production system; real values vary considerably.

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