The carbon footprint of beef, minced steak, 5% fat, raw
Beef, minced steak, 5% fat, raw emits about 0.701 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of prepared product. Below is where that figure actually comes from — every stage of the chain, not a single headline number.
- Packaging
- 0.273 kg
- 39%
- Producing the packaging it reaches you in.
- Processing
- 0.225 kg
- 32%
- Turning the raw product into food: milling, refining, slaughter, curing.
- Transport
- 0.203 kg
- 29%
- Moving it from farm to processor to shop.
How it is grown changes the number by 55%
These are 12 separately assessed production systems for the same product. Emissions are farm-gate — the part the grower controls — and range from 19.763 to 44.031 kg CO₂e. A label on a shelf almost never tells you which one you are holding.
- Cull cow, organic, system n°3, at farm gatelowest19.763
- Cull cow, organic, system n°5, at farm gate20.903
- Calf, 14 days old, organic, system n°3, at farm gate20.906
- Calf, 14 days old, organic, system n°5, at farm gate21.294
- Calf, 14 days old, organic, system n°1, at farm gate21.555
- Calf, 14 days old, organic, system n°4, at farm gate22.686
- Cull cow, organic, system n°4, at farm gate25.728
- Calf, 14 days old, organic, system n°2, at farm gate25.862
- Beef cattle, national average, at farm gate35.647
- Cull cow, organic, system n°1, at farm gate35.803
- Cull cow, organic, system n°2, at farm gate37.36
- Suckler heifer, conventional, fattening system, more than 1.2 LU per ha, at farm gate44.031
kg CO₂e per 1 kg of prepared product, cradle to farm gate. Farm-gate figures exclude processing, packaging and transport, so they sit below the full total above.
Lower-carbon alternatives
Each emits less than half as much as beef, minced steak, 5% fat, raw.
Similar products
Common questions
- How much CO2 does beef, minced steak, 5% fat, raw produce?
- About 0.701 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of prepared product, measured across the supply chain. That is roughly the same as driving 4 km in an average petrol car.
- What drives the footprint of beef, minced steak, 5% fat, raw?
- Packaging is the largest contributor at 0.273 kg CO₂e, about 39% of the total. Transport is only 0.203 kg — which is why what you eat matters far more than how far it travelled.
- Does how beef, minced steak, 5% fat, raw is produced change its footprint?
- Yes, substantially. Across 12 production methods in this dataset the farm-gate emissions range from 19.763 to 44.031 kg CO₂e — a difference of 55%.
- Where does this data come from?
- The WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates peer-reviewed life-cycle assessments. This product's figures come from Agribalyse (ADEME).
Figures from the WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates published life-cycle assessments; this product's data originates from Agribalyse (ADEME), for France. Real values vary by farm, region and method — treat these as the shape of the problem, not a measurement of any one item on your shelf.
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