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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2 products in Pickles/Relishes/Chutneys/Olives

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

Browse by category

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