Free tools · Food
Food carbon footprint lookup
Search a food to see its carbon footprint per kg. Then add foods to a meal with the grams you eat. See the CO2e of the whole plate.
| Food | kg CO2e per kg | |
|---|---|---|
| Beef (beef herd) | 99.48 | |
| Dark chocolate | 46.65 | |
| Lamb and mutton | 39.72 | |
| Beef (dairy herd) | 33.3 | |
| Coffee | 28.53 | |
| Shrimps (farmed) | 26.87 | |
| Cheese | 23.88 | |
| Fish (farmed) | 13.63 | |
| Pig meat | 12.31 | |
| Poultry meat | 9.87 | |
| Palm oil | 7.32 | |
| Soybean oil | 6.32 | |
| Olive oil | 5.42 | |
| Eggs | 4.67 | |
| Rice | 4.45 | |
| Rapeseed oil | 3.77 | |
| Sunflower oil | 3.6 | |
| Groundnuts | 3.23 | |
| Cane sugar | 3.2 | |
| Tofu | 3.16 | |
| Milk | 3.15 | |
| Oatmeal | 2.48 | |
| Tomatoes | 2.09 | |
| Beet sugar | 1.81 | |
| Other pulses | 1.79 | |
| Wine | 1.79 | |
| Maize | 1.7 | |
| Wheat and rye | 1.57 | |
| Berries and grapes | 1.53 | |
| Cassava | 1.32 | |
| Barley | 1.18 | |
| Other fruit | 1.05 | |
| Peas | 0.98 | |
| Soy milk | 0.98 | |
| Bananas | 0.86 | |
| Other vegetables | 0.53 | |
| Brassicas | 0.51 | |
| Onions and leeks | 0.5 | |
| Potatoes | 0.46 | |
| Apples | 0.43 | |
| Nuts | 0.43 | |
| Root vegetables | 0.43 | |
| Citrus fruit | 0.39 |
Your meal
Add foods from the list.
| Food | Grams | kg CO2e |
|---|
How we work it out
Each value is the global average kg CO2e per kg of food, from land use and farming through processing, transport, retail, packaging and losses. Data covers 43 food groups. Your meal total is grams times the value per kg. Real footprints vary a lot by farm and country.
Sources
Questions
Which food has the highest carbon footprint?
Beef from beef herds: about 99 kg CO2e per kg of meat. Lamb is about 40 kg. Chicken is about 10 kg. Most vegetables are under 1 kg.
Is chicken better than beef for the climate?
Yes, by a lot. Per kg, poultry meat is about 10 kg CO2e and beef from beef herds is about 99 kg. That is about ten times less.
Does local or imported food matter more?
What you eat matters far more than where it comes from. Transport is a small share for most foods. Food flown in by air is the exception, and this data does not split that out.
Why is rice higher than wheat?
Flooded rice fields release methane. Rice is about 4.5 kg CO2e per kg, wheat and rye about 1.6 kg.
Where do these numbers come from?
From Poore and Nemecek 2018 in Science, a study of about 38,700 farms in 119 countries, as published by Our World in Data. Values are global averages per kg of product, from farm to shop, including losses.
Get tips by email
Simple ways to cut your footprint and bills in Qatar. Once a month.