Food carbon and water footprint
The climate cost of 24 common foods in kilograms of CO2-equivalent per kilogram, ranked, with a lower-impact swap for each — plus a note on water use.
What "CO2e per kg" means
The footprint of a food is measured in kilograms of carbon-dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) released to get one kilogram of it onto your plate — farming, feed, land use, processing and transport combined. Using CO2-equivalent lets methane from cattle and paddy rice be added to ordinary carbon dioxide on one scale. The single clearest finding is that the choice of food dwarfs almost everything else: red meat and dairy sit far above plants.
Foods ranked by carbon footprint
| Food | Group | ≈ kg CO2e / kg | per 100 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beef | Red meat | 60 | 6.0 kg |
| Lamb & mutton | Red meat | 24 | 2.4 kg |
| Cheese | Dairy | 21 | 2.1 kg |
| Palm oil | Oil | 8.0 | 800 g |
| Pork | Meat | 7.0 | 700 g |
| Chicken | Meat | 6.0 | 600 g |
| Olive oil | Oil | 6.0 | 600 g |
| Farmed fish | Seafood | 5.0 | 500 g |
| Eggs | Protein | 4.5 | 450 g |
| Rice | Staple | 4.0 | 400 g |
| Milk | Dairy | 3.0 | 300 g |
| Tofu | Protein | 3.0 | 300 g |
| Cane sugar | Other | 3.0 | 300 g |
| Bread & wheat | Staple | 1.4 | 140 g |
| Tomatoes | Vegetable | 1.4 | 140 g |
| Peas | Legume | 0.9 | 90 g |
| Bananas | Fruit | 0.8 | 80 g |
| Potatoes | Staple | 0.5 | 50 g |
| Onions & leeks | Vegetable | 0.5 | 50 g |
| Cabbage & broccoli | Vegetable | 0.5 | 50 g |
| Apples | Fruit | 0.4 | 40 g |
| Citrus fruit | Fruit | 0.4 | 40 g |
| Root vegetables | Vegetable | 0.4 | 40 g |
| Nuts | Protein | 0.4 | 40 g |
A note on water
Carbon is only one footprint. Fresh-water use tells a similar story: beef, cheese and some tree nuts are among the thirstiest foods to produce, while potatoes, root vegetables and most brassicas are light on both water and carbon. Because the two measures line up so often, the swaps below help on both fronts.
These are median estimates that vary widely by farm, region and method. They are for general understanding, not a precise carbon audit of your shopping.
Source: Poore, J. & Nemecek, T. (2018), "Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers", Science 360, 987–992. · checked 2026-09-04
Frequently asked questions
Which foods have the highest carbon footprint?
By a wide margin, beef, then lamb and cheese. Beef is around 60 kg of CO2-equivalent per kilogram — roughly ten times chicken and over a hundred times most vegetables. The type of food matters far more than where it was grown or how far it travelled.
Does eating local cut my food footprint most?
Usually less than people expect. For most foods, transport is a small slice of the total; what you eat matters more than how far it came. Shifting some red meat and dairy to chicken, fish, eggs or plants is the single biggest lever.
What about the water footprint?
Water use is a separate measure, and the pattern is broadly similar: beef, cheese and some nuts are water-thirsty, while most vegetables, fruit and potatoes are light on both water and carbon. The figures here are for greenhouse gases.
Where do these numbers come from?
From Poore & Nemecek (2018) in the journal Science, the large dataset behind most food-footprint charts. They are median, whole-supply-chain estimates and vary by farm and method, so treat them as guides.
Eat well for you and the planet
TempoLife tracks the nutrition of what you eat — pair it with lower-impact swaps and see both add up.