Understanding our food carbon footprint labels
Food consumption is responsible for about 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Eating low carbon food is therefore one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
Our food carbon footprint labels help you to understand the climate impact of your food, empowering you to make more sustainable choices.
Here you’ll find everything you need to know about our carbon footprint values!
No hassle carbon labels
Using the latest data and research, we calculate the average emissions of a recipe, displaying its footprint in our carbon labels just like nutritional information!
Do you know the carbon footprint of your food and recipes?
What's included in the values?
All carbon footprint values consider each stage of the food’s ‘life cycle’. This includes the farming processes, food and fertilisers used, processing, packaging, transport, and more.
The majority of food emissions come from farming processes and land-use change, rather than later stages like transport and packaging. That’s why the best way to reduce your carbon footprint is eat low carbon food.
What do the values mean?
All results are displayed in CO2 equivalents (CO2e). This unit considers the impact of all greenhouse gasses, allowing us to compare the footprint of different foods.
All values are also given as a percentage of the fair daily food emissions, which we’ve calculated to be 3,050g CO2e per day. You can read more about this value here.
Did you know these facts about food emissions?
124.5 g CO2e
per km driving in a new car
5,420 g CO2e
per 125 g of beef
Of all meats, beef has the highest carbon footprint
One small portion of beef (125g) emits the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as driving 43.5km in a new car!
Pork and chicken have lower emissions than beef and lamb
On average, meals containing pork or chicken have less than half the carbon footprint of meals containing beef and lamb.
1,478 g CO2e
Average carbon footprint of meals with pork or chicken
3,800 g CO2e
Average carbon footprint of meals with beef or lamb
Plant-based food has the lowest emissions
Vegetarian and vegan meals have the lowest carbon footprint, with an average carbon footprint of just over 1,000 g CO2e per serving.
Find out more
Still have a question or want to find out more? Click here for our full guide to our data and carbon labels, including frequently asked questions.
See how it's calculated
Eating sustainably is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint!
Our food carbon footprint calculator estimates the climate impact of recipes, or a day’s food. All results are displayed as a percentage of the fair daily amount, helping you to find low carbon food and make more sustainable choices!
