Food Carbon Calculator

Calculate dietary carbon footprint across food categories.

About Food Carbon Calculator

Beef and lamb emit several times more per serving than poultry because ruminant digestion produces methane. That single category usually dominates a dietary footprint even when servings are few. Reducing beef consumption is the highest-impact dietary change available, and it outweighs choices about food miles or packaging by a wide margin.

Formula

Food Carbon

Footprint = Σ(servings × emission factor), scaled up for food waste

beef intensity: Around 6.5 kg CO2e per serving, far above any other common food
food waste: Wasted food carries its full production emissions

Worked example

With the default values below, Food Carbon Calculator returns Annual Dietary Footprint of 2,547.5. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Beef or lamb servings per weekminimum 0: 3
Pork or chicken servings per weekminimum 0: 5
Dairy servings per dayminimum 0: 2
Plant-based meals per weekminimum 0: 7
Share of food wastedaccepts 0–60 %: 15 %

Results

Annual Dietary Footprint: 2,547.5 kg CO2e
Weekly Footprint: 48.99 kg CO2e
Share From Beef and Lamb: 45.77%
Annual Footprint From Wasted Food: 332.28 kg CO2e
Saving From Halving Beef Servings: 583.05 kg CO2e

Step by step

1Values used
2Food Carbon
3Annual Dietary Footprint= 2,547.5 kg CO2e
4Weekly Footprint= 48.99 kg CO2e
5Share From Beef and Lamb= 45.77
6Annual Footprint From Wasted Food= 332.28 kg CO2e
7Saving From Halving Beef Servings= 583.05 kg CO2e

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Food Carbon calculated?

Footprint = Σ(servings × emission factor), scaled up for food waste Beef and lamb emit several times more per serving than poultry because ruminant digestion produces methane. That single category usually dominates a dietary footprint even when servings are few.

Why does Food Carbon matter?

Reducing beef consumption is the highest-impact dietary change available, and it outweighs choices about food miles or packaging by a wide margin.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 5 inputs: Beef or lamb servings per week, Pork or chicken servings per week, Dairy servings per day, Plant-based meals per week, Share of food wasted. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.