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Product	CO2e / kg	Studies

Cheese

8.897

CO2e / kg

= 100 g of Cheese

You can consume

0.3

kg of Cheese to exhaust your daily CO2e food budget

Categories: Dairy | Food

About 60-70% of the CO2e emissions are from the milk production¹. To make 1 kg of cheese between 4 and 8 liters of milk are needed, depending on the type of cheese, with softer, young cheeses requiring less milk than harder, aged cheeses².

Manufacturing (10-20%), retail (5-10%) and consumption (5-10%) make up the majority of the remaining emissions.

Kim, D., Thoma, G., Nutter, D., Milani, F., Ulrich, R., & Norris, G. (2013). Life cycle assessment of cheese and whey production in the USA. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 18(5), 1019-1035. Fig 3 (cheddar) and Fig 4 (mozzarella) ↩
https://www.quora.com/What-is-amount-of-milk-required-to-produce-1-kg-of-cheese ↩

Studies

Source	Notes	CO2e	Country origin	Country consumption	Weight
Umweltwirkungen der Ernährung-Ökobilanzierung des Nahrungsmittelverbrauchs tierischer Produkte nach Gesellschaftsgruppen in Deutschland	Table 1	7.82	Germany	Germany	8
RISE Open access list 1.7	Per kg cheese, 31% fat	5.3	Sweden	Sweden	5
Violife 100% vegan alternative to cheese vs. dairy cheese in Europe, UK, US and Canada.	Table 1, page 5. Average over 8 cheese types (mozzarella, cheddar, cream cheese, feta)	10.0	Europe	Europe	3
Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of Swedish semi-hard cheese	Hushållsost	8.8	Sweden	Sweden	8
RIVM Database Milieubelasting Voedingsmiddelen	Kaas, 20+	10.42	Unknown	Netherlands	5
Ökologische Fußabdrücke von Lebensmitteln und Gerichten in Deutschland (IFEU)	Käse, Durchschnitt	5.7	Unknown	Germany	6
Den store klimadatabase	Cheese, firm, Danbo, 45 % fidm., Agriculture: 4.46, iLUC: 0.46, Food processing: 2.33, Packaging: 0.35, Transport: 0.12	7.72	Unknown	Unknown	5
Mat-klimat-listan	variation 6-11 kgCo2/kg	8.0	Unknown	Sweden	6
Klimatarier CO2 Rechner	Käse	5.82	Unknown	Unknown	5
Pendos CO2-Zähler	Hartkäse	8.5	Unknown	Unknown	5
Eco-efficiency in the production chain of Dutch semi-hard cheese	Production of 1 kg cheese resulted in a GWP of 8.5 kg CO2-eq., and required 6.8 m2 land and 47.2 MJ energy. Of all stages, on-farm milk production contributed most to GWP (65%), and to land use (58%), followed by cultivation of concentrate ingredients (12% to GWP and 24% to land use). The type of cheese we studied was eight-week old, semihard cheese, which is the most popular cheese in the Netherlands (Voedingscentrum, 2009).	8.5	Netherlands	Netherlands	10
Meat eater's guide to climate change + health	Table 16. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Domestic Cheese Production (at farmgate) Cheese Production System kg of CO2e per kg of edible cheese Wisconsin 9.09 Table 17. Greenhouse Gas Emission from Domestic Cheese Consumption (post-farmgate) Emission Source kg of CO2e per kg of consumed cheese Processing 1.26 Domestic transport 0.30 Refrigeration (retail) 0.05 Home cooking 0.00 Waste disposal 0.10 Total 1.71 Per kg of consumed cheese (includes moisture loss, waste loss and post-farmgate): 13.47 kg CO2e	13.47	USA	USA	6
Potential contributions of food consumption patterns to climate change	domestic; CO2: 5, NO2: 1.3, NH4: 4.5	11.0	Sweden	Sweden	8
Greenhouse gas emissions of realistic dietary choices in Denmark: the carbon footprint and nutritional value of dairy products	Table 1; 30+, 31% fat; including waste; excluding waste: 9.23	9.93	Unknown	Unknown	8
Greenhouse gas emissions of realistic dietary choices in Denmark: the carbon footprint and nutritional value of dairy products	Table 1; 20+ 17% fat; including waste; excluding waste: 8.47	9.11	Unknown	Unknown	8
Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers	Figure 1	11.0	Unknown	Unknown	8
Systematic review of greenhouse gas emissions for different fresh food categories	Table 5 Median; #LCA studies: 22; #GWP values: 38; Mean: 8.86; Stdev: 2.07; Min: 5.33; Max: 16.35	8.55	Unknown	Unknown	8