Thread by @UniofOxford

An Oxford study analysed the environmental impact of 57,000 food products in the UK and Ireland.

Researchers found that plant-based foods often have the lowest environmental impact.

For #WorldFoodDay, we've compared the impact of some of these foods.

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We will be going through different types of food ranging from breakfast items, snacks, meals and drinks.

Did you know? Food emits 30% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

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They say it's the most important meal of the day so we kick off with breakfast items.

According to the study, bacon emits 19.31kg of greenhouse gas emissions per kg of food.

Meanwhile, Bacon emits 19.31kg.

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Now, let's have a closer at the impact of meals.

Food which has a higher impact on the environment were several beef and lamb items.

While the food which had the least impact included items such as frozen chips, wedges and other vegetarian options.

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Moving onto snacks, fruit and desserts

Generally, researchers found that fruits have the lowest environmental impact while items like chocolate had the biggest impact.

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We now take a closer look at drinks ☕️🥂

Out of the items selected, coffee and tea had the biggest impact on the environment while drinks like apple and orange juice had the least impact.

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Lead author of the research, @oxmartinschool's and @SmithSchool's Dr Michael Clark believes the study can help consumers, retailers and manufacturers make more informed decisions on the environmental impacts of their food choices.

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The study overcomes a major gap by estimating the environmental impacts of foods we purchase at supermarkets.

We previously had information on commodities (wheat, beef, etc), but not complex products (e.g. lasagna, pesto etc).

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Researchers hope this is the start of a journey. More information on ingredient sourcing, and figuring out how to effectively communicate this information to different sectors (consumers, retailers, etc) are the next steps.

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Find out more about the study ⬇️ #WorldFoodDay [9/10]
ox.ac.uk/news/2022-08-0…

You can read the full paper here ⬇️

#WorldFoodDay [10/10] pnas.org/doi/full/10.10…