Assessing the Carbon Footprint of Cheese Production: A Study on Mass and Nutritional Indicators

Carbon footprint Nutrition Cheese Dairy Green skillsCheese production involves various processes, with milk production contributing over 85% of the overall environmental impact.This study used a simplified life cycle assessment to estimate the carbon footprint of 13 cheese varieties based on milk quantity (1 L of raw cow milk emits 1 kg CO2e).Results were presented in relation to cheese mass and nutritional values (protein, fat, energy).Related to cheese mass, Parmesan had the highest carbon footprint (16.40 kg CO2e/kg), which correlated to milk quantity.However, when nutritional values were used as functional units, ricotta showed the highest carbon footprint for protein (88.62 kg CO2e/kg), and cottage cheese for fat (157.18kg CO2e/kg) and energy (1.48 kg CO2e/1000 kJ).Spearman correlation coefficients for carbon footprint confirmed the correlations between the nutritional values (p<0.05),but no correlation was found between carbon footprint and cheese mass (p>0.05).Promoting nutritional values as functional units could encourage consumer alignment of dietary choices with sustainability goals.