A dataset of greenhouse gas emissions and nutrition profiles for 320 dishes from eight major cuisines of China

Dietary transitions necessitate region-specific data to balance environmental sustainability and nutritional health. Recipe-level analysis offers a valuable perspective that is essential for identifying impactful ingredients and cooking practices, thereby bridging the gap between broad dietary guidelines and specific consumer behaviors. The eight major cuisines of China (including Sichuan, Cantonese, Shandong, Jiangsu, Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Hunan cuisines) exhibit remarkable diversity, incorporating a wide range of local and unique ingredients and cooking methods whose environmental impacts remain insufficiently explored. This study presents a standardized dataset detailing the carbon footprint and nutritional composition of 320 representative recipes from the eight major cuisines of China. Each recipe was normalized to a 300 g reference portion, with data collected from authoritative cookbooks and regional culinary standards. Using a life cycle assessment (LCA) framework, cradle-to-table carbon footprints were quantified across three stages: food production, post-farmgate (integrating postharvest handling, storage, processing, distribution and retailing), and cooking. Nutritional profiles were derived by matching ingredients with the Chinese Food Composition Table. The dataset provides the first comprehensive and comparable environmental and nutritional database covering all eight major Chinese cuisines and reveals significant variability in both carbon emissions and nutrient content across culinary styles and cooking methods. The dataset provides information for developing low-carbon dietary guidelines that accommodate various regional food cultures, helps the food industry optimize menus and implement carbon labeling, serves as a benchmark for environmental nutrition research, and assists consumers in making healthier and more sustainable dietary choices.