But how harmful are fries really?

The CO₂ footprint (also known as CO₂ balance) is the amount of CO₂ emissions that a person causes in a certain time. The larger your footprint, the more climate-damaging your life is. The CO₂ footprint is measured using CO₂ equivalents (CO₂-eq). This measure represents the global warming potential of a substance or activity.

Or to put it another way: By specifying the CO₂ equivalents, things can be compared in terms of their impact on the climate.

The question of how which foods affect the climate is a long-running issue and the subject of numerous studies. The Sustainableleben.ch has listed the six biggest climate sinners among foods on this topic.
Frozen fries came in fourth place. While the organic potato in this ranking has 140 grams of CO₂ equivalents, the fries have an incredible 5.7 kilograms, according to the portal.

By the way: Butter is the biggest climate polluter in this comparison, followed by beef. In third place are cheese and cream.

Other studies

Heidelberg Institute for Energy and Environmental Research also examined the ecological footprint of food and dishes in Germany . There are 0.7 kilograms of CO₂ equivalents per kilo of fries.

The reason why the numbers in various studies differ from each other can be explained by the fact that it depends on whether the respective study takes into account HOW the potato was transported and prepared.

The taz.de, for example, reports on the “All You Can Eat” project by the organization Eaternity and the Tagesspiegel , in which a kilogram of fries also produces a whopping 5.43 kilograms of CO₂ - and that without a flight.

The potatoes here only contain 0.14 kilograms of CO₂.

HOW bad the CO₂ balance of fries is - i.e. how bad they really are for the climate - depends on which factors were taken into account in the respective studies. But the fact is that fries are one of the foods that cause high CO₂ emissions. Regardless of the transport route, the potatoes have to be cut, dried, fried and frozen. At home they are then stored in the freezer and fried again during preparation. This is reflected in the CO₂ footprint.

Sustainableleben.ch on the water balance also seems worrying There is no clear information about the water consumption of the package of French fries from the supermarket. But you know the water consumption of a fast food menu that only consists of a cola, a burger and a portion of fries. And it's an incredible 6,000 liters!

Source: sustainleben.ch , taz.de , Tagesspiegel , Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg , Our World in Data

Related:
Fact check: EU requirements for fries
No fake: Brauhaus takes fries off the menu
Are McDonald's fries dangerous to life? – We analyze the additives


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