Carbon footprint of Italian eating habits: how consumer food choices might lead to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

The production and consumption of food is responsible for a large portion of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The carbon footprint of the Italian food system was estimated with a “cradle to grave” approach, including post-production food waste. In order to evaluate the mitigation potential of consumers’ behavioural changes, a database was compiled with approximately 1,250 values of carbon footprint of food and beverage products, obtained by a systematic review of scientific literature. Then, four diet scenarios, comparable in terms of both energy and protein content, were considered: the current Italian diet, the same diet with a shift from beef to poultry meat, the typical Mediterranean diet, and a vegetarian diet. Results show that per-capita food-related GHG emissions could be reduced by up to 36%, combining dietary changes and food waste reduction.