FoodFacts Product Carbon Footprint Methodology : A standardized approach to food carbon footprinting

FoodFacts calculates Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) and Assortment Carbon Footprints (ACFs) for food and beverage products. The methodology is designed to help producers, retailers, and food service companies measure, report, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their product portfolios.

The resulting carbon footprints support:

  • Sustainability reporting
  • Climate target setting
  • Hotspot identification
  • Product development
  • Supplier engagement
  • Performance tracking

Built on recognized standards

The FoodFacts methodology is aligned with internationally recognized carbon accounting and life cycle assessment frameworks, including:

  • ISO 14067
  • Relevant Product Category Rules (PCRs) for food and beverage products
  • GHG Protocol
  • Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), including FLAG guidance
  • Swedish food-sector climate footprint methodology

The methodology follows an attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) approach and uses the latest available IPCC characterization factors to express emissions as kilograms of CO₂-equivalents (kg CO₂e). Attributional LCA seeks to quantify the emissions associated with producing a product and is the approach required by most product carbon footprint standards and reporting frameworks.

Product Carbon Footprint Calculation Approach

FoodFacts calculates product carbon footprints by combining activity data, such as ingredient quantities, packaging specifications, energy use, and transport distances, with corresponding greenhouse gas emission factors. This allows organizations to start with broad portfolio coverage and progressively improve accuracy as more detailed supplier and company-specific data becomes available.

Carbon footprints are calculated by aggregating emissions across all relevant life cycle stages and expressing the result as kilograms of CO₂-equivalents per functional unit. Greenhouse gases are characterized using the IPCC Global Warming Potential over a 100-year time horizon (GWP100).

The methodology supports both generic portfolio-wide calculations and more granular product-specific calculations.

What is included in the footprint

FoodFacts applies a cradle-to-distribution system boundary, covering the major emission sources associated with food products and beverages.

Included life cycle stages:

  • Agricultural production and raw material extraction
  • Land use change
  • Ingredient processing and refinement
  • Food manufacturing
  • Packaging
  • Transportation and distribution
  • Food losses occurring within the supply chain
  • End-of-life treatment of packaging

Consumer use and consumer food waste are generally excluded unless explicitly required for a specific study or reporting purpose.

Carbon footprints are reported per kilogram of food product or per litre of beverage sold to the customer, including primary packaging.

The chosen system boundary reflects the stages where food producers and retailers have the greatest ability to measure, manage, and reduce emissions while ensuring consistency across large product portfolios.

Life Cycle Inventory and Ingredient Modelling

The Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) forms the foundation of the FoodFacts calculation engine. The inventory combines activity data describing how a product is produced with emission factors representing the climate impact of those activities.

Examples of activity data include:

  • Ingredient composition
  • Ingredient origin
  • Manufacturing energy use
  • Packaging specifications
  • Transportation distances and modes
  • Product and packaging losses

FoodFacts uses recipe and ingredient information to calculate emissions at ingredient level. Ingredient declarations are structured, mapped, and connected to relevant emission factors based on ingredient type, origin, and production system.

When information is incomplete, FoodFacts applies conservative estimation methods to avoid underestimating climate impacts. This enables carbon footprints to be calculated at scale while maintaining transparency and comparability across large product portfolios.

Allocation Principles

Many food production systems generate multiple products from the same process. In these cases, emissions must be allocated between co-products to ensure fair attribution and avoid double counting.

FoodFacts applies allocation methods consistent with recognized food-sector methodologies, ISO standards, and relevant Product Category Rules.

Depending on the product and available guidance, allocation may be based on:

  • Economic value
  • Physical relationships such as mass or energy content
  • Biophysical relationships where industry-specific guidance exists

Examples include biophysical allocation for dairy systems and milk solids allocation for dairy ingredient processing. The objective is to ensure that emissions are assigned consistently and transparently throughout the value chain.

Databases and Data Sources

FoodFacts combines multiple scientific third-party databases and industry data sources to achieve both broad coverage and methodological consistency.

Key sources include:

  • Agri-footprint® for agricultural and ingredient life cycle inventory data
  • SAFAD for food-specific environmental datasets
  • Blonk Land Use Change Database for land use change emissions
  • Ember for country-specific electricity emission factors
  • NTM for transportation emission factors
  • GS1 product and ingredient data

These sources are supplemented by scientific literature, public statistics, industry datasets, and supplier-specific information where available.

FoodFacts prioritizes datasets that are transparent, scientifically robust, geographically representative, and aligned with internationally recognized carbon footprint methodologies.

Combining Primary and Secondary Data

FoodFacts combines high-quality secondary datasets with company-specific primary data to balance scalability and accuracy.

For products where primary data is unavailable, FoodFacts applies conservative assumptions and proxy data to ensure complete and consistent calculations. As better data becomes available, generic assumptions can be replaced with supplier-specific and product-specific information.

FoodFacts enables organizations to progressively improve accuracy by integrating primary data such as:

  • Supplier-specific carbon footprints
  • Ingredient-specific emission factors
  • Manufacturing energy consumption
  • Electricity sourcing information
  • Packaging specifications
  • Transportation and logistics data
  • Country-specific sourcing information

A data hierarchy is applied where higher-quality primary data is prioritized over generic secondary data whenever quality requirements are met. This allows organizations to start with complete portfolio coverage while gradually increasing the precision and representativeness of their calculations over time.

Land Use Change and FLAG Reporting

Land use change can be a significant contributor to the climate impact of food products. FoodFacts incorporates land use change emissions using dedicated datasets and methodologies aligned with current climate reporting requirements.

The methodology supports reporting in line with SBTi FLAG requirements and allows emissions to be separated into:

  • Land use change emissions
  • Land management emissions
  • Energy and industry emissions

This enables organizations to better understand emission hotspots, prioritize reduction efforts, and support climate target setting.

Transparent Reporting and Hotspot Analysis

FoodFacts provides carbon footprint results at product, category, and assortment level.

Results can be analysed by:

  • Life cycle stage
  • Ingredient contribution
  • FLAG categories
  • GHG Protocol categories

This helps organizations identify emission hotspots, evaluate reduction opportunities, compare products, and monitor progress over time.

Continuous Updates and Quality Assurance

The FoodFacts methodology is regularly reviewed to incorporate new scientific evidence, updated databases, and evolving reporting requirements.

Data quality is assessed based on factors such as temporal, geographical, and technological representativeness, as well as reliability and completeness. Data sources and assumptions are continuously reviewed and updated as improved information becomes available.

The methodology is designed to support continuous improvement, enabling organizations to move from estimated portfolio-wide carbon footprints to increasingly supplier-specific and product-specific assessments as data maturity increases.