Dietary climate impact: Contribution of foods and dietary patterns by gender and age in a Swedish population

Dietary climate impact in a Swedish population (56-95 years old) was estimated based on self-reported food intake from 50 000 men and women within two population-based cohorts and on climate data, covering emissions from farm to fork, for 600 foods representative for the Swedish market. Aims were to assess variation in dietary climate impact between population groups and between food categories. Mean dietary climate impact was 2.0 tons of CO(2)e/person/year, with about a threefold variation between high and low impact individuals. Food loss and waste accounted for 18%. Older individuals and women on average had lower total dietary climate impact per year, while differences between gender were smaller per 1000 kcal. Climate impact was greatly affected by dietary composition and especially by the content of animal-based and discretionary foods, responsible for 71% and 12% of total climate impact, respectively. Results indicate a large potential for reduced climate impact by adopting realistic dietary patterns. Suggested strategies to reach climate goals include reduction of red meat and prioritising lower impact foods within meat, dairy and seafood categories, limited consumption of discretionary foods and decreased over-consumption of total calories, combined with improvements in production including reduction of food loss and waste. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated summary

The study estimated the impact of diet on climate in a Swedish population, finding significant variations between different population groups and food categories. Adopting realistic dietary patterns can potentially reduce climate impact.