Which desserts have a lower carbon footprint? What makes a big difference is individual ingredients in desserts. Dairy ingredients such as milk, butter and cream increase the carbon emissions of a dessert because they are cow-related products. Cows produce the largest number of emissions out of any animals and therefore any product that comes from cows automatically has a higher carbon footprint. Other factors that make a difference is the size of the portion of the dessert and the use of out-of-season fruit. If the fruit in the dessert have come from abroad by plane, it increases the carbon footprint dramatically. Professor Bridle’s book ‘Food and climate change without the hot air’ offers some insights on how we can reduce carbon emissions of popular desserts.  

Cake

Most cakes typically have many dairy products and is a high emissions dessert compared to other options. Cakes contain butter, milk and eggs and one piece can create half a kilo of carbon emissions. This is quite high for one meal because Professor Bridle suggests our daily amount of carbon emissions from our diet should be three kilograms and this cake would take up 16% of that amount. The creamier the cake, the more emissions it produces. The ways to reduce emissions from cake is either to choose a vegan cake, a less creamy cake or simply have a smaller piece of cake.

Yoghurt

Yoghurt is a dairy product because it is made of milk. Its emissions come from the milk because it is products from cows. Plant-based yoghurts are worth exploring if you want to reduce emissions of your diet. However, yoghurts are a small dessert, so one small yoghurt pot will not produce a lot of carbon emissions.

Fruit

The emissions from fruit depend on whether they are in season (being grown locally because of the season), and how they have been transported to the country. The emissions of eating fruit that have been grown in the country will be low and will be fine to have as a dessert. Emissions from fruit that have been transported by boat to your country will also have reasonably low carbon emissions and therefore they are fine to be consumed all the year round. Fruits that are transported by boat are apples, oranges, bananas and pineapples. They are fine to have all year round. Fruits that should be avoided are ones that are not in season and have been transport to your country by plane. These fruits have high emissions and are typically soft fruit, such as raspberries, strawberries and blueberries.

Apple pie and apple crumble

The apples in apple pie and apple crumble do not produce many emissions. However, the butter used in the pastry will be the most carbon emitting ingredient in the pie and crumble. Another factor that greatly changes emissions from these desserts is the use of the oven to reheat it. Using the oven to heat apple pie for just one person than for more people causes more emissions as it is just being used for one person. Ways to reduce emissions is to substitute butter for plant-based butter. Also using the oven to heat the dessert for more than one person will reduce the emissions of the dessert individually. Adding cream or custard will also increase the carbon footprint of the dessert significantly, so the easiest thing to do is to choose dairy-free alternatives.

Chocolate mousse

Chocolate mousse contains eggs, which is the most carbon emitting ingredient in it. What would increase emissions further is adding cream and raspberries. The carbon emissions of adding these ingredients more than double because soft fruit are transported by air and cream is another dairy product. A climate friendly way to eat chocolate mousse is to avoid adding toppings, particularly out-of-season fruit. Choosing a vegan chocolate mousse will halve carbon emissions and adding plant-based cream and fruits in season will not increase carbon emissions much either.