Cooking is the art of using heat to prepare food for consumption, but studies reveal that it is also a way for humans to contribute more to global warming. The different cooking methods and appliances used in cooking make up 61% of food-related greenhouse gases from home cooking.
According to a study, animal-based food leaves a higher carbon footprint than plant-based. This includes lamb and cheese that emits over 20 kilograms of carbon dioxide-equivalent gases and pork and poultry which releases lower footprints but a staggering six and seven kilograms of carbon emissions respectively.
Household cooking is not often attributed to carbon emissions because there is scarce data about it. But understanding the impacts of cooking on the environment is still important as it is estimated that food contributes 37% of global emissions.
Cooking Releases Much of Humans' Carbon Emissions
The current data on food-related gas emissions is only up to the retail and purchase stages of the food supply chain, and cooking is not included. According to ZME Science's report, what happens after purchasing food is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
In a recent study conducted in the UK, the researchers looked at different cooking habits in households, which involved 11 different cooking methods, and ten types of appliances.
The researchers found that cooking accounts for about six to 61% of the total emissions. But this rate varies on the different types of food. For example, cooking potatoes, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, and other vegetables account for 61%. But cooking meat and fish represent 8%-27% of their total emissions.
Moreover, ready-to-eat foods and toasting of bread contribute 13% of the total emissions. On the other hand, semi-cooked or precooked foods account for 42% of the greenhouse gases (GHGs). While cooking canned goods or heating them represents 6% of their total emissions.
Overall, cooking meat accounts for the highest emissions across all the foods in the UK because it takes a long time to cook them, like oven roasting, which consumes a lot of energy among different appliance types.
How to Reduce Carbon Emissions From Cooking?
Since people cannot stop cooking to completely eradicate carbon emissions from food-related GHGs, changing cooking habits is enough to reduce food-related emissions. The study showed that emissions can be halved and reduced up to 16-fold just by following proper cooking methods.
The researchers said that instead of using the oven and other cooking appliances that consume a lot of energy, an electric grill would be a good alternative to toasting and grilling since it only uses half of the energy consumption of an oven.
For instance, grilling chicken in an electric grill only releases 73% less GHG compared when using the oven. Using an electric grill only release about 9% of carbon emissions, compared to 27% for oven grilling.
Lastly, cooking food under pressure would also be more beneficial to the environment because the cooking time is shorter. That means using a pressure cooker as opposed to a stovetop further reduces emissions by 50%, according to this study.
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