Apples: carbon footprint per kg

Apples carry one of the lowest figures in Agribalyse — the live value is below. They grow outdoors in temperate orchards on trees that stand for decades, need no heating and little processing, and travel by road over short distances for most European shoppers.

The interesting term is storage. Apples are harvested in autumn and sold year-round from controlled-atmosphere cold stores, so a fruit bought in spring has carried months of refrigeration that a fruit bought at harvest has not. Even so, the total stays at the bottom of the table — this is a food where almost nothing you can change makes much difference, which is its own kind of useful.

Worked example

A kilo of apples (about six): 1 × 0.408 = 0.4 kgCO2e.

Measure your own with the free food calculator.

Frequently asked questions

Does buying apples in season lower the footprint?

Slightly — out-of-season fruit carries months of cold storage. The difference is small in absolute terms because the starting figure is already very low.

Is fruit juice higher-carbon than whole fruit?

Per kilogram, juice carries the processing and packaging on top of the fruit, and several kilograms of fruit go into a litre. Agribalyse lists juices separately.

Related factors

• Bananas
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes