Tomatoes: carbon footprint per kg
Live factor value
0.75 kgCO2e per kg
Source: Agribalyse (ADEME/INRAE, France), 3.1 (revision 1). Factor set agribalyse-3.1-r1.
Fresh tomatoes are a low-footprint food on average — the live figure below comes from France's official Agribalyse database — but they are also the classic example of why *how* something is grown matters more than how far it travels.
A field-grown Mediterranean tomato trucked north usually beats a local tomato raised in a gas-heated greenhouse in winter, sometimes by several times. Buying in season is the footprint lever; food miles are a distraction for produce like this.
Worked example
A kilogram of fresh tomatoes: 1 × 0.75 = 0.8 kgCO2e.
Measure your own with the free food calculator.
Frequently asked questions
- Are local tomatoes always lower-carbon?
- No — out of season, local greenhouse tomatoes grown with gas heating can carry several times the footprint of imported field-grown ones. Season beats distance for fresh produce.