Water footprint of protein products worldwide

It takes approximately 2,540 liters of freshwater to produce 100 grams of protein from cheese. Cheese has a high volume of protein. Cheddar for example, contains 25 grams of protein per 100 grams. Nuts need a similar volume of water to cheese to produce 100 grams of protein.

Average freshwater withdrawals of protein products worldwide as of 2018, by food product (in liters of freshwater per 100 grams of protein)

Characteristic	Liters of freshwater per 100 grams of protein
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Sources

Expert(s) (Poore, J & Nemecek, T); OWID Use Ask Statista Research Service

Release date

January 2020

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

2018

Supplementary notes

*The source adds the following information:
"We derived data from a comprehensive meta-analysis, identifying 1530 studies for potential inclusion, which were supplemented with additional data received from 139 authors. Studies were assessed against 11 criteria designed to standardize methodology, resulting in 570 suitable studies with a median reference year of 2010. The data set covers ~38,700 commercially viable farms in 119 countries and 40 products representing ~90% of global protein and calorie consumption'.

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