The ranking of the most sustainable foods

There is a unique ranking that includes within it numerous recipes from cultures around the world.

This ranking analyses the impact that each dish has on the environment and it does so based on three elements: the amount of polluting gases emitted for its production (a quantity known as the carbon footprint), the water used to grow the ingredients (the water footprint) and to cook it and the amount of land needed to produce it. The greater the amount of land, the heavier the plate’s impact on the planet and renewable natural resources.

This information can be very useful to us in organising our diet and our shopping, so as not to reduce our impact on the resources of the Planet!

Amongst the first places in this special ranking of sustainability are falafel, a chickpea-based recipe typical of Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon, Egypt and Israel with a very low impact on the environment but with an incredibly tasty flavour.

Amongst the most virtuous dishes of all is a classic dish of French cuisine, prepared with green beans, peppers, tuna and eggs: the salad niçoise.

We also discover that Spanish paella, a nutritionally complete dish because it combines the protein of fish and meat with the fibre of vegetables and gluten-free carbohydrates of rice, is also quite sustainable: to produce a portion of 100 grams requires almost 2 square meters of land and 241 litres of water.

And the tasty pizza? Not bad, but we can do better: the classic Margherita is awarded a medium-low position… but by eating it only once in a while, we can limit our impact!