When we cannot see everything, we see nothing
Contrary to popular belief, pizza recipes do not all have similar impacts.
An average four-cheese pizza has twice the impact of a regular pizza like a Margherita and about 40% more impact than a ham pizza.
In most cases, cheese has a lower environmental footprint than meat. However, it is important to consider the overall impact of the pizza by taking into account the ingredients' quantities.
Contrary to popular belief, pizzas containing meat are not necessarily the most impactful, as the amounts of meat used to produce them are generally quite low. Indeed, the impact of ham is about 1.7 times higher than for cheese. However, between a few fine pieces of ham and an all-cheese filling, the cheese filling is likely to have a much greater impact.
The conclusions of Glimpact's analysis, carried out according to the PEF method (adopted by the EC), are based on data from a representative sample of commonly observed products. Therefore they do not take into account the specificities of production conditions or means from one brand to another.
Animal products are usually more impactful than common fruits and vegetables that are grown in our regions.
Meat tends to be blamed more than other ingredients such as cheese. Thus, when it comes to assessing the impact of a processed product such as a ready meal, it is important to take the amount of each ingredient into account.
A ready meal containing meat may have a lower environmental impact than a vegetarian ready meal, depending on the quantities of each component used and the manufacturing conditions.
According to the PEF method adopted by the EC, the environmental impact should take into account 16 impact categories. It is defined by a score that aggregates the different results obtained for each impact by normalisation and weighting. This score is expressed in points (Pt) on a continuous scale, it allows products to be compared with each other.
From one ingredient to another, the environmental impact can vary considerably. For instance, the environmental footprint of hams is much higher than for mozzarella (+90% for cooked ham, +285% for cured ham) or Emmental cheese (+60% for cooked ham, +240% for cured ham). But it is very important to consider the quantities used**. The weight of a slice of supermarket cooked ham is on average between 40 and 80 grams and for country ham, the weight will be even less.
For the "Queen" pizza (made of tomato, ham, cheese and mushrooms)* , 140 grams of ham and 120 grams of Gruyere cheese were estimated, and for the 4-cheese pizza* , 480 grams of cheese were considered (all cheeses combined).
The 4 cheese pizza has an overall environmental impact around 40% higher than for the Queen pizza. Hence, a high impact per kilogram for ham compared to cheese is not representative of the overall impact of the finished product.
Finally, it is necessary to avoid binary choices and to consider the ingredients quantities and products manufacturing conditions.
Below, a graph to help you to make conscious choices:
The environmental impact calculated does not take into account the use phase (refrigerated storage of the consumer, cooking, washing of utensils and dishes required for preparation). The results were reported per kilogram of pizza without taking into account nutritional issues.
