How do I calculate the carbon footprint of instant noodles per kg?

Weigh the flour, palm or other oil and seasoning per kg, and use supplier figures. Add steaming and frying or air drying fuel, line electricity and the wrappers, then divide plant energy by kg packed. Frying oil and fuel are usually large shares.

Ingredients

• Wheat flour, starch and salt.
• Frying oil absorbed, from oil bought minus oil left.
• Seasoning sachets and dehydrated vegetables.

Process

• Mixing, sheeting and slitting.
• Steaming, then frying or hot air drying, the largest fuel use.
• Cooling, wrapping and cartons.

Per kg and per pack

Report per kg and per pack with its net weight, and say whether fried or air dried.

Worked example: noodle plant per kg (one month)

• Electricity: 60,000 kWh x 0.710 = 42,600 kg CO2
• PNG: 30,000 SCM x 2.05 = 61,500 kg CO2
• Kg of noodles packed: 300,000
• Plant total: 104,100 / 300,000 = 0.347 kg CO2 per kg
• Add flour, oil, seasoning and wrappers for the full figure

Inputs are illustrative; use your own bills and production records.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.

• Product carbon footprint calculator
• Flour mill footprint per tonne
• Namkeen footprint per kg
• Food processing industry

Sources: GHG Protocol Product Standard, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0

Last reviewed 2026-10-20.