How do I calculate the carbon footprint of paneer per kg?

Multiply the milk used per kg of paneer, from your yield records, by a milk factor; milk is most of the total. Add boiler fuel for heating, electricity for pressing, chilling and storage, the coagulant and packaging. Divide by kilograms of paneer packed.

Milk, the main input

• Paneer takes several kilograms of milk per kilogram, depending on fat and solids; use your own yield.
• Ask your milk supplier or dairy union for a per-litre farm figure, or use a database value and name it.
• Whey is a co-product. If you sell it, allocate between paneer and whey by mass of solids or by value, and state the method.

Plant energy

• Boiler or direct-fired heating to bring milk to coagulation temperature.
• Electricity for presses, chillers and cold rooms.
• Vacuum packing machines.

Per kg

Divide by paneer packed. If you also make curd or ghee in the same plant, allocate energy by product using metered lines or batch times.

Worked example: dairy paneer line per kg (one month)

• Boiler PNG: 6,000 SCM x 2.05 = 12,300 kg CO2
• Electricity: 25,000 kWh x 0.710 = 17,750 kg CO2
• Paneer packed (kg): 30,000
• Plant total: 30,050 / 30,000 = 1.00 kg CO2 per kg
• Add milk (your yield x milk factor), citric acid and packaging

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
• Dairy plant emissions per litre of milk
• Allocate emissions between co-products
• 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.