This repository includes the information used to make, "Quiz: How Much Energy Does It Take To Make Your Food?".
CSV and Excel files for energy inputs and caloric ouputs of the 10 food items (shrimp, canned tuna, roasted chicken, carrots, baked potato, french fries, wheat bread, cheese, fresh oranges, orange juice) and 2 alcoholic beverage items (red wine, draft beer) used in the quiz. The files also include the unit conversions and the ratio of energy in to energy out.
It's important to note that the information available on the energy inputs of food is imperfect and incomplete. For this quiz, because the point was to compare two items against each other, we used food items that weren't particularly close together in terms of energy inputs. Also, with the exception of beer and wine, we used energy inputs listed in a single paper, for consistency. The paper we referred to lists energy inputs for food items for someone eating in Sweden.
We first gathered the energy inputs (MJ/kg for foods, MJ/liter for alcoholic beverages) and the caloric outputs of foods (kcal/100g for foods, kcal/ounce for alcoholic beverages.)
Using standard unit conversions (MJ to kcal) we then calculated the kcal of energy required per kg, and the calories in a kilogram. We used that to come up with kcal in to kcal out ratio, which we called "energy in to energy out.""
With the exception of wine and beer, energy inputs are based on the paper, "Food and life cycle energy inputs: consequences of diet and ways to increase efficiency," by Annika Carlsson-Kanyama, Marianne Pipping Ekstrom and Helena Shanahan, //Ecological Economics//, March 2003.
Beer energy inputs are from the article, "Environmental performance of traditional beer production in a micro-brewery," by Adrian Williams and Seyoum Mekonen, Proceedings of the 9th International Converence on Life Cycle Assessment in the Agri-Food Sector, October 2014.
Wine energy inputs are from the article "Environmental impacts of consumption of Australian red wine in the UK," by David Amienyo, Cacil Camilleri and Adisa Azapagic, //Journal of Cleaner Production//, June 2014.
Calorie values are from the USDA's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.
This quiz was created using Twine 2.