Cheese

The global average water footprint of whole cow milk is about 940 litre/kg. About 50% of this amount is allocated to the fresh unfermented cheese that is derived from the whole milk and the remaining 50% to whey. One kilogram of whole milk gives about 95 gram of cheese, so that the water footprint of cheese is 5060 litre/kg (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2010, 2012).

Publications

2012	Mekonnen, M.M. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2012) A global assessment of the water footprint of farm animal products, Ecosystems, 15(3): 401-415.		Download 0.5 MB
2010	Mekonnen, M.M. and Hoekstra, A.Y. (2010) The green, blue and grey water footprint of farm animals and animal products, Value of Water Research Report Series No.48, UNESCO-IHE.	Main Report Volume 1	Download 0.5 MB
		Appendices Volume 2	Download 4.1 MB

Global average water footprint

3178 litre/kg

85% green, 8% blue, 7% grey