Water: The hidden cost of your food and drink

In total, the world’s population requires about 120bn cubic metres of water per year in order to be able to drink coffee Photograph: Vegar Abelsnes Photography/Getty

Tea needs about one-sixth of the volume of water used in the production of coffee, but that still amounts to 30bn cubic metres of water each year globally Photograph: Sean Smith/Guardian

Most of the water used in producing the wine is needed to grow the grapes Photograph: David Levene/freelance

In an industrial production system, the animal is usually slaughtered after three years to produce about 200kg of boneless beef. Most of the water needed is used to grow the grains and roughage the cattle eat Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty

The average sheep produces 28kg of fresh carcass, 4kg of edible offal and 4kg of skin and wool Photograph: Adrian Burke/Corbis

Most of the water is used in producing grain feed, plus some for drinking and servicing the farm and for slaughtering and cleaning Photograph: David Levene/freelance

One 60g chicken's egg requires 200 litres of water Photograph: Antonio Calanni/AP

Producing wheat costs 1,300 litres of water per kilo, as a global average. One 30g slice of bread therefore has a water footprint of 40 litres Photograph: Ina Fassbender/Reuters

Making cheese from milk also produces whey of the same market value, so the water footprint of the milk is divided between the two Photograph: Rebecca Lovell/Guardian

The world’s rice fields consume about 1,350bn cubic metres of water annually, which is 21% of the water used in global crop production. The water is a mix rainwater and irrigation water Photograph: Geng Yunsheng/Greenpeace/Reuters

Sugar cane consumes about 220bn cubic metres of water annually, representing 3.4% of global water use for crop production Photograph: Amit Bhargava/Corbis

Maize consumes about 550bn cubic metres of water annually, which is 8% of the water used in global crop production Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty

Wheat consumes about 790bn cubic metres of water annually, which constitutes 12% of the global water use for crop production Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty