To quote a recent article in Farmer’s Guardian

Speaking at a meeting of the British Hydrological Society recently, Tim Hess, an agro-hydrologist at Cranfield University, UK,  said few consumers were aware of just how much water is used to produce food, with a typical balanced diet requiring 3,500 litres of water per person per day.

WATER is used in almost every stage of food production, from growing crops to feed animals to washing and preparing products. Researchers at the university have calculated just how much water is used to produce many common foods:

• Cup of tea – 32.4 litres
• Pint of beer – 160 litres
• 1 glass of wine – 120 litres
• 1 glass of milk – 200 litres
• 1kg of beef – 15,000 litres
• 1kg poultry – 6,000 litres
• 250g packet of peanut M&Ms – 1,153 litres
• 575g Dolmio pasta sauce – 202 litres