Abstract In this paper, we evaluate the changes in carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption in China's food industry from 1986 to 2010 based on the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method. The results show that energy intensity (EI) and industrial activity (IA) are the main determinants of the changes in carbon dioxide. Energy intensity (EI) contributes to decrease in emissions within 25 years while industrial activity (IA) acts in a positive way to increase the emissions level. Industry scale (IS) mostly contributes to increase in emissions except for the time interval 1996–2000. However, for both carbon intensity (CI) and energy structure (ES), they have a volatile but not significant influence on emissions in the different time intervals. To further understand the effects, we analyze the cumulative emission during the whole period 1986–2010. The results further testify that energy intensity and industrial activity are the most important factors affecting reduction and growth of carbon emissions. The results indicate that efforts to reduce emission in China's food industry should focus on the enhancement of energy efficiency, the optimization of industrial scale and the restructuring energy use. Finally, recommendations are provided for the reduction of carbon dioxide in China's food industry.