Best before dates should be banned from food and drink labels, according to the Social Democrats.

Climate spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore TD one million tonnes of food is thrown away in Ireland every year, generating €1.3 billion lost. 

“55% of people will throw away food because it has gone past the best before date,” she said. 

The best before label, however, does not have any implications for health and safety, Deputy Whitmore said. 

“It’s just an indicator of quality,” she said. 

“It essentially says past this date we can't be guaranteed that it is top quality but there is still no reason not to eat it.” 

Use by vs best before

The SocDem TD said many people do not know the difference between a best before date and a use-by date, which indicates food cannot be eaten due to safety concerns. 

“They see this date on their packing and they're a bit nervous about the date and throw it out,” she said. 

“It has nothing to do with the safety of the food as long as you haven’t gone past the use by date.” 

Deputy Whitmore said people need to go back to “judging ourselves” whether food is good enough and not rely on labels – keeping health in mind. 

“We’re wasting so much food and money,” she said. 

“This is costly for households but also costly for the environment because a twelfth (8.33%) of greenhouse gases are created by food that’s never eaten.” 

Government ban

The responsibility is on the Government to implement a formal ban on best before dates, as food manufacturers will not likely do it themselves. 

“Relying on a voluntary measure I don’t think is going to work,” she said. 

“The more food we throw away the more profits for many producers, so it will be difficult for them to do it on a voluntary basis.” 

In 2016, France became the first country to ban supermarkets from throwing away food approaching its best before date. 

Supermarkets such as Tesco and Waitrose in the UK also previously decided to remove best before date labels.