Getting rid of best before dates would dramatically reduce food waste in Ireland, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore.<\/p>\n
Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on climate and biodiversity, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAt today\u2019s meeting of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action, I pointed out that a million tonnes of food is thrown away in Ireland every year \u2013 45 per cent of it because of the presence of best before dates.<\/p>\n
\u201cBest before dates are arbitrarily stamped on products by producers, with Safe Food Ireland saying there is no heath and safety reason for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cProducers are unlikely to agree to a voluntary end to the practice as it will hit their bottom line \u2013 the more food wasted, the more money they make. For this reason, I believe that a mandatory approach to this issue is required.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is that one-twelfth of our greenhouse gasses are created by food waste, so this is making it more difficult for us to meet our climate action targets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been too much focus on educating consumers about their behaviour instead of putting the onus on producers to change their ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemoving best before dates would be a simple thing to do. We should not need to set up groups or committees to achieve this.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 21, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Getting rid of best before dates would dramatically reduce food waste in Ireland, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore. Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on climate and biodiversity, said: \u201cAt today\u2019s meeting of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action, I pointed out that a million tonnes of food is thrown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[405,268,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-jennifer-whitmore","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n