Irish consumers throw away a million tonnes of food a year – much of it unnecessarily.

The cost to households equates to around 700 euro each, on average.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency we throw away up to a third of the food we buy.

David McCleery from SafeFood Ireland says people aren’t aware that food which is past it’s Best Before date can often still be consumed: “The ‘best before date’ is a guideline – that’s the date after which the quality will deteriorate, but the food will still be safe to consume.  The ‘use by date’ is the critical one.  That’s the deadline. That’s the one where, if the food is consumed after the ‘use by date’ it may not be safe to eat any longer.  So if people are aware of those differences.  Then they can have the confidence to still use food after the best before date but use their own judgement on whether the quality is still acceptable.”