Mr. Brian Quirke:

On the regulatory side of things, date marking on food products is controlled under EU Regulation No. 1169 of 2011, which is the food information to consumers, FIC, regulation. The European Commission is proposing a revision of the FIC regulation that focuses on a number of elements of it, including in relation to date marking on food products. The Irish Government has been developing a policy position on the European Commission's approach to food labelling and packaging. That has been developed by a cross-government group headed by the Department of Health. It is working closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, our own Department, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and other key stakeholders such as the Environmental Protection Agency. That is on the regulatory side.

To add to what I mentioned earlier about key roadmap actions, the food waste prevention roadmap does acknowledge the role of date marking. As I said earlier, we will undertake an action to investigate the potential impact of the prohibition on the destruction of edible food in advance of its use by date and also the regulatory barriers around good Samaritan acts of donation.