diff --git a/modules/io/src/mol/star_parser.cc b/modules/io/src/mol/star_parser.cc
index 596230d8320978e23e63b30bb590b22987160851..069deac0eb23216b02cd3f61a4ed8ec460f03f97 100644
--- a/modules/io/src/mol/star_parser.cc
+++ b/modules/io/src/mol/star_parser.cc
@@ -410,7 +410,7 @@ void StarParser::ParseDataItem()
   StarParser::SplitLine(line, nv);
   if (nv.size()==1) {
     // remember identifier. 
-    String identifier=line.str();
+    String identifier=line.trim().str();
     String value;
 
     while (this->NextLine(line)) {