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Comment by derwiki | Hacker News Reader

What happens if someone gets really sick off our leftovers? A caterer of an old employer told me they didn't donate food to shelters because of the legal liability.

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This page on their website answers that: http://www.foodrunners.org/donor-liability/

"Some food businesses hesitate to donate food out of fear that, should the recipient become ill from the food, the donor could be held responsible. In 1988, the California legislature passed the “Russell Bill” which releases the donor from liability."

Coooool... but there's still the moral question of "what happens when you donate food that makes someone sick?"

The bigger and vastly more common moral question is: what happens when you throw food out instead of donating it and someone goes hungry?

You stay in bed for a couple days and be happy to receive donated food?

Pretty sure the people who are receiving free/donated food aren't the sort of people who can afford "stay in bed" for a few days, if they have a bed.

Well what else should they do? Not eat?

What about the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act?

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1791

> "A person or gleaner shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition of apparently wholesome food or an apparently fit grocery product that the person or gleaner donates in good faith to a nonprofit organization for ultimate distribution to needy individuals."

This was passed by Bill Clinton to encourage food donation by protecting people from liabilities short of gross negligence.

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Emerson_Good_Samaritan_Act...

Interesting! This doesn't seem to be common knowledge. I had a WA state legislator tell me back in 2005 that this was illegal when I tried to start something similar.

I've had a student startup working doing this exact same thing for the past 2 years in the PHX area - they get this question all the time. Legally they're covered by good samaritan laws, but they do take several steps to ensure food safety (temp measurements and controls in the app, avoiding certain types of foods, etc...)

Are they still active? What's the startup's name?

Well that's good, the law is there, but ultimately you still don't want to make someone sick. ;)

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