§ 25-21,189.Food; donations; limitations on liability.

Section 25-21,189 removes a liability barrier to donating surplus or imperfect food. It defines food broadly, covering articles used for food or drink for humans or animals and their components, and defines raw agricultural product to include any food in its raw or natural state, including fruit that has been washed, colored, or otherwise treated in its unpeeled, natural form before marketing.

With those terms defined, the section protects two different actors in the donation chain. A person who makes a good-faith donation of prepared or perishable food, or raw agricultural products, to a charitable or nonprofit organization is not liable for damages in a civil action for injury or death caused by the food’s condition, so long as the food appeared fit for human consumption when donated. That protection falls away only if the injury or death results directly from the donor’s gross negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct. Separately, a charitable or nonprofit organization that in good faith receives and distributes such food without charge is not liable, under a strict-liability-in-tort theory, for injury or death from the food’s condition, as long as the organization reasonably determined the food was fit for human consumption when distributed.

The section limits itself to donations that would otherwise go to waste: it applies to good-faith donations of perishable food or raw agricultural products that are not readily marketable because of appearance, freshness, grade, surplus supply, or similar conditions, rather than to food sold or distributed in the ordinary course of commerce.