§ 76.003.Apparently Wholesome Food

The definition the whole chapter turns on, and it separates two different things.

Food is apparently wholesome if it meets all quality standards of local, county, state, and federal agricultural and health laws and rules — even though the food is not readily marketable due to appearance, age, freshness, grade, size, surplus, or other condition.

Safety and saleability are separated deliberately. Most food that goes to waste is perfectly safe and cannot be sold — a misshapen vegetable, a dented tin, bread from yesterday, a surplus after an event.

The definition says such food is apparently wholesome so long as it meets the applicable safety standards. The quality standards are the floor; marketability is irrelevant.

Note the four levels of law named — local, county, state, and federal. Food must satisfy all of them, and a violation of a municipal ordinance is as disqualifying as a federal one.

The section also addresses canned goods, excluding those that are leaking or otherwise compromised, which is a specific practical exclusion for the most commonly donated category.

The protection then attaches at the moment of donation — the liability provision requires the food to be apparently wholesome at the time of donation, so later spoilage in the recipient's hands does not defeat it.