Legal protection
To encourage and expedite the donation of food to charities, FareShare worked with the Law Institute of Victoria in a campaign for new laws some years ago. This lobbying resulted in the passage of what has become known as the Good Samaritan law. This law protects food donors from legal action, where food is donated in good condition and in good faith.
See for yourselves. Here are the relevant sections of the legislation:
Wrongs and Other Acts (Public Liability Insurance Reform) 2002 – “Good Samaritan law”
Part VIB – Food Donor Protection
31F. Protection of food donors
(1) A person who donates food (the “food donor”) in the circumstances listed in sub-section (2) is not liable in any civil proceeding for any death or injury that results from the consumption of the food.
(2) The circumstances are:
(a) that the food donor donated the food,
(i) in good faith for a charitable or benevolent purpose; and
(ii) with the intention that the consumer of the food would not have to pay for the food; and
(b) that the food was safe to consume at the time it left the possession or control of the food donor; and
(c) if the food was of a nature that required it to be handled in a particular way to ensure that it remained safe to consume after it left the possession or control of the food donor, that the food donor informed the person to whom the food donor gave the food of those handling requirements; and
(d) if the food only remained safe to consume for a particular period of time after it left the possession or control of the food donor, that the food donor informed the person to whom the food donor gave the food of that time limit.
(3) For the purposes of this section, food is safe to consume if it is not unsafe food.
