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Comment by iinnPP | Hacker News Reader

I have never heard of a food bank in Ontario offering food with passed expiration dates. I previously volunteered there and most of the food was from grocery stores/corporate donors, but not expired.

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Not in Ontario, but I helped sort canned goods for a charity a few times, and they were compelled by law to be much more strict with "best by" dates and dented cans than I would be at home. I assume that approach is pretty common across North America.

Actually in the US there is a law that protects charities from being sued for providing spoiled food. The Good Samaritain Food Donation Act.

That's not true. The law only applies to wholesale supply chain, not providing food to consumers.

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2020/08/13/good-samaritan-ac...

The act also provides limited liability protection, both civil and criminal, for those who distribute food and groceries, such as food banks.

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

The food bank I worked at had guidelines per item group. Different items had different levels of strictness, though any worker was free to throw away any item if they thought it was spoiled or too badly damaged. Dents were okay as long as it remained sealed.

My guess is the strictness of the rules is driven by availability of resources and the level of need being met by the organization.

Food does not have expiration dates. Food has "sell by" or "best by" dates.

Meat usually has "use by" (or "use or freeze by") which is an expiration date.

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