Law 15,224: food donation after Law 14,016

Anyone looking up Law 14,016/2020, Brazil's food donation law, today will find a notice on the Planalto (presidential) website that it has been repealed. On September 30, 2025, Law 15,224 took its place: it kept the protection for donors, created the National Policy to Combat Food Loss and Waste and established the Food Donor Seal.

What happened

Law 14,016 was signed on June 23, 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, based on a Senate bill. It authorized companies, hospitals, supermarkets, cooperatives, restaurants and snack bars to donate surplus food still fit for consumption, including food with partial damage or commercially undesirable appearance, as long as sanitary safety and nutritional properties were maintained. Donations could be made directly, in partnership with government, or through food banks and charitable or religious organizations.

The central point was liability. The donor would only be liable for harm if acting with intent, and their liability ended at the first delivery of the food to the intermediary or the beneficiary. The rule responded to the fear of being sued for donating.

Five years later, Law 15,224, of September 30, 2025, repealed the earlier one and broadened the design. According to the text and to Agência Senado, the new law:

• Creates the PNCPDA, the National Policy to Combat Food Loss and Waste, and defines in law what loss is (along the chain, especially in production, post-harvest and processing) and what waste is (in retail and consumption).
• Keeps donor protection: donors and intermediaries are only civilly liable for harm when there is intent, and the donation does not constitute a consumer relationship, even when made for publicity purposes.
• Requires a technical lead: food banks, receiving institutions and those who donate directly to beneficiaries must have a qualified professional who attests to the nutritional and sanitary quality, as set out in regulations.
• Creates the Food Donor Seal, valid for two years, which can be used in the company's publicity.
• Places food banks and micro-collection among its principles, including apps and websites that connect those who want to donate with those who want to receive.
• Provides for incentives, as set out in law and subject to the budget, for those who donate, for those who receive, for family farming and for those who manufacture machines that reduce loss in processing.

The president vetoed, according to Agência Câmara, raising the limit for deducting donations from the CSLL (a federal tax on corporate net income) from 2% to 5%, for lack of a budget impact estimate.

Why it matters

The law is already being used to unlock donations on the ground. On October 1, 2026, Folha de Londrina reported that the Paraná Public Prosecutor's Office invoked Law 15,224 to clarify that food donation is permitted in Londrina, after businesses and food banks became wary of legal consequences.

For those who work with perishables, the law now names loss in post-harvest and processing, which is where the supply centers' produce sits. And the requirement for a qualified professional protects those who receive, but asks for structure from those who donate.

In Bairo's view

For Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez, the 2025 law gets it right by treating loss and waste as a policy, and not only as a gesture of goodwill. In his reading, legal fear was for years one of the invisible barriers between the food left over and the person who needs it, and every clear rule removes a piece of that barrier.

He also sees in app-based micro-collection, mentioned in the law, the bridge technology knows how to build: warning in time that food was left over in a market pavilion and that a community kitchen needs it in the morning.

Where this meets the ecosystem

Instituto CEASA proposes to work precisely in the range the law now names: loss in processing and post-harvest, turning the supply centers' surplus into shelf-stable food through autoclave processing. The factory is a proposal being set up, and the goal of a shelf life of up to two years depends on a stability study and sanitary registration. Stated website: institutoceasa.org (site under construction).

The proposal to record each donation on BTZ Chain, a record network under development, speaks to two points of the law: the technical lead who attests to the food and the disclosure of targets and results required of programs using public money. The idea is that those who donate, those who attest and those who receive see the same path.

Sources

• Planalto: Lei nº 14.016, de 23 de junho de 2020 (Law 14,016 of June 23, 2020; repealed)
• Planalto: Lei nº 15.224, de 30 de setembro de 2025 (Law 15,224 of September 30, 2025)
• Agência Senado, 06/24/2020: Fornecedores de alimentos poderão doar excedentes a pessoas necessitadas (Food suppliers will be able to donate surplus to people in need)
• Agência Senado, 10/01/2025: Lula sanciona lei de incentivo à doação de alimentos (Lula signs law to encourage food donation)
• Agência Câmara, 10/01/2025: Entra em vigor lei de incentivo à doação e de combate ao desperdício de alimentos (Law encouraging donation and fighting food waste takes effect)
• Folha de Londrina, 10/01/2026: MP esclarece que doação de alimentos é permitida em Londrina (Prosecutors clarify that food donation is permitted in Londrina)

Read also

• Ceasas: 16.6 million tonnes and the end-of-day surplus
• Why use CEASA surplus against hunger?
• What to do with leftover food
• Instituto CEASA: what it is and why it matters