Trust & Safety

1. Who Does What

Being clear about roles is part of being safe. F4F provides the platform, payments, verification tools, messaging, and dispute process. It does not prepare food, employ Chefs, operate a delivery fleet, or run events.

• Chefs are independent and are responsible for the safety, quality, labeling, and legality of the food they prepare and sell.
• Couriers are independent third parties who deliver orders when a Foodie chooses delivery.
• Organizers are independent and are responsible for the venue, permits, insurance, and safety of their events.
• Foodies are responsible for reading listings, disclosing allergies to the Chef, and providing accurate delivery details.

2. Identity Verification

Verification matters more here than on a typical delivery app: a Chef@Home visit means welcoming someone into your home, or cooking for someone you have never met. F4F does not run its own identity system. Verification is performed by Stripe Identity, using document and selfie checks. It is optional for ordinary browsing and ordering, and required for both sides of a Chef@Home booking.

• Your ID image and selfie go directly to Stripe's hosted flow. F4F never sees or stores them and never sees your ID number.
• F4F stores only the result: verified, pending, or not verified. Verified accounts show a badge, and Chefs are given preferred placement in search.
• A badge means a check was completed. It is not a background check, and it is not a guarantee of anyone's conduct. Use your own judgment and the safety practices below.

3. Secure Payments

Every payment and payout runs through Stripe, a PCI-DSS Level 1 certified payment processor. Your card details go directly to Stripe; F4F holds only a reference token, never a card number, expiration date, or security code. Tiffin packs and event fees can also be paid from a bank account, connected through Stripe by signing in to your bank; F4F never sees your bank login or account number. Keeping payment on the platform also keeps the order record, and your right to a refund, intact. We ask members never to pay outside the app.

• Chefs pay a commission only on completed orders: 12% on pickup orders and Chef@Home bookings, and 15% on delivery orders. There is no monthly fee and no listing fee.
• Foodies pay a small F4F service fee on each order, plus sales tax where it applies. A delivery fee applies only if you choose delivery. Every fee is shown before you pay.

4. Food Safety & Allergens

Chefs are responsible for meeting the health, food-safety, and licensing rules where they operate, for maintaining a clean kitchen, and for describing their food accurately. F4F does not inspect kitchens or test food, and we do not certify that any listing is allergen-free.

• Chefs: list every major allergen and dietary attribute accurately, keep listings current, and never substitute ingredients without telling the Foodie.
• Foodies with allergies or dietary needs: read the listing, message the Chef through the app before you order, and do not rely on estimated nutrition or AI-generated labels alone.
• Message the Chef in the app about ingredients and preparation. Keeping the conversation in the app preserves a record if a problem arises.

5. Chef@Home Safety

• Both the Chef and the Foodie must be verified before a booking is offered or made.
• Meet only through the app's booking flow. Keep communication and payment inside F4F.
• Tell someone you trust the time and place of the visit. Foodies should make sure another person is aware of the visit, and Chefs should share the address and time with someone.
• Either party may end a visit or leave at any time if they feel unsafe, and should contact local emergency services if there is danger.
• Report any concern to us afterwards so we can review the account.

6. Delivery Safety

Delivery is fulfilled by an independent third-party courier network. F4F does not operate a delivery fleet, and we choose to work with an established courier network so that handoffs, tracking, and support follow a proven process.

• Your delivery status and courier location are shown in the app while the order is on its way.
• Your order number identifies the order to the Chef, the courier, and you. Confirm it when receiving an order.
• We share only the information a courier needs (recipient name, phone number, delivery address, order number, and instructions). See our Privacy Policy.
• If a delivery cannot be completed for reasons outside your control, the order can be cancelled and refunded. Please provide an accurate address and be reachable to receive it.
• Hot and cold foods should be received promptly. If a delivered order is unsafe or wrong, use the complaint process within 24 hours.

7. Event Safety

Event4Foodies events are run by independent Organizers. F4F provides the listing, registration, payment, and ordering tools, but the Organizer is responsible for the venue, required permits and insurance, crowd and site safety, and the vetting of the Chefs they accept.

• Event details, including the address and schedule, are public so that Foodies and Chefs can find them.
• Organizers control registration: they can close it, accept or decline requests, invite Chefs, and remove a Chef, with orders at a removed booth cancelled and refunded in full.
• Foodies pick up ordered food by presenting their name and order number, which helps ensure the right person receives each order.
• Chefs should confirm an event's permit and insurance arrangements with the Organizer before registering.

8. Ratings & Reviews

Ratings and reviews come from members who completed an order. Reviews must reflect a genuine experience. We prohibit fake, incentivized, and retaliatory reviews and may remove content that breaks our rules.

9. If Something Goes Wrong

Most orders go well. When one does not, F4F has a defined process, not just an inbox:

1. Cancel or reject. A Foodie can cancel, and a Chef can reject, an order while it is still being prepared, with a full refund.
2. File a complaint. Within 24 hours of pickup or delivery, a Foodie can describe the problem and attach evidence photos.
3. Talk it through. The Chef is notified, and both sides can message in the complaint thread.
4. Decision and refund. The Chef approves or denies, and may refund all or part of the food, with the sales tax on it. Fees, delivery and tips aren't refunded through a complaint. Stripe returns approved refunds to the original payment method.
5. F4F review. We can review any complaint, its messages and evidence, and act where needed, including refunding or restricting an account.

Every step is timestamped and visible to both sides. Full details are in Section 12 of our Terms of Service.

10. Protecting Your Information

• We do not sell your personal information.
• We do not store card numbers or security codes (Stripe does) or ID images, selfies, or biometric data (Stripe Identity does).
• Connections between the app and our servers are encrypted, and private photos use restricted, expiring links.
• Your email address, phone number, street address, date of birth, delivery addresses, special requests, messages, and complaints are encrypted in our database with a separate key for each account, held in a cloud key management service.
• Contact details are hidden from F4F staff by default. Showing one takes a role that needs it, a recorded reason, and a fresh sign-in code, and every staff view of an account, order or complaint is logged. Every staff member signs in with a second factor.
• We design and test F4F with widely used security guidance, including the OWASP Top 10 and the OWASP Application Security Verification Standard.
• Event pages and public event data do not expose account identifiers, and events are looked up by an unguessable code rather than a sequential number.
• A Chef's street address is shown only to signed-in members. Anyone browsing without an account sees only the city, state, and ZIP code, with approximate map positions and distances.
• Deleting your account signs you out on every device, and an account that signs in with Apple has its access to your Apple ID revoked.

See the Privacy Policy for the complete picture.

11. AI & Accuracy

Some tools use AI to help Chefs create listings, suggest bundles, check dietary labels, and estimate nutrition. These outputs can be wrong. Nutrition figures are estimates, dietary and allergen checks are advisory, and Chefs must review and confirm everything they publish. Never rely on an AI-generated label for a medical, allergy, or dietary decision. Confirm with the Chef.

12. Community Standards & Enforcement

We expect honesty, respect, and legal compliance from everyone. We may remove listings, events, or reviews, restrict features, or suspend or close accounts for food-safety or licensing concerns, inaccurate allergen information, harassment, discrimination, fraud, taking payment off the platform, misuse of messaging, or repeated or serious complaints. Accounts may be reviewed and, where appropriate, reinstated. Members can also appeal by contacting us.

13. Emergencies

F4F is not an emergency service. If you or someone else is in danger, or someone is having a severe allergic reaction or medical emergency, call your local emergency number immediately. Afterwards, please tell us what happened so we can act.

14. Reporting a Concern

• An order problem: file a complaint in the app within 24 hours of pickup or delivery.
• Unsafe behavior, a safety concern, or a policy violation: use Contact support in the app's Help and support menu, or email hello@food4foodies.com with the order number or event if you have one.
• A security vulnerability: email hello@food4foodies.com with the details and how to reproduce it. Please give us a reasonable time to fix it before sharing it publicly, and do not access, change, or delete other people's data while testing.
• Legal or privacy matters: legal@food4foodies.com or privacy@food4foodies.com.