CanIEatThis?

Terms of Service

Last updated 4 September 2026

1This tool does not decide whether your food is safe

CanIEatThis? matches what you scan against recall notices published by the FDA, USDA FSIS and CPSC. That is all it does. It is a convenience layer over public data, and it can be wrong in both directions.

It can miss a recall that covers your product, and it can flag one that does not. Recall data arrives on the agencies' schedule, not ours, so a brand-new recall may not appear here for hours or longer. Our reading of a photo can misread a lot code, a brand, or a date. A verdict of "no recall matches this" is not a statement that your food is safe.

Always check the official notice before deciding. Every result links to the agency's own page. That page governs; ours does not. If the two disagree, the agency is right.

Nothing here is medical, health, or food-safety advice. If you think you have eaten something contaminated, contact a doctor or poison control, not this website.

2Storage-life estimates are estimates

Where we show how long something keeps, that comes from the USDA FoodKeeper dataset and assumes ordinary handling. It cannot know whether your item sat in a hot car, was left open, or was stored badly before you bought it. Treat it as a rough guide and use your own judgement. When in doubt, throw it out.

3Your account

You need an account to save scans, and you are responsible for what happens under it. Keep your password to yourself. Tell us if you think someone else has access.

One account per person. Do not create an account for someone else, and do not use a name designed to make people think you are someone you are not, including us or a government agency.

You must be at least 13 years old to hold an account.

4The community pantry

You can choose to post a scan publicly. Nothing is posted unless you deliberately post it, and you choose each time whether it appears under your display name or anonymously.

"Anonymously" means other users do not see who posted it. It does not mean we do not know: posts stay linked to your account internally so we can act on abuse. Do not treat an anonymous post as untraceable.

When you post, only ever post:

• Photos you took yourself, of a product or food.
• Photos with no people in them, including you.

Do not post anything illegal, infringing, hateful, harassing, sexual, deceptive, or aimed at a specific person. Do not post someone else's photo. Do not use the feed for advertising, spam, or to make claims about a company you cannot support.

We screen photos automatically before they can be posted, but automated screening is imperfect and is not a promise that everything in the feed is appropriate. If you see something that should not be there, use the report button.

5What you keep, and what you let us do

Your photos and posts remain yours. By posting to the community pantry you give us permission to store, display and distribute that post on the site for as long as it is up, so that the feature can work at all.

That permission ends when the post comes down. Delete a post and we delete the row and the stored image.

6Moderation

We can hide or delete any post, and suspend or close any account, at our discretion — with or without notice, and without being obliged to explain. Enough reports on a post will hide it automatically pending review.

We are not obliged to keep anything you post, or to keep the community pantry running at all.

7Things you may not do

• Scrape, bulk-download, or automate access to the site.
• Try to reach accounts, data, or parts of the system that are not yours.
• Interfere with the service or the infrastructure behind it.
• Use the site to break the law.

8No warranty

The service is provided as is, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose and accuracy of information. We do not promise the site will be available, correct, or up to date.

9Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss arising from your use of the site — including any decision you make about eating, keeping or discarding something.

Some places do not allow limits like this, so parts of it may not apply to you.

10Changes

We may update these terms. Material changes will be reflected in the date at the top of this page. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept it.

11Governing law

CanIEatThis? is operated from the United States. We do not ask you to agree to the law of a state you have never been to: these terms are read under the law that applies where you are using the site, and any dispute may be brought in a court that has proper jurisdiction over it.

Nothing here takes away a consumer protection you have under the law of your own state or country. Where those rules conflict with anything above, those rules win.

12Contact

Questions, complaints, or content you want removed: hello@canieatthis.site.