Terms of Service for ReFood

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the ReFood mobile application and related services collectively referred to as the "Service".

The Service is developed and operated by Kateryna Shashkina ("ReFood", "we", "our", or "us").

By downloading, accessing or using ReFood, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use the Service.

1. Description of the Service

ReFood is a mobile application that provides tools and information related to food products, recycling, sustainability, waste sorting and nearby recycling locations.

The Service may include features such as:

• barcode and product scanning;
• product search;
• product previews and product pages;
• scan history;
• favorite or liked products;
• daily tips and educational content;
• scientific or health-adjacent informational content;
• nearby recycling points shown on a map;
• address search, geolocation and route building;
• product information from third-party databases;
• Nutri-Score, Eco-Score, ingredients, allergens, nutrition facts and packaging information;
• recycling and sorting guidance;
• AI-assisted product analysis;
• AI-assisted product comparisons;
• user-submitted product edits, corrections and images;
• automated moderation of submitted content;
• anonymous use and optional Apple Sign-In.

Some features may depend on third-party services, external APIs, device permissions, internet access or data availability.

2. Informational Purposes Only

ReFood is provided for general informational and educational purposes only.

The Service does not provide medical, dietary, nutritional, environmental, legal or professional advice.

Information shown in ReFood, including AI-generated analysis, daily tips, scientific content, nutrition facts, allergens, ingredients, product comparisons, recycling instructions, packaging guidance, map locations, route information and sustainability recommendations, may be incomplete, inaccurate, outdated or not applicable to your specific situation.

You are responsible for independently verifying important information, including:

• product labels;
• ingredient lists;
• allergen warnings;
• nutritional values;
• expiration dates;
• local recycling rules;
• disposal requirements;
• recycling-point availability;
• health-related or dietary decisions.

For medical, dietary, allergy-related or health concerns, you should consult a qualified professional and rely on official product labels and trusted medical sources.

For waste sorting or recycling requirements, you should verify applicable local rules and municipal guidance.

3. Scientific and NCBI Content

ReFood may display scientific information, article metadata, publication references or health-adjacent educational content obtained through APIs provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), U.S. National Library of Medicine, including PubMed-related data.

Scientific content is provided solely for informational and educational purposes.

ReFood, NCBI data and publication metadata are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Some article texts, abstracts, publisher materials, linked resources or publication content may be protected by U.S., foreign or international copyright laws.

You agree not to reproduce, redistribute, commercially use or otherwise exploit copyrighted scientific content outside the Service unless permitted by applicable law, license terms or the relevant copyright holder.

ReFood does not provide legal advice regarding copyright permissions for third-party scientific publications.

4. Third-Party Data Sources

ReFood may display or rely on information from third-party databases, APIs and public sources, including:

• Open Food Facts;
• Geoapify;
• OpenStreetMap;
• OpenMapTiles, where applicable;
• NCBI APIs;
• PubMed-related publication metadata;
• recycling-point APIs or datasets;
• other public or third-party sources.

Third-party information is provided on an "as available" basis.

We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, reliability, legality, availability or timeliness of third-party product data, nutrition data, allergen data, scientific content, map data, route data, sustainability scores, recycling locations or sorting instructions.

Third-party data, trademarks, names, logos, databases, images and content remain the property of their respective owners and may be subject to their own licenses, terms, attribution requirements and reuse conditions.

5. Open Food Facts Data and Product Images

Some product information displayed in ReFood is provided by Open Food Facts.

The Open Food Facts database is available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Individual database contents may be available under the Database Contents License. Product images provided by Open Food Facts are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license and may contain graphical elements subject to copyright or other rights.

Open Food Facts data is contributed by volunteers and may be incomplete, inaccurate, outdated or unavailable.

ReFood does not independently verify or guarantee all product data obtained from Open Food Facts.

Where Open Food Facts data or images are displayed, ReFood may provide attribution, source links and license information in the product screen, legal screen or other appropriate places in the app.

6. Geoapify, OpenStreetMap and Map Data

ReFood uses Geoapify services for address search, geolocation, maps, routing and location-related functionality.

Geoapify services may use map and geodata based on OpenStreetMap. OpenStreetMap data is available under the Open Database License (ODbL).

Map data, route information, address search results, recycling-point locations and geolocation results may be incomplete, inaccurate, delayed or unavailable.

ReFood does not guarantee that map locations, recycling points, routes, opening hours, addresses, distance calculations or disposal instructions are accurate or currently available.

Where map data is displayed, ReFood provides attribution to Geoapify, OpenStreetMap contributors and, where applicable, OpenMapTiles.

You agree not to remove, hide, obscure or misuse any attribution, source notice or license information displayed through the Service.

7. AI-Assisted Features

Certain features of ReFood use AI-assisted systems, including Google Gemini, to generate product analysis, product comparisons, sustainability insights, recycling suggestions, packaging analysis and moderation decisions.

AI-generated content may be wrong, incomplete, outdated, biased or unsuitable for your specific needs.

You should not rely solely on AI-generated content for decisions involving health, allergies, nutrition, safety, legal compliance, recycling compliance or environmental impact.

ReFood does not guarantee that AI-generated outputs will be accurate, safe, complete or error-free.

We may modify, limit, remove or disable AI-assisted features at any time.

8. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use ReFood.

If a higher minimum age applies in your country, you must meet that higher age requirement.

By using the Service, you represent that you meet the applicable age requirement and that your use of the Service complies with applicable laws and regulations.

9. Accounts and Authentication

You may use ReFood anonymously where supported or choose to sign in using Apple Sign-In.

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your device, Apple account and any account access used with the Service.

You are responsible for all activity associated with your account or app profile.

You agree to provide accurate information when using authentication, account, support or product-submission features.

10. Camera and Location Permissions

Certain features require access to your device camera or location.

Camera access may be required for barcode scanning, product scanning, packaging recognition or product-photo submission.

Location access may be used to display nearby recycling points, provide map results, search addresses, determine your current position or build routes.

You may disable camera or location permissions through your device settings, but some features may stop working or become limited.

11. User Contributions

ReFood may allow users to add products, submit product photos, suggest corrections, edit product data, add packaging information or provide other content.

By submitting content to ReFood, you represent and warrant that:

• you have the right to submit the content;
• the content does not violate any law;
• the content does not infringe third-party rights;
• the content is accurate to the best of your knowledge;
• the content does not contain personal, confidential, sensitive, illegal, abusive, misleading or harmful material;
• product images show the relevant product or packaging and do not include unrelated people, private documents or personal information.

You retain any rights you may have in your submitted content.

However, by submitting content to ReFood, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, reproduce, display, adapt, moderate and use the content as reasonably necessary to operate, improve and maintain the Service and its product database.

If a feature allows or requires submission of content to a public third-party database, such as Open Food Facts, your submission may become publicly available and may be governed by that third party's own terms, licenses and contribution rules.

Accepted product contributions may remain part of the product database even if you later delete your account, provided they do not directly identify you personally.

12. Moderation and Content Restrictions

To maintain safety and quality, ReFood may review user-submitted content using automated moderation tools, AI-assisted systems and, where necessary, manual review.

We may reject, remove, restrict or block content if we reasonably believe that it violates these Terms, applicable law, third-party rights, platform policies or safety standards.

You agree not to upload, submit, scan, distribute or attempt to process content that is:

• illegal;
• pornographic or sexually explicit;
• violent, graphic or abusive;
• hateful, discriminatory or harassing;
• misleading, fraudulent or deceptive;
• spam or malicious content;
• unrelated to product or packaging data;
• designed to bypass moderation systems;
• infringing intellectual property rights;
• containing private, confidential or personal information of others.

Repeated or serious violations may result in suspension or permanent termination of access to the Service.

13. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• use the Service for unlawful, harmful, fraudulent or abusive purposes;
• interfere with the operation, security or integrity of the Service;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to accounts, systems, data, APIs or infrastructure;
• misuse scanning, search, AI, map, routing or moderation functionality;
• overload, scrape, crawl, reverse engineer or extract data from the Service except where permitted by law;
• copy, modify, decompile, reverse engineer or attempt to extract the source code of the Service except where permitted by applicable law;
• submit false, misleading, harmful or malicious product information;
• use the Service to create competing datasets or services in violation of these Terms or third-party data licenses;
• bypass, disable or interfere with security or moderation systems;
• remove, hide or alter third-party attribution, copyright notices or license information.

We reserve the right to restrict, suspend or terminate access to users who violate these Terms or misuse the Service.

14. Intellectual Property

The ReFood application, including its software, design, branding, interface, original content, features, workflows and related intellectual property rights, is owned by Kateryna Shashkina or licensed to ReFood.

Except as expressly permitted by these Terms, you may not copy, reproduce, distribute, modify, sell, lease, publicly display or commercially exploit any part of the Service without prior written permission.

Third-party data, product images, map data, scientific content, trademarks, names, logos and other materials remain the property of their respective owners and may be subject to separate licenses and attribution requirements.

15. Open Data and Attribution

Some data displayed in ReFood may come from open databases or public sources, including Open Food Facts, OpenStreetMap and NCBI.

Such data may be subject to open-data licenses, attribution requirements, share-alike requirements, copyright restrictions, publisher terms or other reuse conditions.

Where required, ReFood may display attribution, source references or license notices in the app, including on product pages, map views, settings, legal screens or other appropriate locations.

You agree not to remove, obscure or misuse any attribution, source notice, copyright notice or license information displayed through the Service.

16. Service Availability and Changes

We may update, modify, suspend, limit or discontinue any part of the Service at any time.

We do not guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free or available at all times.

Features that rely on external services, including AI providers, product databases, map APIs, routing APIs, public scientific databases, recycling-point APIs, cloud infrastructure or authentication providers, may become unavailable or change without notice.

We are not responsible for interruptions, errors, data inaccuracies or feature limitations caused by third-party services or external data providers.

17. Freemium Features and Payments

ReFood may be offered as a free or freemium application.

Some features may be free, while others may be paid, limited, subscription-based or subject to additional terms.

If paid features, subscriptions or in-app purchases are introduced, the applicable price, billing period, renewal terms, cancellation rules and refund conditions will be displayed before purchase through the relevant app store or payment provider.

Payments, refunds and billing management may be handled by Apple or another payment provider according to their own terms and policies.

18. Account Deletion and Termination by You

You may stop using ReFood at any time.

You may delete your account directly within the app:

Profile → Settings → Delete Account

Deleting your account may remove associated account information, app progress, scan history, favorite products, liked products and saved items from active systems within a reasonable timeframe, subject to legal, security, fraud-prevention, backup or technical limitations.

Accepted product contributions that do not identify you personally may remain in the product database.

19. Suspension and Termination by Us

We may suspend, restrict or terminate your access to the Service if we reasonably believe that:

• you violated these Terms;
• you misused the Service;
• you submitted prohibited content;
• you attempted to bypass moderation or security systems;
• your activity may harm users, ReFood, third-party services or the public;
• suspension is required by law, platform rules or security reasons.

We may also remove or restrict content that violates these Terms or applicable law.

20. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, ReFood disclaims all warranties, whether express, implied or statutory, including warranties of accuracy, reliability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, availability and uninterrupted operation.

We do not warrant that:

• product data will be accurate or complete;
• allergen or ingredient information will be reliable;
• nutrition or sustainability scores will be correct;
• AI-generated outputs will be accurate or safe;
• scientific content will be complete or applicable to your situation;
• recycling instructions will match your local rules;
• route or map information will be accurate;
• recycling points will be available;
• user submissions will be correct;
• the Service will operate without errors or interruptions.

21. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, ReFood and its operator shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, profits, goodwill, use or other intangible losses arising out of or related to your use of the Service.

This includes, without limitation, losses or claims arising from:

• reliance on product information;
• reliance on AI-generated content;
• reliance on scientific or health-adjacent content;
• incorrect allergen, ingredient or nutrition data;
• incorrect recycling or waste-sorting instructions;
• unavailable or inaccurate map locations;
• unavailable or inaccurate route information;
• third-party databases or APIs;
• user-submitted content;
• copyright restrictions of third-party content;
• unauthorized access or technical interruptions;
• inability to access or use the Service.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so some parts of this section may not apply to you.

22. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless ReFood and its operator from claims, damages, liabilities, losses and expenses arising from:

• your violation of these Terms;
• your misuse of the Service;
• your user submissions;
• your violation of applicable law;
• your infringement of third-party rights;
• your misuse of third-party data, scientific content or copyrighted materials;
• your attempt to bypass security, moderation or technical restrictions.

This section does not limit any rights you may have under applicable consumer protection laws.

23. Privacy

Your use of ReFood is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which explains how information is collected, used and protected.

Please review the Privacy Policy carefully before using the Service.

24. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in the Service, legal requirements, third-party services or operational practices.

Updated Terms will become effective when posted in the app or on the associated Service page.

The "Effective Date" above indicates when these Terms were last updated.

Your continued use of the Service after updated Terms become effective means that you accept the revised Terms.

25. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of Ukraine, without regard to conflict of law principles.

If mandatory consumer protection laws in your country provide you with additional rights, nothing in these Terms is intended to limit those rights.

26. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, you may contact us at: