Meal DNA Terms of Service

Effective date: 7 November 2026

Welcome to Meal DNA ("the app", "we", "us", or "our"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your download, installation, access, and use of the Meal DNA mobile application and related backend services.

By installing, accessing, or using Meal DNA, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not install or use the app.

1. Medical, Nutritional, and Health Disclaimer

MEAL DNA IS AN INFORMATIONAL LIFESTYLE TOOL AND DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL, CLINICAL, OR NUTRITIONAL DIAGNOSIS OR TREATMENT.

  • Not Healthcare Advice: The content provided in Meal DNA—including recipe suggestions, meal plans, macro/calorie calculations, and AI chat answers—is for educational, lifestyle, and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, clinical dietary consultation, diagnosis, or treatment.
  • Consult Your Physician: Always seek the advice of a physician, registered dietitian, or qualified healthcare professional before beginning any diet, weight-loss regimen, or fitness program, or if you have specific nutritional requirements related to a medical condition.
  • Estimates and Mathematical Models: Calorie and macronutrient estimates (including Basal Metabolic Rate and Total Daily Energy Expenditure calculated using standard formulas like Mifflin-St Jeor) are mathematical approximations based on population statistics. Individual metabolic needs and caloric expenditures vary significantly based on genetics, health status, and medical history.
  • Specific Health Conditions: If you have diabetes, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, eating disorders (or a history of disordered eating), metabolic disorders, or are pregnant or nursing, do not use the app's automated caloric deficit or dietary restriction suggestions without explicit medical supervision.
  • Medical Emergencies: Never rely on Meal DNA in a medical emergency. If you experience an adverse allergic reaction, severe illness, or medical emergency, immediately contact your local emergency services (e.g., 911, 112, or local equivalent).

2. Food Safety, Allergens, and Expiration Dates

  • User Inspection Required: Meal DNA provides algorithmic tracking of pantry expiration dates and recipe ingredients. These dates are user-entered or based on general shelf-life guidelines. You are solely responsible for inspecting all food items, smell, appearance, packaging integrity, manufacturer expiration dates, and freshness prior to preparation or consumption.
  • Allergens and Cross-Contamination: While Meal DNA allows you to configure dietary tags (e.g., Vegan, Gluten-Free, Nut Allergy), recipes and product lookups may not account for manufacturer recipe changes, facility cross-contamination, or subtle ingredient derivatives. If you have food allergies or celiac disease, you must independently inspect physical packaging labels before consuming any food.
  • Safe Food Handling: You are solely responsible for following safe food handling, hygiene, and safe internal cooking temperatures (such as USDA or WHO food safety standards for poultry, meat, seafood, and eggs) to prevent foodborne illness.

3. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Features

Meal DNA provides both on-device heuristic features and optional cloud-based generative AI features (powered by Google's Gemini API via our backend proxy):

  • AI Output Accuracy ("As-Is"): Generative AI responses and recipes may occasionally produce inaccurate statements, hallucinated cooking steps, incorrect cooking times, or suboptimal ingredient pairings. We do not warrant the culinary accuracy, palatability, or nutritional precision of AI-generated content.
  • Acceptable Use: You agree not to use the AI features to submit abusive, obscene, unlawful, defamatory, or harmful prompts, or to attempt prompt injection, security probing, reverse engineering, or denial-of-service attacks against our backend services or third-party AI APIs.
  • Service Availability: Cloud AI features may be throttled, temporarily unavailable, or modified based on network connectivity, server load, or third-party API availability. The app provides a fully functional offline/local mode for core pantry and recipe management.

4. Privacy and Data Ownership

Your privacy is paramount to how Meal DNA is built:

  • Local-First Architecture: By default, your pantry, profile, recipes, chat history, and logs are stored exclusively in local storage on your device.
  • No Accounts or Behavioral Tracking: We do not operate user accounts, and we do not include third-party advertising or analytics SDKs.
  • Privacy Policy: Our collection, processing, and handling of information are described in detail in our Privacy Policy. By using the app, you also agree to the practices described in the Privacy Policy.
  • Data Backups: You are solely responsible for exporting and preserving your data using the built-in backup tools. Because we do not keep server copies of your local data, we cannot restore lost data if you delete the app or lose your device without an external backup.

5. Age Requirements

  • General Use: You must be at least 13 years old (or the minimum legal age for digital consent in your jurisdiction) to use Meal DNA.
  • Biometric and Caloric Goals: Features providing personalized caloric deficit targets, weight loss goals, and adult biometric profiling are restricted to individuals aged 18 and older. Users under 18 may use general pantry management and recipe browsing without caloric restriction recommendations.

6. Intellectual Property and License

  • License Grant: Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use Meal DNA on personal mobile devices solely for your personal, non-commercial purposes.
  • Ownership: The Meal DNA name, logo, application code, design, artwork, and documentation are the intellectual property of Meal DNA and its developer. Open-source libraries and open databases (such as Open Food Facts) are used in accordance with their respective licenses.
  • Restrictions: You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, reverse engineer, or decompile any part of the application software or backend proxy, except as permitted by applicable law.

7. Third-Party Services

Meal DNA interacts with select third-party services:

  • Open Food Facts: Used for barcode product metadata lookups under their public terms and Open Database License (ODbL).
  • Google Gemini API: Cloud AI processing under Google's API Terms and Privacy Policy.
  • Render: Cloud hosting for our backend routing proxy.
  • User Cloud Storage: When using the system share sheet to back up data, the chosen storage provider (e.g., Apple iCloud, Google Drive) governs your backup under their respective terms.

We are not responsible for the availability, accuracy, or content of third-party platforms.

8. Disclaimer of Warranties

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, MEAL DNA AND ITS SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR ACCURACY OF NUTRITIONAL DATA.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE APP WILL OPERATE ERROR-FREE, UNINTERRUPTED, OR FREE FROM HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT NUTRITIONAL CALCULATIONS WILL MEET YOUR SPECIFIC HEALTH REQUIREMENTS.

9. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL MEAL DNA, ITS DEVELOPER, AFFILIATES, OR SERVICE PROVIDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, USE, GOODWILL, OR PERSONAL INJURY OR ILLNESS ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH:

  1. YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE APP;
  2. ANY DIETARY CHOICES, MEAL PREPARATION, FOOD ALLERGIES, EXPIRED INGREDIENTS, OR FOODBORNE ILLNESS;
  3. ANY RELIANCE PLACED ON CALCULATED CALORIES, MACROS, RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS, OR AI-GENERATED ADVICE;
  4. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR LOCAL DEVICE BACKUPS.

OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE APP SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU (IF ANY) TO PURCHASE THE APP.

10. Modifications to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. When changes occur, we will update the "Effective date" at the top of this document. Continued use of the app after any modification constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.

11. Governing Law and Severability

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with applicable laws, without regard to conflict of law principles. If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

12. Contact

For questions, feedback, or legal inquiries regarding these Terms:

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