Terms and Conditions

Last updated: 11th August 2026

Who We Are

Gluten Free Scanner is operated by Food Barcode Scanner Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 14560869, whose registered office is at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ. In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean Food Barcode Scanner Ltd, and "the app" means the Gluten Free Scanner mobile app.

You can contact us at any time at support@glutenfreescanner.app or by writing to us at the registered office address above.

How we handle data is explained in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.

Before You Start

Please read these terms before you use the app. The parts we particularly want you to notice are:

  • Important Disclaimer and Our Responsibility to You, which explain that the app is a guide only, that results are produced automatically, and that you must always read the packaging before you buy or eat a product.
  • Your Contributions, which explains the licence you give us over the photographs and product information you submit, and why it cannot be withdrawn.
  • Cancelling and Refunds, which explains your cancellation rights and how refunds work.

By downloading, installing or using the app you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use the app.

Acceptance of Terms

By downloading or using the app, these terms automatically apply to you, so please make sure that you read them carefully before using the app. You must not copy or modify the app, any part of the app, or our trademarks. You must not attempt to extract the source code of the app, translate the app into other languages, or make derivative versions of it. These restrictions do not apply to anything you are permitted to do by law and that cannot be excluded by contract, including making a back-up copy, decompiling for interoperability, and observing, studying and testing the app under sections 50A to 50C of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and any equivalent rights you have under the law of the country in which you live.

The app, its software, its design, our trademarks and the original content we create belong to Food Barcode Scanner Ltd or our licensors. Product data is different. Part of the product information in the app comes from the Open Food Facts database, which is copyright Open Food Facts contributors and is made available under the Open Database License (ODbL) v1.0, available at opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/. That data remains subject to the ODbL, our claim of rights does not extend to it, and nothing in these terms restricts any right the ODbL gives you in it.

Who Can Use the App

You must be at least 13 years old to use the app. If you live in a country whose law sets a higher age for using online services without a parent's permission, which is 16 in several EU countries including Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands and 15 in France, you must be old enough under that law or have your parent's or guardian's permission. If you are under 18, please use the app together with a parent or guardian, and never rely on it alone when deciding whether a food is safe for you to eat.

The app does not use accounts, so we have no way of verifying your age. We rely on the age ratings applied by the Apple App Store and Google Play, and on you telling us the truth about your age.

By using the app you confirm that you meet these requirements and that you have the legal capacity to agree to these terms. If you are buying Premium, you confirm that you are 18 or over, or that you have permission from a parent or guardian and from the person who pays for the device and the store account.

Important Disclaimer

Gluten Free Scanner should be used as a guide only. Always check the packaging and seek medical advice if you are unsure. For more details on how to check the packaging, visit coeliac.org.uk.

Gluten results and the explanations shown with them are generated automatically. We use AI systems to read photographs of product labels submitted by our community and to analyse the product information we hold, in order to extract product names and ingredients and to classify whether a product contains gluten. Most records are not individually checked by a person before you see them, and automated systems make mistakes, including missing gluten that is present. That is why you must always read the packaging yourself.

Gluten Free Scanner is an information tool. It is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, prevent, monitor, predict, treat or cure any disease or condition, including coeliac disease, gluten sensitivity or any allergy. It must not be used as your only check before eating a product, and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice.

Our marketing describes what the app is designed to do. It does not promise that every result is correct, and it does not replace the warnings in this section.

Our Responsibility to You

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence; (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or (c) any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under the law of the country in which you live, including your statutory rights as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Subject to that, and because Gluten Free Scanner is an information tool and not a substitute for reading the packaging or taking medical advice:

  • We will supply the app with reasonable care and skill, but we do not warrant that any product record, ingredient list or gluten result is accurate, complete or up to date. Recipes, formulations and manufacturing arrangements change, and much of our information comes from third-party sources, from other users, and from automated analysis.
  • You must always read the packaging yourself and, if you are in any doubt, contact the manufacturer or seek medical advice before eating a product. Please do not rely on the app alone.
  • We are not liable to you for loss or damage that was not foreseeable, or for loss or damage arising from your failure to follow the warnings in the app and in these terms, including the instruction to check the packaging.
  • The app is supplied for domestic and private use. If you use it for any commercial purpose we will have no liability to you for loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption or loss of business opportunity.
  • Where we are liable to you, and to the extent the law allows us to limit that liability, our total liability for all claims connected with the app arising in any 12 month period is limited to the greater of (i) the total amount you paid us for the app in that period and (ii) £100.

We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of us breaking these terms or of us failing to use reasonable care and skill. If defective digital content that we have supplied damages a device or other digital content belonging to you, and this was caused by our failure to use reasonable care and skill, we will either repair the damage or pay you compensation, as required by section 46 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Changes to the App

Food Barcode Scanner Ltd is committed to ensuring that the app is as useful and efficient as possible. We may change the app from time to time, for example to add or improve features, to fix problems, to make security or technical improvements, to reflect changes in the product data available to us, or to comply with a change in the law. We may also change our subscription prices.

We will never start charging you for something that is free today without making it very clear to you first. If we make a change that materially reduces a Premium feature you are paying for, or that increases the price of your subscription, we will tell you at least 30 days beforehand and you may cancel before the change takes effect and ask for a refund of the unused part of any period you have paid for. Price changes apply from your next renewal and never mid-period.

Premium Features

Premium features - currently Offline Mode and Scan History, and removal of our in-app promotional messages - are available through an optional auto-renewing subscription. The app does not show third-party adverts to any user, whether or not you subscribe. The free version shows our own promotional messages about Premium, and Premium removes them.

The plans, prices and billing periods available to you are shown in the app and on your App Store or Google Play purchase screen before you buy. Premium is sold and billed by Apple or Google as merchant of record, not by us. Payment is taken from your App Store or Google Play account when you confirm the purchase, and the subscription renews at the then-current price for the same period unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Any free trial converts to a paid subscription unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends, and any unused part of a free trial is forfeited when you buy a subscription.

You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time in your Apple App Store or Google Play account settings. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. The set of Premium features may change over time, and we will tell you before we remove a feature you are paying for.

Cancelling and Refunds

Premium is sold to you through the Apple App Store or Google Play, and Apple or Google acts as the merchant for that transaction. The price, the billing period and any free trial are shown to you in the store before you confirm the purchase.

If you live in the UK or the EU you normally have 14 days to change your mind about digital content. Because Premium is made available to you immediately, when you confirm the purchase you are asking us to begin supplying it straight away and you acknowledge that you will lose that 14 day cancellation right once supply has begun. If you have not yet used any Premium feature and you contact us within 14 days, we will not stand in the way of a refund.

Refunds are processed by Apple or Google under their own refund policies. For Apple, use reportaproblem.apple.com. For Google, use the Google Play refund process in your Play Store account. If they will not resolve your request and you think that is wrong, email support@glutenfreescanner.app and we will take it up on your behalf.

Cancelling your subscription stops the next renewal. It does not cut short the period you have already paid for, and you keep Premium until that period ends. To avoid being charged for the next period you must cancel at least 24 hours before the current one ends, in your Apple App Store or Google Play account settings.

None of the above affects your statutory rights if the digital content is faulty, not as described or not fit for purpose. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you may be entitled to a repair, a replacement or a price reduction in those circumstances.

Your Contributions

The app lets you add missing products by photographing product packaging (such as the barcode, product name and ingredients list) and typing a product name. Please photograph only the packaging. Contributed photographs are read by AI systems to extract the product name and the ingredients.

You keep ownership of the photographs and text you submit. By submitting a contribution you give us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable and transferable licence, with the right to sub-licence, to host, store, use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publish and distribute that content, and to allow our hosting, AI processing and distribution providers to do the same on our behalf, for the purpose of operating and improving our shared product database and showing product results to users, including to train, test and improve the automated systems we use to read labels and classify products. That licence may be transferred if our business is sold or transferred. It does not allow us to sell your photographs on their own, or to use them to advertise anything other than Gluten Free Scanner. So far as the law allows, you agree not to assert your moral rights in that content for these purposes. All rights in our product database as a compilation, including database rights, belong to Food Barcode Scanner Ltd, subject to the Open Food Facts licensing described above.

The licence has to be perpetual and irrevocable because other people make a food safety decision based on the database, and an answer they rely on cannot be pulled out from under them after the event. A contributed photograph or piece of product text describes a product, not a person, which is why contributions stay in the shared database when you stop using the app or delete your data. If a contribution you have made does contain personal data, for example a face, a hand, a name or anything else that identifies someone, or if you believe it infringes someone else's rights, tell us at support@glutenfreescanner.app and we will remove or redact it. We also do this on our own initiative when we spot it during review.

You confirm that anything you submit is a photograph of product packaging or factual product information, that you are entitled to submit it, and that it does not include personal information, identifiable people, or third-party content unrelated to the product. We review contributions and may reject, edit, or remove any contribution at our discretion, including where our automated checks cannot read it or where it does not show a food label. If a third party brings a claim against us because a contribution you made infringed their rights or broke the law, you agree to reimburse the losses we reasonably incur as a result. That does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our own act or omission, and nothing in this paragraph affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

Telling Us About a Wrong Result or Content

If a product result looks wrong, please tell us. Email support@glutenfreescanner.app with the barcode and, if you can, a photograph of the ingredients panel. We aim to acknowledge safety-related reports within one working day and to review them promptly. If we find that a result was wrong we will correct the record, and we prioritise cases where a product may have been shown as suitable when it is not. Reporting a problem does not affect any legal rights you have.

If you believe a product entry, photograph or other contribution in the app is inaccurate, unlawful or breaks these terms, report it to the same address with the product barcode and a description of the problem. We will acknowledge your report, review it, and tell you what we decided and why. If we remove or restrict a contribution you made, we will tell you the reason and you can ask us to reconsider by replying to that message. Our point of contact for these reports, and for authorities in the United Kingdom and the European Union, is support@glutenfreescanner.app, and reports may be sent in English.

Acceptable Use

You may use the app and the product data in it for your own personal, non-commercial use only. You must not:

  • extract, copy, scrape or re-use all or a substantial part of our product database, whether by automated means or otherwise, or do so repeatedly with insubstantial parts;
  • access our API other than through the app as supplied;
  • resell, redistribute, publish or make our data available as part of another product or service;
  • remove or alter any notices, including licence and attribution notices;
  • submit product information that you know or suspect to be false or misleading; or
  • use the app unlawfully, interfere with it, or attempt to gain unauthorised access to it or to our systems.

The offline database provided with Premium is licensed to you for use within the app on your own devices only. We may suspend or block any device that breaches this section. We reserve all rights in our database, including database rights under the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997, except in relation to data we hold under the Open Database License as described above.

Data and Security

The app collects and processes limited data about your device and your use of the app, including a random device identifier and the barcodes you scan. What we collect, why, and how long we keep it is explained in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms. You do not need to give us your name, email address or phone number to use the app.

It's your responsibility to keep your phone, and your access to the app and to your app store account, secure. We therefore recommend that you do not jailbreak or root your phone, which is the process of removing software restrictions and limitations imposed by the official operating system of your device. It could make your phone vulnerable to malware/viruses/malicious programs, compromise your phone's security features and it could mean that the Gluten Free Scanner app won't work properly or at all.

Third-Party Services

The app, and the service behind it, use the third-party providers listed below, which have their own terms. Our Privacy Policy explains what each of them does with data.

Internet Connection

You should be aware that there are certain things that Food Barcode Scanner Ltd will not take responsibility for. Certain functions of the app will require the app to have an active internet connection. The connection can be Wi-Fi or provided by your mobile network provider, but Food Barcode Scanner Ltd cannot take responsibility for the app not working at full functionality if you don't have access to Wi-Fi, and you don't have any of your data allowance left.

If you're using the app outside of an area with Wi-Fi, you should remember that the terms of the agreement with your mobile network provider will still apply. As a result, you may be charged by your mobile provider for the cost of data for the duration of the connection while accessing the app, or other third-party charges. In using the app, you're accepting responsibility for any such charges, including roaming data charges if you use the app outside of your home territory (i.e. region or country) without turning off data roaming. If you are not the bill payer for the device on which you're using the app, please be aware that we assume that you have received permission from the bill payer for using the app.

Device Responsibility

Along the same lines, Food Barcode Scanner Ltd cannot always take responsibility for the way you use the app, i.e. you need to make sure that your device stays charged - if it runs out of battery and you can't turn it on to use the app, Food Barcode Scanner Ltd cannot accept responsibility.

Third Party Information

With respect to Food Barcode Scanner Ltd's responsibility for your use of the app, when you're using the app, it's important to bear in mind that although we endeavour to ensure that it is updated and correct at all times, we do rely on third parties to provide information to us so that we can make it available to you. Subject to the section headed Our Responsibility to You, Food Barcode Scanner Ltd is not liable for loss you suffer as a result of relying wholly on this functionality of the app.

Product information in the app includes content from the Open Food Facts database, made available under the Open Database License (ODbL), as well as contributions from our user community. Product information may be incomplete, out of date, or inaccurate, and product recipes change - which is why you must always check the packaging itself.

App Updates and Termination

At some point, we may wish to update the app. The app is currently available on Android & iOS - the requirements for both systems (and for any additional systems we decide to extend the availability of the app to) may change, and you'll need to download the updates if you want to keep using the app. Food Barcode Scanner Ltd does not promise that it will always update the app so that it is relevant to you and/or works with the Android & iOS version that you have installed on your device. To keep using the app you may need to install updates when they are offered.

We may decide to stop providing the app, or to stop providing part of it. If you are using the app for free, we may do this without notice. If you have a live Premium subscription, we will give you at least 30 days notice before we withdraw the app or withdraw a Premium feature you are paying for, unless we have to act sooner for legal, safety or security reasons, and we will not take payment for a further renewal period. If we withdraw the app or a Premium feature during a period you have already paid for, you may cancel and ask us to refund the unused part of that period, calculated on a pro rata daily basis, by emailing support@glutenfreescanner.app.

We may end or suspend your access to the app immediately if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, for example by misusing the contributions feature or by submitting content you are not entitled to submit. If we do this we will tell you why, and if you were a paying subscriber we will refund the unused part of the period you have paid for unless your breach caused us loss.

On termination: (a) the rights and licences we granted you in these terms will end; and (b) you must stop using the app and, if needed, delete it from your device. The sections headed Your Contributions, Our Responsibility to You, Governing Law and General will continue to apply after termination. You can stop using the app at any time.

If You Downloaded the App from the Apple App Store or Google Play

These terms are between you and Food Barcode Scanner Ltd only, and not with Apple Inc. Food Barcode Scanner Ltd, not Apple, is solely responsible for the app and its content.

Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support services for the app.

If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price for the app to you. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple has no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the app, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses attributable to any failure to conform to any warranty are our responsibility and not Apple's.

We, not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claim by you or any third party relating to the app or your possession or use of it, including product liability claims, any claim that the app fails to conform to any legal or regulatory requirement, any claim arising under consumer protection or similar legislation, and any claim that the app infringes a third party's intellectual property rights.

You confirm that you are not located in a country that is subject to a US Government embargo or that has been designated by the US Government as a terrorist supporting country, and that you are not listed on any US Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

Apple and Apple's subsidiaries are third party beneficiaries of these terms and, on your acceptance of them, will have the right to enforce them against you as a third party beneficiary.

If you obtained the app from Google Play, Google is not a party to these terms and is not responsible for the app or its content, and you must also comply with the Google Play Terms of Service.

Complaints

If something has gone wrong, please email support@glutenfreescanner.app with your device type, your app version, and what happened. We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and aim to resolve it within 30 days.

We are not registered with an alternative dispute resolution scheme and we are not obliged to use one, so please raise your complaint with us first; if we cannot resolve it between us, you are free to take the matter to court.

If you bought Premium through the Apple App Store or Google Play, you can also raise a billing complaint directly with Apple or Google, who took the payment.

Governing Law

These terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them, are governed by the law of England and Wales, and you and we may bring legal proceedings in the courts of England and Wales.

Nothing in this section removes any protection you have under the mandatory consumer law of the country in which you live. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in the courts of that country. If you live in the European Union you keep the benefit of any mandatory consumer protections of the country in which you live, and you may bring proceedings in the courts of that country. If you live in the United States, nothing in these terms limits any rights you have under the law of your state that cannot be waived.

Language

These terms are written in English. Translations are produced automatically by a third-party translation service when you ask for one, and are provided for convenience only. If there is any difference in meaning, the English version applies, except where the law of the country in which you live requires otherwise.

General

If any part of these terms is found by a court to be unlawful or unenforceable, that part will be treated as removed and the remaining terms will continue to apply in full.

If we do not insist that you do something you are required to do under these terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking them, that will not mean that we have given up our rights or prevent us from taking steps against you later.

Except as expressly stated in the section headed "If You Downloaded the App from the Apple App Store or Google Play", nobody other than you and us has any right to enforce any of these terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation, for example if our business is sold. We will tell you if that happens and will make sure the transfer does not affect your rights. If you are a paying subscriber and you are unhappy with the transfer, you may cancel and we will refund the unused part of the period you have paid for. You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these terms to anyone else.

We will send any notices to you in the app or, if we have it, by email. You can send notices to us at support@glutenfreescanner.app.

These terms, together with our Privacy Policy, form the whole agreement between you and us in relation to the app.

Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time. We will post the updated version on this page and change the date shown. If a change materially affects your rights, and you have a live Premium subscription or have contributed to the product database, we will also tell you in the app before the change takes effect and give you at least 30 days notice. If you do not accept the change you may stop using the app and, if you are a subscriber, cancel and claim a refund of the unused part of the period you have paid for. Continuing to use the app after the notice period means that you accept the updated terms.

These terms and conditions are effective as of 11th August 2026.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, suggestions or complaints about our Terms and Conditions, do not hesitate to contact us at:

support@glutenfreescanner.app

Food Barcode Scanner Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom. Registered in England and Wales, company number 14560869.