Terms of service

1. Who we are and what CONNECT is

FoodFacts CONNECT (“CONNECT”, “we”, “us”) is operated by foodfacts.org, a non-profit organisation. CONNECT is an intermediary platform: it helps clients find, message and book independent Registered Dietitians and Registered Nutritionists (“practitioners”), and helps practitioners run their practice.

Practitioners are not our employees, agents or representatives. When you book a consultation, your agreement for that consultation is with the practitioner, not with us. Practitioners are independently regulated — Registered Dietitians by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and Registered Nutritionists by the Association for Nutrition (AfN/UKVRN) — and are responsible for the advice they give.

2. Who can use CONNECT

• You must be 18 or over to create an account or book a consultation.
• You must give accurate information when you register and keep it up to date.
• You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for activity on your account.

3. Verification of practitioners

We only list practitioners whose registration we have checked against the relevant public register — the HCPC register for Registered Dietitians and the AfN/UKVRN register for Registered Nutritionists. Verification confirms registration status at the time of checking; it is not an endorsement of any individual practitioner or a guarantee of outcomes.

4. Bookings, discovery calls and payments

• When you book a paid service, payment is taken at the time of booking via Stripe, our payment processor. We never see or store your card details. All prices are shown in pounds sterling.
• Many practitioners offer a free 15-minute discovery call. Free services are confirmed immediately without payment. Treat them with the same courtesy as a paid appointment.
• A booking is confirmed when you receive a confirmation on screen and by email.

Commission — how CONNECT is funded

Listing on CONNECT is free for practitioners. We charge practitioners a platform commission on bookings that originate through the platform (the rate depends on the practitioner's plan). This commission funds foodfacts.org's non-profit work — every booking funds the fight against food misinformation. Clients pay the price shown; the commission is deducted from the practitioner's share. Practitioners pay 0% commission on clients they bring to the platform themselves.

Your clients become entirely yours after 12 months. For any client we introduce, commission applies only for the first 12 months from that client's first booking with you. After 12 months we take no commissionon that client's bookings — they are entirely your client, with no ongoing platform fee.

5. Cancellations, refunds and no-shows

• Cancel with 24 hours' notice or more — you receive a full refund to your original payment method.
• Cancel with less than 24 hours' notice — the booking is non-refundable, unless the practitioner chooses to refund you at their discretion.
• No-shows are non-refundable. If you miss an appointment without cancelling, the practitioner has set aside that time for you and is entitled to keep the fee.
• If a practitioner cancels at any time, you always receive a full refund.
• Refunds are returned via Stripe and typically arrive within 5–10 working days depending on your bank.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• harass, abuse, threaten or discriminate against practitioners, clients or our team — including in platform messaging;
• use the platform to send spam, solicitations or content unrelated to nutrition consultations;
• post reviews that are false, defamatory or written about a practitioner you have not actually seen;
• attempt to access accounts or data that are not yours, probe or disrupt the platform's security, or scrape the directory;
• use CONNECT for anything unlawful, or to circumvent the platform (for example, systematically moving platform-originated clients off-platform to avoid commission, in breach of the practitioner agreement).

We may suspend or close accounts that breach these terms. Where the breach involves abusive behaviour towards a practitioner or client, we may do so immediately and without refund of affected bookings.

7. Practitioner obligations

By listing on CONNECT, practitioners agree to:

• maintain their professional registration (HCPC or AfN/UKVRN) at all times, and tell us promptly if their registration lapses, is suspended or is subject to conditions;
• hold appropriate professional indemnity insurance covering the services they offer through the platform;
• keep their profile, qualifications, specialisms and prices accurate and up to date;
• keep their own clinical recordsof consultations, in line with their regulator's standards — CONNECT is not a clinical record system;
• practise within their scope of competence and follow their regulator's standards of conduct, performance and ethics, including safe referral where a client's needs fall outside their scope.

We may unpublish or remove a practitioner whose registration cannot be verified, who breaches these terms, or where we reasonably consider it necessary to protect the public.

8. Reviews

Reviews may only be left for appointments booked through CONNECT. Reviews are moderated before publication to remove content that breaches these terms, but a published review remains the opinion of its author, not of foodfacts.org.

9. Intellectual property

The platform, its design and its content (except content submitted by users and practitioners) belong to foodfacts.org. You keep ownership of the content you submit, and grant us a licence to display it on the platform for the purpose of running the service.

10. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded by law — including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Subject to that:

• we are not liable for the acts, omissions or advice of practitioners, who are independent professionals responsible for their own practice and insured accordingly;
• we provide the platform “as is” and do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted or error-free;
• our total liability to you arising out of the platform is limited to the greater of £100 and the total fees you paid through the platform in the 12 months before the claim arose;
• we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for loss of profit, business or opportunity.

11. Ending your account

You can delete your account at any time from your dashboard settings — see delete my data for what happens to your information. Upcoming bookings should be cancelled before deletion; deletion does not by itself cancel them or trigger refunds outside the policy in section 5.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. For material changes we will give account holders reasonable notice by email before the new terms take effect. Continuing to use CONNECT after that date means you accept the updated terms.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction — except that if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in your local courts. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms? Use our contact form and we will get back to you.