Food Listing Guidelines & Acceptable Use Policy

Effective Date: 2026-05-07 Last Updated: 2026-05-07

Operated by: 13809536 Canada Inc., doing business as TrulyServd ("TrulyServd," "we," "us," or "our") Website: trulyservd.com Contact: [email protected] Mailing Address: [VERIFY: physical mailing address required before publishing] Governing Law: Province of Ontario, Canada

Overview

These Guidelines explain what you can and can't list on TrulyServd, what you have to disclose, and what happens if you don't. They apply to every seller, every listing, and every photo, description, and price posted to trulyservd.com. By creating a listing, you agree to follow these Guidelines in full. Violations may result in listing removal, account suspension, or a permanent ban.

TrulyServd is a listing and discovery marketplace for individual homecooks. Buyers pre-order through the platform, but the actual transaction (payment) and food handover happen off-platform between the seller and the buyer. That arrangement places extra responsibility on you, the seller, to be accurate, honest, and safe — there is no commercial kitchen, no central fulfillment, and no platform-side quality check standing between your kitchen and the buyer's table.

Plain English: Read the rules. Follow the rules. If you don't, your listing comes down. If it's bad enough, your account goes too.

1. Who These Guidelines Apply To

Plain English: If you list food on TrulyServd, this is your rulebook. No exceptions.

1.1. These Guidelines apply to every individual or entity that creates, edits, or maintains a listing on TrulyServd ("Sellers," "you," "your").

1.2. These Guidelines work alongside, and do not replace, the Seller Agreement, Terms of Service, and Privacy Policy. If there is a conflict between these Guidelines and the Seller Agreement, the Seller Agreement controls on matters of contract; these Guidelines control on matters of listing content and conduct.

1.3. You are responsible for compliance with all applicable federal, provincial (Ontario), and municipal laws, including but not limited to the Safe Food for Canadians Act, the Food and Drugs Act, the Health Protection and Promotion Act (Ontario), and any local public health unit rules governing home-prepared food. [VERIFY: confirm applicable home-kitchen / cottage food rules in seller's specific Ontario municipality before listing]

2. What You CAN List

Plain English: Homemade food and shelf-stable handcrafted goods made by you, in your kitchen, that you legally have the right to sell.

2.1. The following categories are generally permitted, subject to all other rules in this document and to your compliance with applicable home-kitchen and food-handling rules:

Homemade food prepared by you, in your home kitchen, for direct sale to a buyer
Baked goods — cookies, breads, pastries, cakes, muffins, scones, biscuits, and similar items
Meal prep — pre-portioned meals, prepared within the limits of any applicable home-kitchen rules in your municipality [VERIFY: meal-prep / temperature-controlled food may require specific permits in some Ontario regions]
Condiments, jams, and preserves — including jellies, chutneys, pickles, hot sauces, infused oils, and similar items, prepared in accordance with safe-canning practices
Confections and chocolates — including truffles, fudge, caramels, brittles, and similar
Other shelf-stable handcrafted goods — granola, dry rubs, tea blends, baking mixes, and similar items that do not require refrigeration

2.2. Even when an item falls within an allowed category, you remain responsible for:

(a) Holding any permits or licences required by your local public health unit
(b) Following all food-safety, labelling, and packaging laws applicable to you
(c) Disclosing all allergens (see Section 4)
(d) Pricing, photographing, and describing the item accurately (see Sections 5–7)

3. What You CANNOT List (Prohibited Items)

Plain English: This list is non-negotiable. Listings that violate it are removed without warning, and serious or repeated violations end your account.

You may not list, advertise, or attempt to sell any of the following on TrulyServd:

3.1. Alcohol or alcoholic beverages — including beer, wine, spirits, ciders, mead, kombucha exceeding regulatory alcohol limits, alcohol-infused desserts where alcohol is meaningfully present and not fully cooked off, and any product whose sale requires a liquor licence.

3.2. Cannabis, cannabis edibles, or other controlled substances — including any item containing THC, CBD outside of regulated commercial products, psilocybin, or any substance regulated under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

3.3. Tobacco, vape, or nicotine products — in any form.

3.4. Unpermitted commercial or industrially-produced products — TrulyServd is a marketplace for handmade goods. You may not list mass-produced items, items repackaged from a commercial supplier, or items requiring commercial-kitchen permits you do not hold.

3.5. Mislabelled or inaccurately described products — including, without limitation, products misrepresenting ingredients, weight, volume, portion size, dietary claims (vegan, gluten-free, organic, halal, kosher, etc.), origin, or preparation method.

3.6. Raw proteins or items requiring temperature-controlled fulfillment beyond the seller's licensing — including raw meat, raw poultry, raw seafood, raw shellfish, unpasteurized dairy products, or any item that requires a continuous cold chain you are not licensed or equipped to maintain.

3.7. Items that are illegal under federal, provincial (Ontario), or municipal law — including, without limitation, foods made with banned ingredients, foods produced in a manner prohibited by Ontario public health regulation, and foods that infringe trademark or other intellectual property rights of third parties.

3.8. Resale of mass-produced commercial products — TrulyServd is for goods you have personally prepared. You may not list store-bought items, repackaged commercial goods, or third-party-made items as your own.

3.9. Goods made in unsafe or unsanitary conditions — including food prepared in a kitchen with active pest infestation, food prepared while the seller is knowingly ill with a communicable disease, food prepared without basic hand and surface hygiene, or food using ingredients past their expiry date.

3.10. Other prohibited categories — including but not limited to:

Live animals or any non-food item
Supplements, medicines, or items making medical or therapeutic claims
Pet food (unless and until TrulyServd opens a separate pet-food category with its own rules) [VERIFY: confirm whether pet food is in scope at launch]
Breast milk, baby formula, or any product marketed for infants
Foraged wild mushrooms unless identified by a certified expert and clearly disclosed
Any item TrulyServd notifies you, in writing, that you may not list

4. Allergen Disclosure (Mandatory)

Plain English: Every listing must disclose every allergen. People with allergies can die from undisclosed ingredients. This is the most important rule in this document.

4.1. Mandatory disclosure on every listing. Each listing must clearly disclose the presence of any of the following Health Canada priority allergens, gluten sources, and added sulphites:

Peanuts
Tree nuts (including almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, walnuts, Brazil nuts)
Sesame seeds
Milk (including all dairy)
Eggs
Fish
Crustaceans and shellfish (including shrimp, lobster, crab, mussels, clams, oysters, scallops)
Soy
Wheat and triticale (and other gluten sources, including barley, rye, and oats unless certified gluten-free)
Mustard
Sulphites (added at 10 ppm or more)

[VERIFY: confirm Health Canada's current priority allergen list is unchanged at time of publishing — the list above reflects the long-standing Health Canada list, but regulatory updates should be re-checked]

4.2. Cross-contamination disclosure. If your kitchen, equipment, or ingredients have ever come into contact with any of the allergens in Section 4.1 — even if the listed product itself does not intentionally contain them — you must clearly flag the cross-contamination risk. Acceptable wording includes "Made in a kitchen that also handles [allergen]" or "May contain traces of [allergen]."

4.3. Where the disclosure must appear. Allergen disclosure must appear:

On the listing description (not buried in a long ingredient paragraph)
Before the buyer is asked to commit to a pre-order
In a form a buyer with a serious allergy can find at a glance

4.4. Truthful ingredient lists. You must list every ingredient. If you reformulate, you must update the listing immediately. Listings advertising "secret recipes" or undisclosed ingredients are not permitted.

4.5. No medical advice. TrulyServd does not verify allergen disclosures. Buyers with severe allergies are responsible for their own decisions, but that does not relieve you of the obligation to disclose.

Risk note: Failure to disclose an allergen that causes harm to a buyer is grounds for immediate permanent ban and may expose you to civil or criminal liability under Canadian law. Take this section seriously.

5. Photo Standards

Plain English: Show what you're actually selling. Your photos. Your food. No stock images. No stealing other cooks' work.

5.1. Photos must depict the actual product. Every photo on a listing must be of the actual food the seller will provide. If the buyer receives something visibly different from the photo, that is a violation.

5.2. No stock photography. You may not use stock photos, AI-generated food images, magazine clippings, or any image you did not produce yourself.

5.3. No third-party work. You may not use photos of food made by anyone else, including images pulled from social media, recipe blogs, or competing marketplaces.

5.4. Accurate representation. Photos must accurately represent:

(a) Portion size (a single cookie pictured cannot be sold as a dozen, and vice versa)
(b) Finish, decoration, and presentation
(c) Packaging, where packaging is part of the value proposition
(d) Colour and texture (heavy filtering that misrepresents the product is not permitted)

5.5. Reasonable image quality. Photos must be clear enough to recognize the product. Blurry, dark, low-resolution, or unrecognizable photos may be removed.

5.6. No misleading composition. You may not use props, lighting, or styling in a way that meaningfully misleads the buyer about what they will receive.

6. Pricing

Plain English: The price you list is the price you charge. Don't pull bait-and-switch.

6.1. Listed price = price charged. The price displayed on the listing is the price the buyer is committing to. You may not direct the buyer off-platform to charge a different ("true") price for the same item.

6.2. Currency. All listings are in Canadian dollars (CAD) unless TrulyServd announces otherwise.

6.3. Taxes and fees. [VERIFY: confirm whether listings are tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive, and whether sellers are responsible for collecting and remitting GST/HST based on their own registration status — Ontario sellers above the small-supplier threshold must register for and charge HST]

6.4. No hidden charges. You may not introduce mandatory fees (delivery, packaging, "service") at handover that were not disclosed on the listing.

6.5. Promotions and discounts. If you advertise a sale, the "regular" price you reference must be a price you have genuinely charged in the recent past. Inventing inflated "regular" prices to make a discount look bigger is a violation of provincial consumer protection law and these Guidelines.

7. Listing Accuracy

Plain English: Don't lie. Don't exaggerate. Don't claim something is gluten-free when it isn't.

7.1. Accurate descriptions. Descriptions must be truthful and complete with respect to:

(a) Ingredients
(b) Weight, volume, count, or portion size
(c) Preparation method and cook date
(d) Shelf life and storage requirements
(e) Dietary or origin claims

7.2. Truthful and verifiable claims. Claims such as "vegan," "gluten-free," "organic," "halal," "kosher," "dairy-free," "nut-free," "sugar-free," "keto," and similar must be:

(a) Accurate to the actual product
(b) Verifiable on request
(c) Backed by certification where the term is regulated (e.g., "organic" is a regulated term in Canada under the Canada Organic Regime for products making organic claims in interprovincial trade) [VERIFY: confirm whether intra-Ontario homecook sales fall under the Canada Organic Regime or only voluntary use of the term]

7.3. No medical or therapeutic claims. You may not claim a food cures, treats, prevents, or alleviates any disease or condition.

7.4. No misleading comparisons. You may not compare your product to a branded commercial product in a way that misleads or infringes the brand owner's rights ("just like [Brand]" is generally not permitted).

7.5. Updates. If your recipe, ingredients, packaging, or process changes, update the listing before accepting another order.

8. Consequences for Violations

Plain English: First strike, warning. Second strike, suspension. Anything involving fraud, safety, or illegal items, you're done.

TrulyServd enforces these Guidelines at its sole discretion. Enforcement is generally tiered, but TrulyServd reserves the right to skip tiers when a violation warrants it.

8.1. First offence (minor or unintentional).

Written warning to the seller
Removal of the offending listing
Required acknowledgement before relisting

8.2. Repeated or severe offences.

Account suspension, with duration determined by TrulyServd
All affected listings removed
Possible loss of any seller privileges or visibility benefits

8.3. Fraud, safety risks, or illegal items — immediate permanent ban. The following violations result in immediate, permanent removal from the platform with no warning and no right of reinstatement:

(a) Listing any item in Section 3 (Prohibited Items), particularly alcohol, cannabis, tobacco, or controlled substances
(b) Failure to disclose an allergen that causes or could reasonably have caused harm
(c) Knowingly listing food prepared in unsafe or unsanitary conditions
(d) Fraud, including bait-and-switch pricing, fake reviews, identity misrepresentation, or chargeback abuse
(e) Use of stolen photography, identity theft, or impersonation of another seller
(f) Repeated material misrepresentation of dietary claims (e.g., labelling as "gluten-free" food that is not)
(g) Any conduct that exposes buyers to a serious risk of harm

8.4. Discretion. TrulyServd may remove any listing or suspend any account at its sole discretion, including for reasons not explicitly listed in these Guidelines but consistent with their spirit (buyer safety, marketplace integrity, legal compliance).

8.5. No refund of platform benefits. Sellers removed for cause are not entitled to any refund, reinstatement, or transfer of standing, ratings, or listings.

8.6. Cooperation with authorities. TrulyServd will cooperate with public health authorities and law enforcement where required by law or where buyer safety is at stake, and may share relevant seller information accordingly. See the Privacy Policy for details.

9. Reporting Violations

Plain English: If you see something wrong, tell us. The faster we hear about it, the faster we can act.

9.1. Who can report. Buyers, other sellers, public health authorities, and members of the public may report listings or seller conduct that appears to violate these Guidelines.

9.2. How to report.

Email: [email protected] — include the listing URL or seller name, a description of the issue, and any evidence (screenshots, photos, dates)
In-app reporting: [VERIFY: confirm whether in-app "Report Listing" functionality is available at launch — if not, remove this line]

9.3. What to include. A useful report includes:

The listing URL or seller handle
A clear description of which Guideline is allegedly being violated
Date and context
Any supporting evidence (photos, screenshots, order confirmations)
Your contact information so we can follow up if needed

9.4. What happens after a report. TrulyServd will review every report. We may contact the seller, request additional information, remove the listing pending investigation, or take immediate action depending on severity. We do not promise a specific response time, but reports involving safety or allergens are prioritized.

9.5. Good-faith reporting. Reports made in good faith will not result in retaliation against the reporter. Knowingly false or malicious reports are themselves a violation of the Terms of Service and may result in account action against the reporter.

9.6. Confidentiality. TrulyServd does not disclose the identity of the reporter to the reported seller, except where required by law or where the report itself was clearly identified.

10. Cross-References

These Guidelines should be read together with the following TrulyServd documents. By using TrulyServd as a seller, you agree to all of them.

Seller Agreement — the contract between you and TrulyServd governing your use of the platform as a seller, including fees, payouts, and termination
Terms of Service — the general terms governing all use of trulyservd.com
Privacy Policy — how TrulyServd collects, uses, and shares personal information

In the event of a conflict, the Seller Agreement controls on matters of contract; these Guidelines control on matters of listing content and seller conduct.

11. Changes to These Guidelines

Plain English: We can update this rulebook. We'll let you know when we do.

11.1. TrulyServd may update these Guidelines from time to time to reflect changes in law, platform features, or marketplace policy. The "Last Updated" date at the top of this document will reflect any change.

11.2. Material changes will be communicated to active sellers via the email address on file and/or an in-app notice at least [VERIFY: notice period — commonly 14 or 30 days] before the change takes effect, except where a shorter notice is required for legal compliance or buyer safety.

11.3. Continued use of TrulyServd as a seller after the effective date of an update constitutes acceptance of the updated Guidelines.

12. Governing Law and Contact

12.1. Governing law. These Guidelines are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein.

12.2. Contact.

Email: [email protected]
Mailing address: [VERIFY: physical mailing address required before publishing]
Operating entity: 13809536 Canada Inc., d/b/a TrulyServd

Disclaimer

AI-generated content — not legal advice. This document was generated with AI assistance and does not constitute legal advice. Food sale, food safety, and home-kitchen rules in Canada are governed by overlapping federal, provincial, and municipal regimes, and they vary by Ontario municipality. Before publishing these Guidelines or relying on them in any enforcement decision, have them reviewed by a licensed Canadian attorney with experience in food law, consumer protection, and online marketplace regulation. Pay particular attention to: (i) Health Canada's current priority allergen list and labelling rules under the Food and Drugs Act and Safe Food for Canadians Act; (ii) Ontario public health unit rules on home-prepared food and meal prep; (iii) provincial consumer protection rules around pricing, claims, and discounts; and (iv) any registration, tax, or licensing requirements that apply to your sellers.