Privacy Policy — Food Optimizer

Effective date: 20 August 2026

This Policy takes effect on the date above and remains in force until we replace

it with a revised version.

This Privacy Policy explains how eResearcher (“we”, “us”, “the developer”) handles information in connection with the Food Optimizer mobile application (“the App”).

Contact: info@askfoodscientists.com

Location: Kenya

If you do not agree with this Policy, please do not install or use the App.

1. Summary

Food Optimizer is designed to work without an account and without sending your

data to us.

We do not operate servers that receive your data.
We do not ask you to register, sign in, or provide your name, email address, phone number or location.
Everything you create in the App — your own ingredients, their nutrient values, and your blend calculations — is stored only on your device.
The App is supported by advertising through Google AdMob, and Google collects data for that purpose. This is the main way information leaves your device, and it is described in Section 4.

2. Information the App stores on your device

The following stays on your device and is not transmitted to us:

What	Why	Where
The food composition database	To let you search foods and calculate blends offline	Bundled in the App and copied to internal storage on first launch
Ingredients you define, and the nutrient values you type	To let you optimise blends from your own analytical data	Internal app database
Your advertising preference (ads on or off)	To remember your Settings choice	Internal app preferences
Spreadsheet files you export	To let you share or save your results	Temporary cache folder in the App’s private storage

You can erase all of this at any time by clearing the App’s storage

(Settings → Apps → Food Optimizer → Storage → Clear storage) or by

uninstalling the App. We cannot recover it for you, because we never had it.

3. Information we do not collect

We do not collect, receive, store or have access to:

Your name, email address, phone number, or postal address
Your precise or approximate location
Your contacts, photos, camera, microphone, files or call logs
Your health or medical records
The ingredients or nutrient values you enter
Any account credentials, because the App has no accounts

The App requests no runtime permissions. It declares only internet access and the advertising identifier permission, both required for advertising to work.

4. Advertising (Google AdMob)

The App displays advertisements supplied by Google AdMob, a Google service.

Advertising is how the App is funded.

We do not receive your personal data from AdMob. We receive only aggregate, anonymous reports such as total impressions and revenue.

Google does collect data. To serve and measure ads, Google and its advertising partners may collect and process:

Your advertising identifier (Android Advertising ID), a resettable identifier used to personalise and limit repeat ads
Device information — model, operating system version, language, screen size, mobile network and carrier
IP address, from which approximate (city-level) location may be inferred
Ad interaction data — which ads were shown, viewed or clicked, and when
App usage signals related to ad delivery, such as when the App is opened

The App shows three ad formats: banners within screens, an occasional full-screen ad after exporting a spreadsheet, and an ad when you return to the App after leaving it.

Google’s handling of this data is governed by Google’s own policies, not

ours:

Google Privacy Policy — https://policies.google.com/privacy
How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services — https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites
Google Advertising Policies — https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads

Your advertising choices

Turn ads off inside the App. Settings → Advertisements → *Show advertisements*. When switched off, no ad of any kind is requested or displayed.
Reset or delete your advertising ID. Android Settings → Privacy → Ads. Deleting the ID prevents personalised advertising.
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you will be shown a consent message before personalised advertising is used, and you can change your choice at any time via Settings → Privacy options.
If you are a California resident, see Section 9.

5. Information that leaves your device when you choose

Three actions send information outward. Each requires a deliberate act by you.

Exporting to Excel. The App writes a spreadsheet of your blend results into its own private cache, then opens your device’s share sheet. What happens next is entirely your choice — email, cloud storage, messaging, or saving to your device. Once you share a file, it leaves the App’s control and is governed by the privacy policy of whatever service you send it to. The file contains the food and nutrient data of your blend; it contains no identifier of you or your device.

Sending feedback. The feedback screen opens your own email application with a pre-filled message. Nothing is sent unless you press send in your email app.

Your email address becomes visible to us because that is how email works. We use it only to reply, and we do not add you to any mailing list.

Opening external links. Links to the Google Play store page or to askfoodscientists.com open in your browser or store app, which have their own privacy policies.

6. Children

The App is intended for adults and is not directed at children under 13 (or under 16 in jurisdictions where that is the applicable age). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

The App is not enrolled in the Google Play Families programme. If you believe a child has provided personal information through the App, contact us and we will act on it.

7. Data retention

Because we do not receive your data, we have nothing to retain. Data held on your device stays there until you delete it. Exported spreadsheets in the App’s cache may be removed by Android at any time to free space, and are deleted when you clear storage or uninstall.

Data collected by Google through AdMob is retained according to Google’s retention policies, over which we have no control.

8. Security

Your data is stored in the App’s private storage area, which Android isolates from other applications. We do not transmit it, so it is not exposed in transit to us.

We cannot guarantee the security of a device that has been rooted, modified, or infected with malicious software, and we cannot protect a spreadsheet after you have shared it. Please treat exported files as ordinary documents on your device.

9. Your rights

Because we hold no personal data about you, we usually cannot fulfil access, correction or deletion requests — there is nothing for us to look up. You can delete everything the App holds by clearing its storage or uninstalling it.

For data collected by Google through advertising, exercise your rights directly with Google using the links in Section 4.

European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland (GDPR / UK GDPR).

Where personalised advertising is used, the legal basis is your consent, given through the consent message shown in the App and withdrawable at any time. For non-personalised advertising and basic App functioning, the basis is our legitimate interest in operating and funding the App. For advertising data, Google acts as an independent controller.

Kenya (Data Protection Act, 2019). The developer is based in Kenya. Personal data processed in connection with advertising is handled by Google as described above. You may contact us at the address in this Policy, and you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (https://www.odpc.go.ke).

California (CCPA/CPRA). We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined. Advertising activity by Google may constitute “sharing” for cross-context behavioural advertising; you can opt out by turning ads off in Settings or by resetting your advertising ID.

10. Third parties

Party	Purpose	Policy
Google AdMob	Advertising	https://policies.google.com/privacy
Google Play	Distribution, and any in-app rating prompt	https://policies.google.com/privacy

The App uses no analytics, crash reporting, social media SDKs, or tracking services beyond those listed.

11. Changes to this Policy

This Policy remains in force from its effective date until we publish a revised version. If we revise it, the replacement will carry a new effective date, and material changes will be signalled in the App or on its store listing. Continuing to use the App after a change means you accept the revised Policy.

Disclaimer and Terms of Use

Please read this section carefully. It limits our responsibility and places responsibility on you.

A. The App is an informational and computational tool only

Food Optimizer provides food composition reference data and performs mathematical blending calculations on it. It does not provide medical, nutritional, dietetic, veterinary, agricultural, food-safety, regulatory or professional advice of any kind.

Nothing in the App is a recommendation to eat, avoid, formulate, manufacture, sell or feed anything. Outputs are arithmetic results derived from reference values — not judgements about whether a blend is safe, adequate, lawful or suitable for any person, animal or purpose.

Always consult a qualified professional — a registered dietitian, physician, veterinarian, food technologist or regulatory specialist — before acting on anything the App produces, particularly for infants, children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, elderly people, people with medical conditions, patients on therapeutic diets, or any commercial food or feed product.

B. About the data

Composition values come from public sources, principally the USDA FoodData Central Foundation Foods dataset and the ANSES-CIQUAL French food composition table, together with values compiled from published scientific literature. These sources are credited within the App.

You should understand the following before relying on any number:

Values are reference figures, not measurements of your material. Real foods vary enormously with variety, soil, climate, season, maturity, storage, handling and processing. A figure from an American or French reference table may differ substantially from the same crop grown elsewhere.
A missing nutrient means no data — it does not mean zero. The App excludes nutrients it cannot compute rather than assuming they are absent. A blend showing no value for a nutrient has not been shown to lack it.
Values marked as trace or estimated are flagged in the App. Treat them as indicative.
Blending is calculated as a simple linear mass-weighted combination. It does not model losses during cooking, processing, storage or digestion, nor interactions between ingredients, nor bioavailability. Actual composition of a real blend will differ.
Values are per 100 g edible portion unless stated otherwise.
The App does not assess safety. It does not evaluate allergens, toxins, contaminants, antinutrients, microbiological risk, pesticide residues, heavy metals, or any legal or labelling requirement.

We do not warrant that the data is accurate, complete, current or fit for any purpose, and errors in the underlying sources may be reproduced in the App.

C. Your responsibility

By downloading, installing or using the App, you accept sole responsibility for everything you do with it and for any consequence of doing so. This includes but is not limited to:

Any decision you make on the basis of the App’s data or calculations
Any food, feed, supplement or product you formulate, prepare, manufacture, distribute, sell or consume
The accuracy of any data you enter yourself, and any result derived from it
Any harm to health arising from acting on the App’s output
Compliance with every law, regulation, standard and licensing requirement that applies to you, including food safety, labelling, composition and advertising rules in your jurisdiction
Verifying results independently, by laboratory analysis, before any commercial or clinical use
Any file you export and any place you send it

The App is a calculator. You are the professional. The judgement is yours.

D. No warranty

The App is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement.

We do not warrant that the App will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, compatible with your device, or that defects will be corrected.

E. Limitation of liability

We shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, nor for any loss of profit, revenue, data, goodwill, business opportunity, product, crop or livestock, arising out of or connected with your use of or inability to use the App — including any harm to human or animal health — whether based in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability or otherwise, and whether or not we were advised of the possibility.

Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, it is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for the App (which is zero).

F. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claim, demand, loss, liability or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the App, your breach of these terms, or your infringement of any right of a third party.

G. Advertising content

Advertisements are selected and served by Google, not by us. We do not endorse, verify or control advertised products or services, and we are not responsible for them or for any transaction you enter into with an advertiser. Concerns about a specific advertisement should be raised with Google.

H. Data source attribution

USDA FoodData Central data is a work of the United States Government and is in the public domain. ANSES-CIQUAL data is used under the Etalab Open Licence 2.0, which requires attribution; ANSES is credited in the App and is not affiliated with us and does not endorse the App. Values compiled from published literature are cited within the App. Neither USDA, ANSES, nor any cited author endorses, sponsors or is responsible for the App.

I. Governing law

This Policy and the Disclaimer are governed by the laws of the Republic of Kenya, and the courts of Kenya shall have exclusive jurisdiction, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer protection rights you have where you live.

J. Severability

If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the remainder stays in force and the invalid provision is replaced by a valid one that comes closest to its intent.

Contact

eResearcher

Email: info@askfoodscientists.com