FoodMate AI · Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
FoodMate AI — Effective date: August 14, 2026
This policy describes how FoodMate handles your information. The app works with the minimum data it needs to do its job, and keeps that data on your device.
What FoodMate stores
Your recipes, the photographs you add to them, your notes and ratings, what is in your kitchen, your shopping list and the prices read from receipts are stored in FoodMate's own container on this device. They are included in your device backup if you have one enabled, under your own Apple Account.
Reading a recipe from a link
When you add a recipe from a link, FoodMate fetches that page the way a browser would and reads the recipe out of it. The request goes to the site you shared. Most cooking sites publish their recipe as structured data, and in that case the recipe is read directly with no model involved.
The model that reads recipes
By default, FoodMate uses Apple's on-device model. Recipe text, your kitchen list and receipt lines are processed on this device and are not sent anywhere. You can choose ChatGPT instead by entering your own OpenAI API key; when you do, the text of that request — the recipe page, or your kitchen list and recipe titles when you ask what to cook — is sent to OpenAI, or to whichever endpoint you configure, for that request. OpenAI handles it under its own terms. The choice is yours to make and to change at any time in Settings.
Your API key
If you enter an OpenAI API key, it is held in this device's Keychain, marked so it remains on this device only. It is used to sign requests from the app to the endpoint you chose, and you can remove it from Settings at any time.
Camera and photographs
The camera is used to photograph a receipt, and your photo library is used when you pick a picture for a recipe. Receipt photographs are read on this device using Apple's text recognition; the picture and the lines read from it stay in FoodMate's container.
Reminders
If you send your shopping list to Reminders, FoodMate writes those lines into a Reminders list on your device and can read back which of them you ticked off. Access is requested when you first use the feature, and Reminders data reaches FoodMate only for the lines it wrote.
Your choices
You can export everything to a folder of Markdown files at any time, edit or delete any recipe, empty your kitchen and your shopping list, and remove your API key. Deleting the app removes the collection it stored on your device.
Children
FoodMate is a cooking tool intended for adults keeping their own recipes.
Changes
If this policy changes, the updated text will appear here and on the website, with a new effective date.
Contact
Questions are welcome at kozlovskyaid@icloud.com.