Our trust and safety report
Every month we publish what we moderated, why, and how it was resolved. Full numbers, no spin. We believe transparency is the foundation of a marketplace built on home cooking.
Trust report · June 2026 · Pulled from live moderation data
June 2026 in numbers
Here's the moderation volume we published for June — reels reviewed, reports filed, strikes issued, and response time. (Pickup order totals join this page when they ship in the public API.)
June 2026
2026-06 · GTA pickup region
11
Reels & photos reviewed
0
User reports filed
0
Strikes issued
4hr
Avg response time
Items that entered the moderation queue this month (content + safety).
Buyer and cook reports aggregated from the queue for this period.
Strikes recorded in member_strikes for this calendar month.
Average hours from report to first moderation action (platform target).
What people reported
Content
Photos, reels, and listing text reviewed in the queue
4
40%
Safety
Food handling, hygiene, and pickup-safety flags
2
25%
Other
Spam, irrelevant content
10
35%
How we resolved them
No action
Report didn't meet our policy threshold
5
71%
Removed
Reel or photo taken down, no strike
2
29%
Strike
Strike issued after review
0
0%
Monthly archive on the web is planned — for now, prior months live in admin exports only.
Why we publish this.
Eatcircle is a marketplace of home kitchens. Real people cooking real food in their actual homes for their neighbors. That trust is the whole product. If we lose it, we don't have a business.
Other platforms grade themselves in private. We don't think that scales. So every month we publish the numbers — what was reported, how we acted, how long it took — and we tell you when we got something wrong.
This isn't a marketing exercise. It's a contract. The day we stop publishing is the day you should stop trusting us.
“If you can't see the kitchen, you should at least see the books.”Saravanan Soundar · Founder
Real names, verified phone, verified pickup address
Every Cook signs up via phone OTP and provides a real pickup address. No anonymous accounts. v1 doesn't collect government ID — see /food-safety for the rationale.
Three-strike policy, no exceptions
Warning, then 7-day suspension, then permanent ban. Same rules for our top earners and our newest cooks.
Pickup-only, by design
You meet your cook. You see their kitchen door. That accountability is built into the model.
Human review, not just AI
Auto-flagging speeds the queue. Final decisions on strikes, suspensions, and bans are made by a person — and signed.
What happens when you report something.
You're not shouting into a void. Here's the path your report takes from the moment you tap "report" inside the app.
- 1
Within 1 hour · auto-classification
Your report enters the moderation queue and is auto-classified by category (food safety, photo accuracy, etc). Reports of three or more on the same item auto-escalate to top of queue.
- 2
Within 24 hours · human review
A real person at Eatcircle reviews the report alongside the original content, the cook’s history, and any prior reports. Average review time this month was 4 hours.
- 3
Decision & notification
Action is taken — content removed, strike issued, or report dismissed with reason. Both the reporter and the reported cook receive a notification explaining what happened and why.
- 4
Appeal window · 7 days
Cooks who receive strikes can appeal within seven days. Appeals are reviewed by a different person from the original decision-maker. Appeal outcomes are tracked in this report.
- 5
End of month · in this report
Every report — yours included — is counted, categorized, and published here. Identifying details are stripped. The number is the truth.
What we promise.
Six commitments we keep, even when they are inconvenient.
✓We publish monthly, even when the numbers are bad.
If a month is full of suspensions, you will see that here. We do not quietly skip the bad ones.
✓We do not punish reporters.
Reporting another user — buyer or cook — never affects your standing. Even if your report is dismissed.
✓We disclose conflicts.
If our top earners get reported, the same rules apply. We publish enforcement the same way for new and established cooks.
✓We name our mistakes.
If we reverse a moderation decision on appeal, that reversal is counted and published in the next report.
✓We never sell or share your reports.
Your reports stay between you, the moderation team, and (if relevant) law enforcement under valid legal request.
✓If you disagree, you can appeal.
Every strike has a 7-day appeal window. Appeals are reviewed by someone other than the original decision-maker.
About the data: All counts in this report are absolute. No sampling, no rounding, no estimation. Personally identifying details are stripped before publication. Questions about a specific number: info@eatcircle.com.
Common questions.
If yours isn't here, write to info@eatcircle.com.
Why pickup-only? Doesn't delivery scale better?+
Probably yes — and that's the point. Delivery makes the cook anonymous. Pickup means you walk to the door of someone in your neighborhood. We think that's a feature, not a bug, and we built the whole product around it.
What happens if I get food poisoning from an Eatcircle order?+
Report it through the app immediately. We treat food safety reports as urgent and route them to admin within minutes. Depending on severity and pattern, the cook may be suspended pending investigation — and we'll involve public health authorities if there's any reason to suspect a wider issue.
You're entitled to a full refund. That's not a courtesy, it's policy.
What identity verification does a Cook go through at signup?+
v1: phone OTP verification, plus a verified pickup address that the buyer auto-receives 30 minutes before pickup. We do not collect government ID at v1 — the friction would price out neighbors who share homemade food. Food safety is self-attestation; Cooks who hold a current food handler certificate can opt in to the gold "Verified Safe Food Handler" badge. Read the full stance on /food-safety.
What's a "strike"? How does the three-strike system work?+
Strike 1: Warning. Cook is notified privately, given educational resources, and told what triggered the strike. No customer-visible effect.
Strike 2: 7-day suspension. The cook's kitchen disappears from Discover. Existing orders are refunded. Cook can return after the suspension period ends.
Strike 3: Permanent ban. The account is closed and the cook cannot re-register under a new identity (we check). Strikes age off after 180 days of clean record.
I'm a cook and got a strike I think is unfair. What do I do?+
You have seven days to file an appeal from inside the app. Your appeal goes to a different person from the one who issued the strike. We explain our reasoning and you can submit any supporting evidence. If we got it wrong, we reverse it — and that reversal is counted in next month's transparency report.
Are reports anonymous?+
Reports are anonymous to the cook being reported. Our moderation team can see who filed them so we can detect bad-faith reporting patterns, but we never disclose your identity to the reported user.
Filed a report? Track it in the app.
Want to flag content? Open Eatcircle and tap report on any reel or listing. Trust is a two-way street — we read what you send.