Terms and Conditions

Legal

Last updated: May 7, 2026 · Version 2.0 · Replaces all prior Terms of Use

These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) govern your access to and use of cannedexperience.com and all of its content, recipes, tools, services, and communications (collectively, the “Site”). The Site is operated by the owners of cannedexperience.com (referred to in these Terms as “we,” “us,” or “our”).

By accessing or using the Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to any part of these Terms, do not use the Site.

1.About the Site and what it is not

cannedexperience.com is a home preservation education and recipe site. It publishes recipes from the founders’ home kitchen, articles about preservation methods, the founders’ own preservation experience, and reference tools.

The Site is not, and does not present itself as, any of the following:

• A tested-recipe authority. Where individual recipes follow tested protocols (from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, the Ball Blue Book, Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving, So Easy to Preserve, or peer-reviewed extension service publications), the testing authority is the source — not the Site.
• A clinical or food-safety authority. The Site does not produce safety verdicts about specific recipes. It does not recommend processing times or pressures for recipes the Site did not author. Tools published on the Site are reference and lookup tools — they do not produce safety verdicts.
• A North American extension service or substitute for one. Where canonical food-safety authorities have issued specific guidance, the Site does not contradict that guidance without explicitly naming the divergence and the reasoning. Section 4 covers this.
• A medical practice or extension of any current or former medical practice. Section 5 covers this.
• A commercial seller of food or preserves. The Site itself does not sell preserves through these pages. Section 12 covers any informal sales the founders may make outside the Site.

2.Acceptance of these Terms

By accessing the Site, using any tool published on the Site, submitting an email address, leaving a comment, clicking any affiliate or external link, or otherwise interacting with the Site, you confirm that:

• you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy;
• you are at least the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction (typically 18 or 19), or you are using the Site under the supervision of a parent or guardian who has accepted these Terms on your behalf;
• you have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement;
• your use of the Site complies with all applicable laws and regulations in your jurisdiction.

If you are accessing the Site on behalf of a business or organization (for example, an extension service, a retailer, an educational institution, or a content network considering licensing arrangements), you represent that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms. Section 14 governs commercial use of Site content beyond ordinary reading.

3.Food-safety disclaimer and your responsibilities

This section is the most important part of these Terms. Please read it carefully.

3.1 The Site is not safety advice

Content on the Site, including recipes, articles, tool outputs, and comments, is published as educational and informational material only. Nothing on the Site constitutes professional advice on food safety, food preservation, nutrition, or any other regulated subject. Information published on the Site is general in nature and is not a substitute for guidance from qualified professionals or from authoritative tested sources.

3.2 Use a tested recipe

Home canning, particularly of low-acid foods (most vegetables, meats, poultry, seafood, and many tomato products), can produce food that contains Clostridium botulinum toxin if not processed correctly. Botulism is a rare but potentially fatal illness. The only reliable way to manage this risk is to follow a tested canning recipe — meaning a recipe whose specific combination of ingredients, jar size, processing time, and processing pressure has been validated by a recognized authority.

You agree that you will not rely on the Site as a substitute for a tested recipe from a recognized authoritative source. Authoritative sources include, but are not limited to:

• the National Center for Home Food Preservation;
• the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning;
• the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (current edition);
• So Easy to Preserve, current edition;
• your local university or cooperative extension service;
• Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving (in Canada);
• peer-reviewed scientific publications on home food preservation.

3.3 Specific limitations of recipes and tools

You acknowledge and agree that:

• Processing times are recipe-specific. Different canning recipes use different time-adjustment schemes, even for similar foods. The processing time appropriate for one recipe is not necessarily appropriate for another. Where a recipe on the Site specifies a processing time, that time applies to that recipe as published; it does not imply guidance for other recipes you may have.
• Pressure values (PSI) are recipe-specific. NCHFP, USDA, and other authoritative sources use different PSI/time combinations for different products. Where a recipe on the Site specifies a PSI value, that value applies to that recipe only.
• Altitude band schemes vary. Some canning tables use four altitude bands; others use three. Where a tool on the Site reports an altitude band, you must confirm the bands used in your specific recipe and apply the bands as that recipe defines them.
• Elevation lookups are approximate. Elevation reported for a city, postal code, or location may reflect a representative point in that location, not your specific kitchen. If you live near a sharp elevation change, confirm your elevation independently.
• Tools do not validate recipes. A tool published on the Site will return an output regardless of whether the recipe you are using is itself a tested, safe recipe. Using a Site tool does not make an unsafe recipe safe.
• Ingredient substitutions affect safety. Substituting ingredients in a tested recipe can change the recipe’s pH, water activity, or other safety-critical parameters. The Site does not evaluate ingredient substitutions for safety.

3.4 Your responsibility

You are solely responsible for:

• selecting a recipe appropriate for the specific food you intend to preserve, and verifying that recipe is suitable for your circumstances;
• using equipment (canners, jars, lids, gauges) that is in good working order, has been tested where applicable, and is appropriate for the recipe;
• verifying the values you read from any tool on the Site and from your recipe before processing food;
• following all manufacturer instructions for your canner, gauge, and other equipment;
• determining whether canned goods you produce are safe to consume, including by inspecting seals, smells, and signs of spoilage before opening or consuming;
• complying with any food-safety laws or regulations applicable to you, especially if you intend to sell, gift, trade, or otherwise distribute canned goods.

You agree that you will discard any canned food that shows signs of spoilage, leaking, swelling, unusual odors, or any other indication that processing may have been inadequate, and that you will not consume or share such food.

4.Harm-reduction content acknowledgement

Some content on the Site discusses traditional canning and preservation methods — including open-kettle canning, family heritage recipes, and regional practices that pre-date modern food-safety guidance — using a harm-reduction posture. The National Center for Home Food Preservation, the USDA, and most North American extension services classify these methods as not recommended for home use because they have not been validated by laboratory testing.

By using the Site, you acknowledge and agree that:

• traditional methods discussed on the Site have not been validated by laboratory testing;
• the considerations listed alongside any traditional method are not a complete or tested set of safety conditions;
• laboratory-validated alternatives (NCHFP-tested water-bath or pressure canning protocols at NCHFP-specified times and pressures) are not interchangeable with traditional methods at the level of safety;
• households with infants, pregnant women, immunocompromised members, or elderly residents face changed risk profiles when traditional methods are used, and that the Site flags this where applicable but cannot anticipate every household circumstance;
• your decision to use any traditional method discussed on the Site is your own decision, made with your own informed assessment of the risks.

5.The founder’s medical background

One of the founders of cannedexperience.com is a retired General Practitioner who trained and practiced medicine in Ukraine for many years and is now retired in Canada. She does not hold any specific food-safety, food microbiology, public health, or extension-service credential beyond the general scientific training included in a medical curriculum.

Her medical background informs the editorial voice of the Site — the attention to evidence, the citation of authoritative sources, the care taken with safety as a topic. Nothing on the Site constitutes medical advice, food-safety clearance, or professional consultation. References on the Site to the founder’s medical background are editorial context only.

6.Recipes on the Site

Where a recipe on the Site specifies a processing time, processing pressure, ingredient ratio, headspace, or jar size, those specifications apply to that recipe as published. They do not constitute general guidance for other recipes, and they do not transfer to recipes you may have from other sources. Section 3.3 covers the specific limitations of recipe specifications in detail.

You acknowledge that you are solely responsible for evaluating whether any recipe — whether on the Site or from any other source — is appropriate for your circumstances, your equipment, your ingredient sources, and your household, and for following the recipe accurately if you choose to use it.

7.Tools — current and future

The Site publishes (or will publish) reference tools to help home preservers locate information. Tools include the Canning Altitude Lookup and may include in the future a Seasonal Preservation Calendar, an Ingredient Lookup, a Freezer Shelf-Life Reference, a Cook with Preserves Recipe Finder, and similar reference tools. The Site does not publish, and does not plan to publish, tools that produce safety verdicts on recipes the Site did not audit, that estimate pH for specific recipes, that recommend processing times or pressures for arbitrary inputs, or that produce any other quantitative safety claim about recipes from outside the Site.

Each tool published on the Site comes with its own posture and disclaimers, displayed adjacent to the tool’s output. The general principle is the same across all tools:

• tools provide reference, lookup, or curated-content output, not safety verdicts;
• specific processing times and pressures are recipe-dependent and are sourced from the recipe, not from the tool;
• tool outputs are advisory and do not replace your tested recipe.

Tool data may come from third-party services (see Section 11). The Site does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or availability of any third-party data. You are responsible for verifying any value returned by a tool against your tested recipe before relying on it.

8.Comments and user content

The Site may permit you to leave comments on recipes and articles. By submitting a comment or any other content to the Site, you represent that:

• you have the right to submit the content and to grant the licence below;
• the content does not infringe the rights of any third party;
• the content does not contain unlawful, defamatory, harassing, or otherwise objectionable material;
• the content does not contain personal information about anyone other than yourself;
• the content does not contain commercial promotion, spam, or unsolicited advertising.

You grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, and display the content you submit, in connection with the operation of the Site. You retain ownership of your content; this licence allows us to publish it, edit it for clarity, and remove it.

We may, in our sole discretion, decline to publish, edit, or remove any comment for any reason, including comments that contain food-safety advice that conflicts with the Site’s editorial guidance, that promote unsafe practices, or that we judge to be unsuitable for publication. Removing a comment is not an admission that the comment was wrong; it reflects our editorial discretion over what appears on the Site.

9.Affiliate program disclosure

The Site participates in affiliate programs, including Amazon Associates and similar retail affiliate programs. The Site may include affiliate links to third-party retailers offering canners, jars, lids, food mills, recipe books, and other home-preservation equipment. If you click an affiliate link and complete a purchase, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Affiliate revenue helps fund the operation of the Site.

We only link to products we have actually used in our home kitchen or that we are recommending in good faith for category-level relevance (for example, “widely available water-bath canners”). We do not rank manufacturers, claim that any specific product is safer than another, or recommend products primarily because they pay a higher commission. Product reviews and recommendations on the Site reflect our experience and judgement; they are not paid endorsements unless explicitly labelled as such.

The terms of the third-party retailer (warranty, return, refund, shipping policies) govern any purchase you make through an affiliate link, not these Terms.

10.Newsletter and email

The Site offers an optional email newsletter for readers who wish to receive seasonal preservation ideas, recipe updates, and notes from the kitchen. By submitting your email address through a Site signup form, you consent to receiving emails from us in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable anti-spam law (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act, and other applicable laws in your jurisdiction).

Every email we send includes an unsubscribe link. You may unsubscribe at any time. Unsubscribing removes you from the newsletter list; it does not affect your ability to use the rest of the Site.

We do not sell, rent, or trade newsletter subscriber email addresses. We use a third-party email service provider to send the newsletter; that provider’s privacy practices apply to the storage and transmission of your email address. See our Privacy Policy for details.

11.Third-party services and external links

The Site relies on third-party services to function, including but not limited to:

• Open-Meteo — for elevation and weather data used by tools;
• Photon by Komoot — for city geocoding;
• your browser’s geolocation API — only when you explicitly grant permission;
• email service providers, if you submit an email address;
• web hosting and content delivery providers;
• analytics and search engine indexing services.

We do not control these third-party services and are not responsible for their availability, accuracy, content, privacy practices, or terms of use. Your use of any third-party service is subject to the terms and policies of that service. The Site may also link to external websites operated by other parties; we are not responsible for the content, accuracy, or practices of any external website, and inclusion of a link does not imply endorsement.

12.Intellectual property and proprietary code

All content on the Site — including recipes as published on the Site, articles, photographs, illustrations, the source code of all tools, the visual design and layout of the Site, the structure and organization of the recipe library, and all selection, arrangement, and editorial work — is owned by us or licensed to us and is protected by Canadian and international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. The trademark “cannedexperience.com” and any associated logos and graphics are our property.

You are granted a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to access and use the Site for personal, non-commercial purposes. You may print or save individual recipes for your own kitchen use. You may share a link to a Site page on social media or in any other context. You may quote brief passages from articles for purposes of review, criticism, or commentary, with attribution.

You may not, without our prior written consent:

• copy, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publish, display, distribute, transmit, broadcast, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any substantial portion of the Site or any tool on the Site;
• republish recipes from the Site on another website, in a printed publication, in a recipe collection, or in any other commercial context;
• embed, frame, mirror, or republish any tool published on the Site on any other website, application, or product;
• remove, alter, obscure, or circumvent any copyright notice, trademark, watermark, or other proprietary notice contained in the Site or in any tool’s source code, including notices within minified or obfuscated source;
• use any data-mining, scraping, robot, or similar automated method to collect data, content, or recipes from the Site, except for legitimate search-engine indexing.

Linking to any page on the Site is welcome and does not require permission, provided the link does not falsely imply endorsement, partnership, or any relationship that does not exist.

13.Licensing of tools and substantive content

We license tools and substantive content from the Site for use by extension services, retailers, food preservation educators, content networks, and other organizations whose use case fits the Site’s editorial posture. Licensing is available for the Canning Altitude Lookup and for any other tool we publish, and on a case-by-case basis for substantive Site content (article series, recipe collections, instructional content).

13.1 What licensing covers

A licence from us authorizes the licensee to embed, reproduce, or distribute specified Site material under the terms of a written licence agreement. Licence terms vary by use case and are negotiated individually. Pricing is not published; all licensing is by enquiry.

13.2 What licensing does not modify

A licence does not waive or modify any of the following, regardless of what the licence agreement otherwise provides:

• the food-safety disclaimer in Section 3 — licensed material continues to carry the Site’s standing disclaimer language and the licensee may not remove, soften, or relocate the disclaimer to a less-prominent position;
• the harm-reduction content acknowledgement in Section 4, where applicable to licensed material;
• the credential framing in Section 5 — licensees may not represent the founder’s credential in language other than the language used on the Site;
• the source attributions on tested-source-aligned and documented-modification recipes — licensees may not strip source citations or substitute their own;
• the prohibition on producing safety verdicts (see Section 7) — a licensee operating a licensed tool may not modify the tool to produce verdicts the original tool does not produce.

13.3 How to enquire about licensing

For licensing enquiries, please contact us at licensing(at)cannedexperience(dot)com with a description of the proposed use, the audience, the duration, and the technical or distribution context. We will respond with whether the use is one we are willing to license and, if so, with proposed terms. Licensing inquiries that propose using Site material in ways inconsistent with the Site’s editorial posture (Section 1) will be declined.

14.No warranties

The Site, all content on it, and all tools published on it are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we expressly disclaim all warranties, including but not limited to:

• warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement;
• warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, currency, or reliability of any information published on the Site, including recipes, processing parameters, elevation values, altitude band labels, reference text, and tool outputs;
• warranties that the Site or any tool will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free;
• warranties that any defects in the Site or any tool will be corrected;
• warranties as to the results that may be obtained from use of the Site, including any specific outcome of preserving food using a recipe published on the Site.

No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained from us or through the Site, will create any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms. Translations of Site content into languages other than English are provided as a convenience and may contain errors; the English version of any Site content is the authoritative version.

15.Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will cannedexperience.com, its operators, owners, contributors, employees, agents, suppliers, or licensors be liable to you or any third party for:

• any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages;
• any loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill, data, or anticipated savings;
• any loss or damage arising from food-safety incidents, including but not limited to foodborne illness, food spoilage, equipment failure, or any harm caused by reliance on a recipe, article, or tool published on the Site;
• any loss or damage arising from your decision to follow or not follow guidance from a canonical food-safety authority based on content published on the Site;
• any loss or damage arising from third-party services on which the Site relies, including elevation, geocoding, hosting, or email providers;
• any loss or damage arising from your use of, or inability to use, the Site, any tool on the Site, or any recipe on the Site, whether based on contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability, or any other legal theory, and whether or not we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Where applicable law does not permit the complete exclusion of liability, our total aggregate liability to you for any and all claims arising out of or relating to your use of the Site will not exceed CA$50.00 or the amount you have paid us in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, whichever is greater. The Site is provided free of charge to readers, so this amount will typically be CA$50.00.

You acknowledge that the limitations in this Section 16 are an essential basis on which the Site is made available to you, and that we would not provide the Site without these limitations.

16.Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless cannedexperience.com, its operators, owners, contributors, employees, agents, suppliers, and licensors from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with:

• your use of the Site, any recipe on the Site, or any tool on the Site;
• your reliance on any information or recipe published on the Site;
• your violation of these Terms;
• your violation of any applicable law or regulation, including food-safety laws;
• any food you prepare, can, consume, distribute, sell, or share, whether or not the Site was used in connection with that food;
• any content you submit to the Site;
• your violation of any rights of any third party.

We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you agree to cooperate with us in asserting any available defenses.

17.Privacy

Our collection and use of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms by reference. Please read the Privacy Policy carefully to understand what information we collect and how we use it.

18.Availability and changes to the Site

We make no commitment that the Site will be available at any particular time or location, or that it will be free of bugs, errors, or interruptions. We may, in our sole discretion and without notice, suspend, modify, discontinue, or remove any feature, page, recipe, tool, or service at any time. We may also impose limits on certain features or restrict access to all or part of the Site without notice or liability.

19.Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Material changes may also be communicated through a notice on the Site or by email to newsletter subscribers. Your continued use of the Site after a change to these Terms constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Site.

20.Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia, Canada, and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Subject to applicable consumer protection laws that may grant you additional rights, you and we agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Site will be brought exclusively in the courts of British Columbia, and you and we consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

If you are a consumer resident in a jurisdiction whose laws grant you protections that cannot be waived by contract, nothing in these Terms is intended to deprive you of those protections.

21.Severability and entire agreement

If any provision of these Terms is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or, if it cannot be modified, severed from these Terms. The remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any other notices we publish on the Site, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding your use of the Site and supersede any prior agreements between you and us on the same subject matter, including any prior version of these Terms of Use. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be deemed a waiver of that right or provision.