Terms & Conditions

These Terms & Conditions (“Terms”) govern your use of the MealAdda mobile app, website, web console and related services (together, the “Service”), provided by MealAdda (“we”, “us”). By signing in to or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you are under 18, you may use the Service only with the involvement of a parent or guardian, who accepts these Terms on your behalf through your mess’s registration process.

MealAdda is software that hostels and messes (“messes”) use to manage meal subscriptions, verify attendance at the serving counter using a rotating QR code, publish menus and announcements, handle absences, record counter sales, and see live headcounts.

We are a technology provider, not a food provider. Your mess operates the kitchen, serves the meals, sets its plans, prices and rules, and collects payment. Your agreement for meals is with your mess. MealAdda is not a party to that agreement and is not responsible for the mess’s food, service or conduct.

• Accounts are created by your mess. Students sign in with the mobile number registered with their mess; staff and administrators sign in with their email address.
• You will be asked to replace your initial password the first time you sign in. Keep your password private and do not let anyone else use your account.
• You are responsible for activity on your account. Tell your mess office straight away if you think someone else has used it, so the password can be reset.
• Make sure the details your mess holds about you are accurate, and ask your mess to correct them if they are not.

• Your mess assigns your subscription plan. The plan states its dates, the meals it covers and its price. The price is fixed when the plan is assigned to you, so later changes to the mess’s price list do not change a plan you already hold.
• A plan entitles you to one serving of each covered meal on each day of the plan, collected in person during that meal’s serving time. A meal that is not collected is not carried forward unless your mess’s absence rules say otherwise.
• When your plan ends, you cannot be served until your mess assigns a new one.
• Serving times, the meals offered and the menu are decided by your mess and may change.

• Your QR code is personal to you. It refreshes automatically, expires within seconds and is verified by our server. Screenshots, photos and codes forwarded to someone else will be refused.
• Counter staff may compare you with your profile photo. They may refuse a meal if your code cannot be verified, your plan does not cover the meal, the meal has already been served to you, or it is outside serving time.
• If the connection is down or a code cannot be checked, staff may record your meal manually. Manual entries are logged against the staff member who made them.
• Each meal can be recorded only once per student. Scanning twice does not use up two meals.

Where your mess allows it, you may mark yourself out of upcoming meals or ask for your plan to be paused. Requests must be made before the cut-off time your mess sets, may need your mess’s approval, and are applied according to your mess’s rules. Whether a missed meal is credited, and how much, is decided by your mess’s policy. A meal marked as an absence cannot then be collected at the counter.

• You pay your mess, not MealAdda. Plans and counter bills are paid to your mess by whatever means it accepts. MealAdda does not process, hold or receive your payments.
• The Service records what your mess tells it about plans, payments and bills. If you believe a record is wrong, raise it with your mess office, which can check and correct it.
• Refunds, credits for missed meals, pro-rated charges and any dispute about money are between you and your mess, under your mess’s own policy.
• The MealAdda app is free to download. We do not charge students for using it.

Menus in the app are published by your mess and are for information only. MealAdda does not prepare, handle, inspect or deliver food and makes no statement about ingredients, allergens, nutrition, hygiene or quality. If you have an allergy or dietary requirement, confirm it directly with your mess before eating. Concerns about food safety should be raised with your mess and, where appropriate, the relevant authorities.

Where your mess has turned it on, you can rate meals and add comments or photos. You keep ownership of what you submit, and you allow your mess and MealAdda to store it, show it to your mess’s administrators and use it to improve the food and the Service.

Anything you submit must be honest and must not:

• be abusive, threatening, obscene, discriminatory or defamatory;
• include photographs of other people without their permission;
• contain someone else’s personal information; or
• infringe anyone’s rights or break the law.

Your mess or MealAdda may remove content that breaks these rules.

You agree not to:

• share, copy, forge or replay a QR code, or help anyone collect a meal they are not entitled to;
• use another person’s account, or let someone use yours;
• try to access data belonging to another student or another mess;
• probe, scan, disrupt or overload the Service, or bypass its security or access controls;
• reverse-engineer, decompile or modify the app, except where the law expressly allows it;
• use bots, scripts or automated means to access the Service; or
• use the Service for anything unlawful, fraudulent or harmful.

Misuse may lead to your account being suspended and may be reported to your mess, which may take its own action.

If you use MealAdda on behalf of a mess, you also agree that:

• you will use students’ personal data only to run the mess, and keep it confidential;
• the mess has a lawful basis for the data it enters, including consent from students — and from a parent or guardian for students under 18 — for their details and photographs;
• you will keep plans, prices, payment records and menus accurate, and correct errors promptly;
• you will record manual entries, bills and payments truthfully;
• you will keep staff accounts individual, and remove access for anyone who leaves; and
• you will pass on to us any request from a student to access, correct or delete their data that you cannot handle yourselves.

Commercial terms between MealAdda and a mess, such as fees, are agreed separately. Where they conflict with these Terms, the separate agreement applies to the mess.

We work to keep MealAdda available and reliable, especially around meal times, but we cannot promise it will always be uninterrupted or error-free. It depends on internet connections, devices and third-party providers outside our control. We may carry out maintenance, and we may change, add or remove features. Messes should keep a manual way of recording meals in case the Service is unavailable.

Keep the app up to date. Older versions may stop working when the Service changes.

The Service, including the app, its design and the MealAdda name and logo, is owned by MealAdda and protected by law. We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the app for its intended purpose while you have an account. Messes keep their own names, logos and content.

If you downloaded the app from the Apple App Store, Apple’s standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies, and Apple has no obligation to provide support or maintenance for the app. If you downloaded it from Google Play, Google Play’s terms also apply.

• Your mess may deactivate your account, for example when you leave the hostel or your plan ends.
• We may suspend or close an account that breaks these Terms, puts the Service or other users at risk, or where the law requires us to. Where appropriate we will tell your mess first.
• You may stop using the Service at any time and ask for your account to be deleted — see how to delete your account.
• When an account is closed, records may be kept as described in our Privacy Policy. Parts of these Terms that by their nature should continue — such as payments, disclaimers and liability — continue to apply.

To the extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. We give no warranty that it will meet every need, and we are not responsible for the food, service, pricing, refunds, decisions or conduct of any mess or its staff. Nothing in these Terms limits any rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 or other laws that cannot be excluded.

To the extent permitted by law, MealAdda is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of data, profit or goodwill, arising from your use of or inability to use the Service. Our total liability to a student for any claim relating to the Service is limited to ₹1,000. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or any other liability that cannot be limited by law.

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Please contact us first so we can try to resolve any concern informally. If a dispute cannot be resolved, it will be subject to the jurisdiction of the competent courts in India, without affecting any right you have to bring a consumer complaint where you live.

We may update these Terms as the Service changes. The effective date at the top shows when they last changed. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept the updated Terms.

If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.

For questions about your plan, meals, payments or refunds, contact your mess office. For questions about these Terms or the MealAdda app, write to support@mealadda.in.