Food & Treats category schedule

This schedule applies to your products in Food & Treats and forms part of your Master Seller Services Agreement. It covers: packaged food, baked goods, sweets, spices, tea and coffee, non-alcoholic drinks, fresh produce, prepared meals, catering and food hampers.

It does not cover: alcohol of any kind, tobacco products, food supplements or products making medicinal claims, and raw meat or fish unless Searchbox has approved your cold-chain delivery. These are not allowed unless Searchbox has given written approval after a separate review.

Before a buyer orders, each listing must show:

• Full ingredients list and allergens (such as nuts, gluten, milk, egg, soy, sesame, fish and shellfish), shown before the buyer orders.
• Net weight or quantity, and whether the food is home-made, made in a registered kitchen or bought in for resale.
• Shelf life or "best before" from dispatch, storage instructions, and reheating instructions for prepared food.
• Any claim such as "organic", "sugar-free", "Ceylon" or "traditional" must be true; health or nutrition claims are not allowed unless the law permits them.

• You must meet the Food Act, No. 26 of 1980 and its regulations, including registration of the premises where food is made, prepared or stored for sale where the regulations require it, and medical certificates for food handlers. [SOLICITOR: confirm whether and when home kitchens selling online must register.]
• Packaged food must be labelled as the Food (Labelling and Advertising) Regulations require. [SOLICITOR: confirm the gazette and any allergen-declaration rule.]
• Products such as canned fish, condensed milk and cordials must carry the compulsory SLS mark where required.
• If you learn that food you sold may be unsafe (for example contamination or an undeclared allergen), stop selling it at once, tell Searchbox and help contact affected buyers.
• You must hold any licence, registration or approval the law requires for what you sell and keep it up to date. Searchbox may ask to see it.

Set a delivery area and time that keeps the food safe. Do not offer islandwide delivery for perishable food that cannot travel safely. Change-of-mind returns do not apply to food once delivered, but buyers keep their rights if food is spoiled, unsafe, wrong or not as described on arrival.

Tell Searchbox before you start selling a materially different type of product in this category, and immediately if a product is recalled, found unsafe or the subject of a regulator's request. Stop selling it, help contact affected buyers and keep records of what you sold. If a product also falls under another category's rules, those rules apply as well.