Terms, privacy & accessibility

This manual is offered free, as general education. In plain language: use it at your own risk, we collect nothing about you, and we try to make it usable by everyone. The details follow. Last updated October 16, 2026.

1. Terms of use and disclaimer

By using this site you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use it.

Educational content only

Everything here is general information, written for households planning and storing their own food. It is not medical, nutrition, dietary, allergy, legal or financial advice, and it is not a substitute for the judgment of a qualified professional for your specific situation. Households, kitchens, appliances and people vary; results will differ from what is described.

Personalized content

The "Your kitchen" boxes, the calculators and the seeded sheets are generated automatically from what you type into the setup form and from published figures. They are planning estimates, not guarantees. The storage times are federal guidance for food handled and kept at the stated temperatures; they do not say whether any particular food is safe. The USDA Food Plans figures are a reference for comparison, not a recommended budget.

Safety

• Refrigerator and freezer temperatures. Keep your refrigerator at 40 °F (4 °C) or below and your freezer at 0 °F (-18 °C) or below. Check both with an appliance thermometer, because most controls do not show the actual temperature.
• The 2-hour rule. Refrigerate perishable food and leftovers within 2 hours, or within 1 hour when it is above 90 °F (32 °C). Thaw food in the refrigerator, in cold water changed every 30 minutes, or in the microwave, not on the counter.
• Leftovers. Eat refrigerated cooked leftovers within 3 to 4 days or freeze them. Reheat leftovers to 165 °F (74 °C), and bring soups, sauces and gravies to a rolling boil. Cool large batches in shallow containers.
• Never taste to test. Never taste food to decide whether it is safe. Food that makes people sick often looks, smells and tastes normal. When in doubt, throw it out.
• Date labels. In the US, date labels other than on infant formula are about quality under federal guidance. Do not buy or use infant formula after its "Use By" date. Some states, including California from July 1, 2026, use "USE by" for safety; follow the meaning where you live.
• Damaged cans and home canning. Throw away cans that bulge, leak, spurt, or are deeply dented or dented on a seam, without tasting the food. This manual does not teach home canning; follow the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
• Food allergies. If anyone in your household has a food allergy, read the full ingredient label every time you buy a product, because ingredients change. "May contain" statements are voluntary. Cooking does not remove allergens; wash hands, tools and surfaces with soap and water. Follow the emergency plan from your doctor.
• Higher-risk eaters. People who are pregnant, older adults, young children and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk from some foods, such as deli meats, raw sprouts and unpasteurized milk. Ask a doctor what to avoid.
• Medical diets. If anyone in your household has diabetes, kidney disease, celiac disease, a food allergy, an eating disorder or another condition affected by food, plan meals with their doctor or a registered dietitian. This manual does not give nutrition advice.
• Power outages. During a power outage, keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed. A closed refrigerator keeps food safe for about 4 hours; a full freezer for about 48 hours (24 if half full). Discard perishable food that has been above 40 °F for more than 2 hours.
• Packed lunches. Pack lunches with perishable food in an insulated bag with at least two cold sources.
• Produce and raw meat. Rinse produce under running water without soap or produce wash. Do not wash raw meat or poultry. Use separate cutting boards for raw meat and for food that will not be cooked.

These notes summarize guidance from USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, the FDA, FoodSafety.gov, the CDC, the National Center for Home Food Preservation and Food Allergy Research & Education; the chapters link each source. Your state or country's food agency and your own doctor take precedence over anything on this site.

Third-party links and products

The site links to tutorials, suppliers, books and other resources we found useful. We do not control those sites, do not endorse or guarantee anything on them, receive no payment or commission from them, and are not responsible for their content, availability, accuracy or practices. Product and brand names mentioned belong to their respective owners and are used only to identify them.

No warranty; limitation of liability

The site and its content are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Field Assembly LLC, Reassembly and the people who made this site are not liable for any loss, injury or damage, direct or indirect, arising from your use of the site or reliance on its content. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of this may not apply to you.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute arising from the site or these terms will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Massachusetts, and you consent to their jurisdiction.

Changes and availability

We may change, pause or remove the site or any part of it at any time without notice. We have no obligation to keep it available or up to date.

2. Privacy

Short version: this site does not collect, store or sell any information about you. If you choose to email us, we receive your address and your message.

• No accounts, no sign-up. You never need to give us an email address to use the pages. There is nothing to join.
• No analytics, no tracking, no advertising, no cookies. The site sets no cookies and includes no third-party scripts, pixels or embedded content. Fonts are served from this site, not from a font service.
• Your setup stays on your device. What you type into the setup form, and the progress checkboxes, are saved only in your browser's local storage so the site can show them back to you. They are never transmitted to us. Clearing your browser data, or using the "Clear my setup" button, deletes them.
• Share links contain your setup. The "copy a link" feature encodes your answers into the web address itself so you can open them on another device or send them to a helper. Anyone who has that link can see those answers. Do not put anything in the setup form that you would not want in a link you share.
• If you email us, we use your address only to reply, and we do not add it to any list.
• Hosting logs. The site is hosted on Cloudflare, which, like any web host, processes technical request data (such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested) to deliver the site and protect it from abuse, under Cloudflare's privacy policy. We do not use that data to identify or track visitors.
• Links to other sites take you to services with their own privacy practices.
• Children. The site is not directed at children under 13 and we knowingly collect no information from anyone.

3. Accessibility

We want this manual to be usable by everyone, including people who use screen readers, keyboards, magnification or high contrast. The site is built to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AA. Specifically:

• Semantic HTML with headings, landmarks, lists and tables with header rows; a "skip to content" link; visible keyboard focus on every control.
• Every form field has a label; checkboxes and radio buttons are labeled; the menu button reports its state.
• Text and interface colors meet contrast minimums in both light and dark modes; information is never conveyed by color alone.
• Text resizes with browser settings; layouts reflow to narrow screens; no content flashes or moves on its own.
• Diagrams have text descriptions; icons in the navigation are decorative and accompanied by text.

Known limitations: wide reference tables scroll horizontally on small screens, and printable pages depend on your browser's print settings. If anything on this site is hard for you to use, please tell us through fieldassembly.net and we will try to fix it.

4. Copyright and sharing

© 2026 Field Assembly LLC. The text, structure and code of this manual are copyrighted. You are welcome to use the manual for your own kitchen, share the link freely, print pages for personal use, and quote short passages with attribution. Please do not republish the manual or substantial parts of it, sell it, or present it as your own. Linked third-party material belongs to its respective owners. The self-hosted fonts (Cormorant Garamond and Inter) are used under the SIL Open Font License.

Built by Reassembly for Field Assembly LLC.