At Olio, we love seeing our community uphold thoughtful and generous sharing practices 🫶. However, as a small team, we can only address behaviours that clearly pose a risk to our users and do not follow our rules.
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While some behaviours are desirable, they are not required, and reporting them will not lead to action unless they breach core safety or policy standards.
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Here are some examples of behaviours that we do not treat as violations and therefore do not need to be reported:

We don’t moderate listings that are UB/BB dates in the description of the listing. However, the date must be visible in the photo of the item, that’s mandatory for safety and transparency. If the date isn’t clearly shown in the image, please report the listing through a flag report.

We know it would be ideal for all listings to have clear titles and useful descriptions, but we don’t enforce specific rules on what these should be. We encourage users to help other users to improve the quality of their listings through kind communication, instead of reporting them.

It’s brilliant when volunteers re-list food, but we understand that not everyone can do this every time. Food might not be suitable for consumption any more, or the FWH might simply not be available. While re-listing is encouraged, it's not mandatory.

There are many valid reasons a Squad Captain might not currently have a collection slot or may live a bit further away. These factors alone don’t break any rules.
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A Squad Captain can still play a valuable role by supporting and motivating their team, even if they’re not collecting regularly. They might also step in occasionally to help cover emergency slots, even if they live further away.
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Only more serious concerns, such as inappropriate behaviour, unfair treatment of volunteers, or misuse of food should be reported via the Issue Report Form. For more guidance, see our Squad Captain FAQ.

We receive flags from Olio-ers worried that someone is holding an item in their hand in a listing photo. In most cases, this is absolutely fine, as long as the item is packaged. Holding a packaged item isn’t a hygiene risk on its own and it’s not against Olio’s guidelines, as long as it’s not being placed on an unsanitary surface like the floor, bedding, a sofa or clothing.
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🏬 At the collection site, ask a store colleague to bag the loose bakery for you, or use tongs or clean gloves.
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🏠 Once you’re home, please don’t handle or photograph it with bare hands. The best practice Olio strongly recommends is to keep loose bakery in its bag or packaging until the requester collects it. You can open the bag and photograph the items inside. There’s no need to sort or identify them, as loose bakery items shouldn’t be identified or named.
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That said, taking it out of the bag isn’t a rule break on its own.
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⚠️ It only leads to a formal warning if the items are placed on an unsanitary surface, such as a sofa, car seat, blanket, the floor or a chopping board.
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✅ On a clean, hard, wipeable surface, it’s fine.

Sometimes users report listings where the photo is just a close-up of the expiry date. While this isn’t ideal, it’s not against Olio’s rules.
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We require that the date is clearly visible somewhere in the photo, but we don’t enforce how the item should be presented alongside it.