Diner reports and your safety profile

GFMapper shows you what diners actually reported, not a computed score. This page explains the marks you'll see on listings: the signals that sum up diner reports, the ingredient notes for oats and wheat starch, and the safety profile that checks every search against the criteria you choose.

What the signals mean

After eating somewhere, diners answer specific questions about what they asked the staff and what they saw. Each answer becomes a dated report, and each signal sums up diner reports for one part of the kitchen: the fryer, the kitchen, the staff, and the menu and ingredient information.

• ✓ Only good reports. At least one positive report on record, and nothing contradicting it.
• ! Reports disagree, or there aren't enough reports yet. Read them for more detail.
• ✕ A problem was reported, nothing contradicts it.
• ○ No reports yet.

We never turn the signals into a verdict. Tap any signal to read the dated reports behind it, in the diners' own words, and decide for yourself. Dedicated gluten-free restaurants show a single signal labeled "Claim" instead, since there is no shared kitchen to report on part by part.

Ingredient notes: oats and wheat starch

Diner reports also cover two ingredients that matter to many people even in a gluten-free kitchen: oats and gluten-free wheat starch. These appear as short notes next to the signals:

• ✓ "No oats" or "No GF wheat starch." Diners report the ingredient isn't used.
• "Uses oats · certified" or "Uses GF wheat starch." The ingredient is used in gluten-free form, noted without a warning mark.
• ⚠ "Uses oats · not certified." Uncertified oats carry a cross-contamination risk, so this note gets a warning mark.

These notes never change the signals. If you avoid oats or wheat starch entirely, the Oat-Free and Wheat-Free filters cover them. Our definition of dedicated gluten-free explains why we track these two ingredients separately.

Your safety profile

The safety profile is a personal checklist that applies to every search. You choose the practices that matter to you, and every result shows how much of your checklist has reports on record.

It's built from the same diner reports as the signals, and its editor groups the requirements by the same four parts of the kitchen: the fryer (a dedicated fryer), the kitchen (separate prep surfaces, separate cookware, protected ingredients, glove changes), the staff (cross-contact awareness, allergy training, and more), and the menu (a GF menu or marked items, allergen information). Items marked Bonus only ever count in a place's favor. You can also require no reported reactions within a window you choose: 90 days, 12 months, or ever.

With the profile on:

• Each result shows a match line such as "✓ Meets your profile", "Meets 2 of 9", or "No reports yet". The line tells you how many of your criteria have reports on record, nothing more.
• Nothing is hidden. Places that don't meet your profile collapse into a separate row you can expand, sorted by the number of criteria met.
• Dedicated gluten-free restaurants show "Dedicated kitchen" instead of a count, since a dedicated facility doesn't have shared-kitchen practices to report on.

Your profile is saved on this device only. It never leaves your device, it works while logged out, and it survives resetting your other filters. The switch in the filter panel turns it off without losing your choices.

Putting it together: an example

Here's a made-up listing showing everything at once, and it's live: tap any signal to see the reports behind it. Willow & Rye doesn't exist; every report is invented for this example.

Reading it top to bottom:

• Fryer and Menu are green. Diners reported a dedicated fryer and a marked GF menu, and nothing on record contradicts them.
• Kitchen shows ! Reports about prep surfaces disagree, or there aren't enough of them yet. This is the signal that most rewards tapping: one diner saw a separate prep area, another saw a shared counter during a rush, and only reading both tells you what to ask about.
• Staff is a dashed placeholder. Nobody has reported on staff handling yet. Unknown is not the same as bad, and the profile treats them differently too.
• The warning chip says a diner reported uncertified oats. It doesn't change any signal; it's there so oat-sensitive diners can decide for themselves.
• The match line compares the record against a profile with four requirements. Two have supporting reports, so it reads "Meets 2 of 4", and the reason it isn't higher is named rather than hidden.

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A note on limitations. Signals, ingredient notes, and match lines describe user-submitted reports, not medical advice, and a match line is a count of evidence on record, never a statement that a restaurant is risk-free. Reports can be incomplete or out of date. Always independently confirm preparation practices with the restaurant, and see how we verify restaurants for how listings are classified.