These Terms govern your relationship with us across everything we do — not only your use of our websites. They apply to our certification and assessment services, the issuance, maintenance, and verification of credentials, our training and publishing, and your relationship with us as a candidate or holder of a CAIBOK credential. By registering for an assessment, sitting an assessment, holding or using a credential, purchasing from us, or using our websites, you agree to these Terms, our published standards, and the Privacy and Cookie Policies.
The provider and contact details are set out in the Company & Contact Information section above.
You may register for the credential whose published eligibility requirements you meet. We do not require any particular course or provider as a condition of assessment. You must give accurate, complete, and current information. Where a credential requires evidence of experience or current practice, you will provide the required curriculum vitae, professional references, and signed attestation, and you authorize us to verify your submissions, including by contacting references and employers and auditing a sample of applications. Misrepresentation is grounds for denial, suspension, or revocation, and forfeiture of fees.
Purchase of membership, training, a voucher, or any other product does not confer a credential and does not entitle any person to one. It confers eligibility to sit the assessments to which the purchase provides access. A credential is conferred only on meeting the published requirements, which includes passing the required assessments. Candidates fail, and a failed candidate receives no credential.
You must be at least 16 to register for a CAIBOK assessment or credential. If you are 16 or 17, a parent or legal guardian must review and accept these Terms on your behalf and consent to your participation, and a parent or guardian must consent before you take any proctored assessment. We do not require biometric identity verification of minors.
You will comply with our examination rules and the conditions stated for each assessment in our published standards. Prohibited conduct includes cheating, using unauthorized materials or assistance, impersonation or having another person sit an assessment, and copying, recording, reproducing, distributing, or disclosing examination content. Examination content is our confidential property and intellectual property. We may void any result obtained through prohibited conduct, refuse or cancel a credential, and bar a person from future assessment. Pass marks, the number of permitted attempts, and related rules are set out in our published standards.
Senior-level assessments are proctored, with identity verification and a monitored session. By sitting a proctored assessment, you consent to verification of your identity and to monitoring and recording of the session, including capture of your image and identity document, for examination-integrity purposes. This data is handled as described in the Privacy Policy. We do not require biometric identity verification of minors.
Fees are set out in our published fee schedule and are payable when due. Membership is refundable within 14 days of purchase, provided that no exam has been started. Certification fees are non-refundable once an exam has been opened. Membership provides access to assessment; it does not by itself confer a credential. Retakes, recertification, and reinstatement are governed by our published policies. A failed assessment does not entitle you to a refund.
Training marketplace. Black Belt Chef operates an online training marketplace on which independent instructors publish and sell their own courses. Instructors receive a share of the revenue from sales of their courses, and the platform retains the remainder; the current rates are set out in our published schedules and instructor agreement. Independent instructors’ courses are training only — they are not CAIBOK certification, are not required for any credential, and are not endorsed by CAIBOK.
Referral and affiliate program. Registered users may be issued a personal referral link and coupon code. Where a qualifying Black Belt Chef training purchase is attributed to a referrer, the referrer may earn an attribution commission, funded from the platform’s own share of that sale. An explicitly entered code takes precedence over any passive referral attribution. Self-referral, misrepresentation, and other abuse may be disqualified. No commission, referral, or affiliate payment is ever earned on any CAIBOK certification, membership, examination, recertification, or credential-verification fee.
Vouchers and bulk purchasing. Approved wholesalers may create vouchers — codes that function as coupons tied to a pre-arranged payer. Creating a voucher does not itself transfer any money. When a voucher is redeemed, the pre-arranged payer’s payment method is charged at that time for the Black Belt Chef and/or CAIBOK items the voucher covers, and access is granted to the redeeming user. A voucher is not credit, is not a stored-value or gift instrument, carries no cash value, and is not refundable except as required by law. Unredeemed vouchers expire after a stated period (currently thirty days) and result in no charge. By arranging to be billed for a voucher batch, the payer authorizes us to charge their payment method for each redemption. Where a voucher covers both training and certification items, each is charged to the applicable Black Belt Chef or CAIBOK account, and a redemption is completed only if all covered charges succeed; if any charge fails, the redemption is declined and any charge already taken for that redemption is reversed. Where a redemption results in a charge to a pre-arranged payer, any refund due under the refund terms above is made to that payer, whose payment method was charged, and not to the redeeming user. A redeeming user who did not pay us has no refund claim against us; their remedy, if any, lies with the party who provided the voucher.
Discounts. Any discount applied through a coupon or voucher is funded by Black Belt Chef and applies to training purchases; a discount is never funded from, and never reduces, any CAIBOK certification, membership, examination, recertification, or verification fee.
Independence of certification. Consistent with our Commercial Firewall Policy, CAIBOK certification, assessment, and credential-verification decisions are made solely on the merits and are never influenced by any purchase, discount, commission, referral, voucher, or training. Marketplace revenue share, referral commissions, and voucher arrangements apply to Black Belt Chef training only.
On meeting a credential’s requirements, we issue a verifiable digital credential. The credential and our names, logos, and certification marks (“Marks”) remain our property; you receive a limited, revocable license to display the credential truthfully while it is valid. You may state the level and credential you hold. You may not alter or misrepresent the credential, claim a level you have not earned, use the Marks except as we permit, or state or imply that we endorse your business, products, or services beyond the fact of the credential. On expiry, suspension, or revocation, your right to display the credential and the Marks ends, and you will stop representing yourself as currently certified.
A core purpose of certification is that others can rely on it. By earning a CAIBOK credential, you authorize us to confirm and validate your certification status — including the credential you hold, its level, and whether it is currently valid — to any person who requests it, including employers, recruiters, regulators, and partners, and to display that status in our public credential-verification register. We confirm only your factual certification status and the information reasonably necessary to validate it. This authorization continues for as long as you hold, or have held, a credential, so that the integrity and verifiability of CAIBOK credentials are preserved. We handle the personal data involved in verification as described in the Privacy Policy.
Each credential is valid for one year and is maintained through continuing education rather than re-examination, with one exception: the annual White Belt food-safety examination, which every certificant retakes each year. A grace period follows the annual deadline, after which a lapsed credential may be reinstated through our defined process and fee. You are responsible for meeting recertification requirements and deadlines.
You complete our annual continuing-education requirement in the distribution set out in our published standards. Continuing education may be earned from any approved source; our own content is never required, and you can always meet the requirement through activities that involve no purchase from us or our affiliates. You maintain a continuing-education log with attestation, and we audit a random sample.
Certificants uphold the CAIBOK Code of Professional Ethics, published at chef.caibok.org/ethics and incorporated into these Terms. The Code states the minimum standard of conduct required of a certificant, and identifies matters that are expressly not breaches. Conduct in breach of the Code, or conduct that brings us or our credentials into disrepute, is grounds for discipline under Section 12.
We may suspend or revoke a credential for examination misconduct, misrepresentation, breach of the Code of Professional Ethics, failure to meet recertification requirements, misuse of the credential or the Marks, or conduct materially harmful to our integrity. Decisions are made under the published Discipline and Appeals Procedure. On suspension or revocation you will cease using the credential and the Marks, and we will update your status in our public verification register. The register records certification status only; we do not publish the grounds for, or any particulars of, a suspension or revocation. You may appeal under Section 13.
You may appeal an examination result, an eligibility determination, or a suspension or revocation, under the published Discipline and Appeals Procedure. An appeal is reviewed by a person not involved in the original decision, and the outcome is given in writing. We also maintain a process for receiving and resolving complaints about our certifications, our certificants, or approved content.
All of our examinations, content, standards, materials, and Marks are our intellectual property. Any study materials you purchase are licensed for your personal, non-commercial use only; you may not reproduce or distribute them. Examination content may not be reproduced or disclosed in any form.
A CAIBOK credential attests that you demonstrated competence against our published standards at the time of assessment. It is not a guarantee of employment, income, advancement, job placement, or competence in any particular workplace, and we make no such promise. A CAIBOK credential is not a government license and may not satisfy any food-safety, health, licensing, or regulatory requirement imposed by any jurisdiction; you are solely responsible for identifying and meeting the legal and regulatory requirements that apply where you work. Except as expressly stated, we provide our assessments, credentials, content, and services “as is,” and disclaim all warranties to the maximum extent permitted by law, including any implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages. Our total aggregate liability arising out of your assessment, your credential, or these Terms is limited to the amount of fees you paid to us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim. This section does not limit liability that cannot be limited by law.
You will indemnify us against claims and reasonable costs arising from your misuse or misrepresentation of a credential or the Marks, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of law.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Nevada, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Except as provided below, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms is resolved by final and binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (or, where you are outside the United States, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution), before a single arbitrator, seated in Clark County, Nevada, conducted in English. To the extent permitted by law, you and we waive any right to a jury trial and any right to bring or participate in a class, collective, or representative action. We may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect our examination content, intellectual property, or Marks.
We may update our published standards, fees, and these Terms. Material changes take effect on notice; your continued participation after the effective date is acceptance.
The following are referenced in these Terms and are published at stable locations:
Electronic acceptance is valid and enforceable under the U.S. E-SIGN Act, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, and the EU eIDAS Regulation, as applicable. We may assign or transfer these Terms to a successor or affiliate, including any entity to which CAIBOK or Black Belt Chef is transferred or that is established for our operations within or outside the United States; you may not assign. If any provision is unenforceable, it is narrowed or severed and the rest remains in effect. These Terms, together with our published standards and the Privacy and Cookie Policies, are the entire agreement on this subject.
This policy explains how we collect and use personal data across everything we do — our websites, our certification and assessment services, the issuance, maintenance, and verification of credentials, and our training and publishing — and throughout our relationship with you, not only when you visit a website. It applies to candidates, certificants, customers, site visitors, affiliates, and board members.
Depending on how you interact with us: identity and contact details (name, email, postal address, phone); account and registration data; professional and eligibility information for certain credentials (CV, employment history, references, attestations); examination data (responses, results, attempts); identity-verification and proctoring data for proctored examinations, which may include images of you and your identity document and a session recording; continuing-education and recertification records; payment information (card payments are handled by our payment provider; we may not store full card numbers); technical and usage data (IP address, device and browser information, cookies); communication and marketing preferences; for affiliates, tax documentation (W-9 or W-8) and payment details; and for board members, professional credentials, biography, and declarations of interest.
To register and assess candidates and issue and maintain credentials; to verify identity and eligibility and protect examination integrity; to confirm and validate certification status to third parties who request it and to maintain our public verification register; to process payments; to operate recertification and continuing education; to communicate with you and provide support; to send marketing where permitted; to improve our services; and to comply with law, prevent fraud, and protect our rights and the integrity of our credentials.
Where the EU or UK GDPR applies, we rely on performance of a contract; our legitimate interests (verifying eligibility, protecting examination and credential integrity, enabling third parties to rely on our credentials, and running our business), balanced against your rights; legal obligation (such as tax and record-keeping); and consent (for certain marketing and, where required, for identity-verification or biometric data). Where we process special-category or biometric data, we rely on your explicit consent or another lawful condition.
We use cookies and similar technologies as described in the Cookie Policy.
We share personal data with service providers who process it on our behalf under data processing agreements (for example, examination, proctoring, learning-platform, hosting, payment, email, and analytics providers); with references and employers we contact to verify eligibility; with employers, recruiters, regulators, partners, and other persons who request confirmation of your certification status, and through our public credential-verification register, which may display a certificant’s name and current credential status; with affiliates and partners on a limited basis; with legal and regulatory authorities where required; with a buyer or successor in a sale or reorganization; and among entities affiliated with us, including any entity to which CAIBOK or Black Belt Chef is transferred. We do not sell your personal data for money. Some U.S. state privacy laws define “sharing” broadly to include the use of advertising cookies; where we use such cookies (see the Cookie Policy), you can opt out as described in “Your rights” below.
We operate globally, and your personal data may be transferred to and processed in the United States and other countries whose laws may differ from those where you live. For transfers from the EEA or UK, we use appropriate safeguards, such as the Standard Contractual Clauses, and you may request information about them.
We keep personal data only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected and to meet legal, audit, and verification requirements:
Where we no longer need personal data, we delete or anonymize it.
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your personal data; to restrict or object to certain processing; to withdraw consent; and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal data or limit the use of sensitive personal data. Some rights have limits: because verifiable credentials are central to what we do, we retain and may continue to confirm the factual record of a credential you have earned even after other data is deleted. You will not be discriminated against for exercising your rights. To make a request, contact us using the details in the Company & Contact Information section above; we may need to verify your identity, and an authorized agent may submit a request for you. If the EU or UK GDPR applies to you, you may also lodge a complaint with your data protection authority.
Our services are intended for individuals aged 16 and over, and you must be at least 16 to register. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16; if we learn we have, we will delete it. Because a person under 18 generally cannot enter a binding agreement, anyone aged 16 or 17 may use our services only if a parent or guardian reviews and accepts our Terms on their behalf and consents to their participation. We do not require biometric identity verification of minors, and a parent or guardian must consent before a minor takes any proctored assessment.
We may update this policy. We will post the updated version with a new effective date and, where required, notify you of material changes.
Membership is refundable within 14 days of purchase, provided that no exam has been started. Certificate fees are non-refundable once an exam has been opened.
You may have only one exam in progress at a time. If you pass an exam you may immediately start another. If you fail or cancel (abandon) an exam, a 2-week lockout applies to all exams.
Subject exams may be retaken for free (subject to the 2-week gap after a fail). Proctored capstone exams — Red Belt, Black Belt, and the Restaurant Management Certificate — include your first attempt in the price; each retake is $29, and cancelling a proctored capstone uses your included attempt.
To earn a belt or certificate you must pass all of its subject exams and its capstone exam (75% to pass). The capstone becomes available only after you have passed the required subject exams.