According the the US Federal Trade Commission, effective Dec. 2009, all bloggers have to disclose any connection they might have to producers of products that they review. I just wanted to reiterate my policy, which is up on the About page…
Cooking Monster’s Code of Ethics
Here at Cooking Monster, we’re not averse to accepting food or products from people in the business, but we promise that if we ever do, we’ll disclose the fact in anything we write about. We do believe in using associate links to places like Amazon, in an effort to recoup some of the money we’ve invested in this project. Dollars to donuts, if there’s a link to a product on Amazon, there will also be our referral information. All of the opinions expressed on these pages will be our own, and we promise not to shill for any sponsor without completely disclosing that fact.
Since I started doing this blog, I have received some items from producers. So far, it’s been in the form of meat, from two mail order butchers. (And, technically, one was the result of a contest I won on another blog.) Both were written up on the blog, and both blog entries included notes about the fact that I received the product for free. I’ve also published countless links to Amazon, and I receive a small kickback every time one of you makes a purchase from them after you click the link. I’m also a member of Amazon’s Vine program. So far as I remember, none of the items I’ve reviewed have appeared on these pages, but if they ever do, I will post that fact.
