Every price on Meals Prices passes through a 5-layer verification system before it reaches you. Here's exactly how it works.
No price goes live on Meals Prices without passing through all applicable verification layers. The number of layers a price must clear depends on its type and the magnitude of any change.
Every new price entry must be traceable to at least one primary source: the restaurant's official website, their verified mobile app, or a published menu from official brand channels. We do not accept social media posts, third-party blogs, or unverified user photos as primary sources.
New prices and significant changes are cross-referenced against a minimum of two additional independent data points. Our system automatically pulls pricing signals from multiple channels. For changes above 5%, a human reviewer cross-references against at least one additional verified source before approval.
Our automated plausibility engine evaluates every price change against our historical database. Prices that deviate unusually from established patterns are automatically flagged for human review rather than being automatically published. This prevents erroneous data from reaching users due to typos, currency errors, or data glitches.
For regional and branch-level pricing, community submissions play a verification role. A single user report is treated as unverified intelligence. Two or more corroborating reports from different users in the same region elevate a price flag to "Community Confirmed" status, triggering priority editorial review.
Significant price changes — those above 5%, affecting popular items, or driven by known industry events — receive final editorial sign-off before publication. An editor reviews the full verification chain, considers broader market context, and approves or holds the update. No algorithm alone can publish a major price change without human approval.
Our system automatically rejects or quarantines price data that meets any of the following disqualification criteria:
| Disqualification Trigger | Reason | Action Taken |
|---|---|---|
| Single-source with no corroboration | Insufficient confidence — could be typo or outlier | Held in pending queue until second source confirmed |
| Price change exceeds 15% in a single update | Statistically improbable for organic price movement | Auto-flagged, locked for mandatory editorial review |
| Source is anonymous social media post | Unverifiable, high potential for misinformation | Not accepted as a primary or secondary source |
| Submitted by account with prior false reports | Pattern of inaccuracy reduces credibility weighting | Submission flagged, requires 3rd party confirmation |
| Price below known cost floor for category | Mathematically implausible given ingredient costs | Auto-rejected with error logged for review |
| Data from restaurant-submitted sources | Conflict of interest — restaurants cannot control their listings | Treated as a tip only, requires independent verification |
Our correction queue is our highest-priority support channel. Every report is investigated.