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Cookie policy

Last updated: 24 August 2023
See all updates
Last updated: 24 August 2023
See all updates

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Our website puts small files (known as ‘cookies’) onto your computer to collect information about how you browse the site.

Cookies are used to:

  • measure how you use the website so it can be updated and improved based on your needs
  • remember the notifications you’ve seen so that we don’t show them to you again
Cookies on food.gov.uk aren’t used to identify you personally.

You can change which cookies you’re happy for us to use:

Find out more about how to manage cookies.

Cookies on food.gov.uk and ratings.food.gov.uk

Strictly necessary cookies

SessionID

Name: JSESSIONID  and PHPSESSID
Purpose: used to maintain an anonymous user session by the server
Expires: after the end of the user session

Cookies message

Name: cookie-preferences, cookieconsent_dismissed
Purpose: used to remember whether or not you clicked accept or don’t accept for optional cookies
 

Cloudflare

Name: __cfduid
Purpose: set to identify trusted web traffic, it does not correspond to any user id in the web application, nor does the cookie store any personally identifiable information
Expires: 5 years

Further details on cookies set by Cloudflare.

Cookies that measure website use

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics software to collect information about how you use food.gov.uk. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements.

Google Analytics stores information about:

  • the pages you visit
  • how long you spend on each page
  • how you got to the site 
  • what you click on while you’re visiting the site

We don’t allow Google to use or share our analytics data.

Name: _ga
Purpose: helps us count how many people visit food.gov.uk by tracking if you’ve visited before
Expires: 2 years

Name: _gid
Purpose: helps us count how many people visit food.gov.uk by tracking if you’ve visited before
Expires: 24 hours

Name: _gat
Purpose: used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made. This cookie does not store any user information
Expires: the expiry settings are set by Google

Name: _utma
Purpose:  lets us know if you’ve visited before, so we can count how many of our visitors are new to food.gov.uk or to a certain page
Expires: 2 years

Name: _utmb
Purpose: works with _utmc to calculate the average length of time you spend on food.gov.uk
Expires: 30 minutes

Name: _utmc
Purpose: works with _utmb to calculate when you close your browser
Expires: when you close your browser

Name: _utmz
Purpose:  tells us how you reached food.gov.uk (for example from another website or a search engine)
Expires: 6 months

SiteImprove

Name: nmstat
Purpose: statistics about site usage such as when you last visited the site
Typical content: randomly generated number
Expires: 1000 days after last visit

Name: AWSELB / AWSELBCOR
Purpose: set by SiteImprove to determine the sequence of a user's page views to understand user journeys
Expires: when you exit your browser

Cookies that help with our communications and marketing

YouTube cookies

We use YouTube to provide videos on some pages of the site. YouTube sets cookies when you visit one of these pages.

Name: use_hitbox
Purpose: randomly generated number that identifies your browser
Expires: when you close your browser

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
Purpose: lets YouTube count the views of embedded YouTube videos
Expires: 9 months

Please note that if you already have YouTube cookies you can’t remove them by changing settings on our cookie consent page. To remove existing cookies, you will need to clear the cookies in your browser.

Further details on the cookies set by YouTube.

Cookies on other FSA websites

Cookies on other FSA websites can’t be managed from the cookie consent page on food.gov.uk. You can manage cookies when you are on these websites using the browser control.

Find out more about how to manage cookies.

Food allergy and intolerance training (allergytraining.food.gov.uk)

Name: MoodleSession
Purpose: provides continuity and maintains user login from page to page
Expires: when you log out or close your browser

Name: MoodleID
Purpose: records the username when you log in and allows the username field to be automatically filled in the next time you visit

Name: _ga
Purpose: helps us count how many people visit allergytraining.food.gov.uk by tracking if you’ve visited before
Expires: 2 years

Name: _gid
Purpose: helps us count how many people visit allergytraining.food.gov.uk by tracking if you’ve visited before
Expires: when you close your browser

Name: _gat
Purpose: used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made
Expires: when you close your browser

MyHACCP web tool (food.gov.uk/myhaccp)

Name: SESS[Unique ID]
Purpose: allows logging in and interacting with the MyHACCP service; essential for MyHACCP site functionality
Expires: 23 days

Register a food business service

Name: connect.sid
Purpose: used to persist registration data
Expires: 24 hours

Name: _gid
Purpose:  helps us count how many people visit the service by tracking if you’ve visited before
Expires: 3 days

Cookies on Scientific Advisory Committees sites

Scientific Advisory Committees (SAC) sites have their own cookie policy.

Find out more about cookies on SAC sites.

Other websites and services we link to may set additional cookies and, if so, will have their own cookie policy. This includes other government services and social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.

GovDelivery subscription service

We use govDelivery (Granicus) communication services to issue emails to our subscribers (opens govDelivery website). Cookies and other technologies apply when you open or interact with emails delivered through the govDelivery services. 

Read the govDelivery subscriber cookie statement.