Cookie policy
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
Change your cookie settings
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.
Cookies on websites we link to
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.
Revision log
Published: 19 May 2021
Last updated: 24 August 2023