Details About Cookies

Details about cookies used on this site.

This website puts small files (known as ‘cookies’) onto your computer to collect information about how you browse the site. Find out more about the cookies we use, what they’re for and when they expire.

Cookies that measure website use

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

We do not allow Google to use or share the data about how you use this site.

Google Analytics stores information about:

  • how you got to the site
  • the pages you visit and how long you spend on them
  • what you click on while you’re visiting the site
Name Purpose Expiry
_gat_UA-nnnnnnn-nn This is a pattern type cookie set by Google Analytics, where the pattern element on the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. It appears to be a variation of the _gat cookie which is used to limit the amount of data recorded by Google on high traffic volume websites. 0
_gid This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics. This appears to be a new cookie and as of Spring 2017 no information is available from Google. It appears to store and update a unique value for each page visited. 1 day
_ga This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics – which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners. 730 days
_gclxxxx Google conversion tracking cookie. 90 days
_gat This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics, according to documentation it is used to throttle the request rate – limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites. It expires after 10 minutes. 0

Cookies that help with our communications and marketing

Some of the pages on this website may contain content from other sites, like YouTube or Facebook, which may set their own cookies. These sites are sometimes called ‘third party’ services. This tells us how many people are seeing the content and whether it’s useful.

In addition, if you share a link to a page on this site, the service you share it on (for example, Facebook) may set a cookie. We have no control over cookies set on other websites – you can turn them off, but not through us.

Name Purpose Expiry
_gat_gtag_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Google Analytics 0
_fbp Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers 90 days

Third party cookies that help with our communication and marketing

We may serve cookies from some or all of the following third party providers. Please visit their websites for more information about the cookies they set.

s7.addthis.com, facebook.com, addthis.com, cdn.syndication.twimg.com, doubleclick.net, youtube.com, df0a5d63ab294e718e69a24463d3a4a8.svc.dynamics.com.

Cookies that remember your settings

These cookies do things like remember your preferences and the choices you make, to personalise your experience of using this site:

Name Purpose Expiry
__atuvc This cookie is associated with the AddThis social sharing widget which is commonly embedded in websites to enable visitors to share content with a range of networking and sharing platforms. It stores an updated page share count. 1 year
__atuvs This cookie is associated with the AddThis social sharing widget which is commonly embedded in websites to enable visitors to share content with a range of networking and sharing platforms. This is believed to be a new cookie from AddThis which is not yet documented, but has been categorised on the assumption it serves a similar purpose to other cookies set by the service. 0

Strictly necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Name Purpose Expiry
PHPSESSID PHP session cookie associated with embedded content from this domain. End of session
exp_csrf_token This cookie is used by Cloudflare to identify trusted web traffic. 1 day
exp_last_visit This cookie name is associated with the website content management system Expression Engine. Most likely to do with tracking or recoding visitor activity. 1 year
exp_last_activity This cookie name is associated with the website content management system Expression Engine. Most likely to do with tracking or recoding visitor activity. 1 year
exp_tracker This cookie name is associated with the website content management system Expression Engine. Most likely to do with tracking or recoding visitor activity. End of session
exp_fss_allergen_training_session This cookie remembers users' positions when they use the allergen training tool. 1 year
exp_fss_tutorial_session This cookie remembers users' positions when they use the healthy eating tutorial tool. 1 year

Cookies message

You may see a banner when you visit foodstandards.gov.scot inviting you to accept cookies or review your settings. We’ll set cookies so that your computer knows you’ve seen it and not to show it again, and also to store your settings.

Name Purpose Expiry
Cookie Control Recording which cookies users are willing to accept. 3 months

Change your settings

You can change which cookies you’re happy for us to use by clicking on the ‘C’ in the bottom left corner of the page and updating them in the banner.