Cookies & privacy

Your data will be controlled by Vegetarian Express who may provide services to you or communicate with you and is therefore regarded as a controller of your personal data.

The contact address of Vegetarian Express is: Vegetarian Express Ltd, Unit 7a, Odhams Trading Estate, St Albans Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD24 7RY UK

We may revise this Policy at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they are binding on you.

This Policy covers the following:

• Explanation of applicable data
• The information we collect and where we get it
• How we use the information we collect
• Grounds for using your personal information
• How we share information with third parties
• Retaining your information and how we secure it
• Your choices and rights
• Vegetarian Express Cookies Policy
• How long will cookies remain on my computer?
• Third party cookies

Explanation of applicable data

For the purpose of this policy, personal data refers to information that relates to an identifiable, living individual, including information such as an online identifier for example an IP address. The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) applies to both automated personal data and to manual filing systems, where personal data is accessible according to specific criteria, as well as to chronologically ordered data and pseudonymised data.

Data referred to in the GDPR as ‘special categories of personal data’ (previously termed ‘Sensitive Personal Data’) specifically includes the processing of genetic data, biometric data and data concerning health matters.

"Personal information" is therefore any information that can be used to identify you or that we can link to you and which we at Vegetarian Express have in our possession or control.

The information we collect and where we get it

Vegetarian Express collects and therefore processes the following personal information about you:

Information that you provide to Vegetarian Express

We will process personal information that you give to Vegetarian Express including when you email us or contact us through various methods as follows:

• Signing up for Vegetarian Express services: when you sign up for our newsletters, events or obtain any of our services, or when you contact us with queries, or respond to our communications the personal information you provide may include your full name, title, telephone number, email address and additional content, date and time of your email correspondence and information about your current or previous employers or your business.
• When providing Vegetarian Express services: if you are a client, partner or preferred supplier of Vegetarian Express you will provide us with personal information when you, or the company you represent, become a client, partner or preferred supplier and engage in a business relationship with us.
  When participating in recruitment activities: when you apply for any role with us, or with a client of ours if we are acting on their behalf, you may provide us with your full name, date of birth, nationality, education and qualification details, your gender, your CV, photograph, passport details, driving licence, marital status, home address and home telephone number, mobile telephone number and other details set out in your communications to us.
• To enable processing of payments and fraud prevention: Financial and Payment Data including bank account and other data necessary for processing payments and fraud prevention, including credit/debit card numbers, security code numbers and other related billing information.
• To enable equality and monitoring: When applying or joining Vegetarian Express then your sensitive personal data (that is, information about your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union activities, physical or mental health, sexual life, or details of criminal offences, or genetic or biometric data) may be collected in order to carry out monitoring and comply with the legal obligations.
• Applying for placements and work experience: When you apply to us you for any potential work placement you may provide us with details such as your name, email address, postal address and employment details.

Other information Vegetarian Express collect about you

Vegetarian Express uses CCTV for the purposes of detection and prevention of crime and understands that recording images of identifiable individuals constitutes as processing personal information. Where CCTV is used it will be done in line with data protection principles. Vegetarian Express will notify all colleagues and visitors of the purpose for collecting CCTV images via notice boards, letters and email, along with any retention rules on such data.

Vegetarian Express will also collect information about use of our services or when we otherwise interact or correspond with you. Vegetarian Express use various technologies to collect and store information when you communicate with us or visit our websites. We may, for example, collect information about the type of device you use to access the websites, your IP address and your geographic location, the operating system and version, your browser type, the content you view and features you access on our websites, the web pages and the search terms you enter on our websites. For information about how we use Cookies and the choices you may have, please see our Cookies Policy below.

Information Vegetarian Express obtain from other sources

• If you apply for a position with Vegetarian Express we may collect personal information relating to past employment, qualifications and education, opinions from relevant third parties about you, past employment history and other details about you which may be provided to us by a third party that provides background screening services on our behalf.
• If we collect or receive your personal information in the relation to our provision of any of Vegetarian Express services we might also receive information from third parties such as your employer, other parties relevant to the services we are providing and others such as regulators and authorities. That information could include your name, contact details, employment details and other information relevant to the services that we are providing.

How we use the information we collect

We may do the following with your personal information that we have gathered: deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you, and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you. We have a legitimate interest to study how customers use our services and which products they order to develop these, to inform our marketing strategy and to grow our business. This will help us ensure that we’re giving you what you want and that we stay ahead of the competition.

 We also promote our own content and features via third-party platforms such as social media sites like Facebook. We may also use your data with third-party providers that we might use, such as marketing or advertising partners, to find users who show similar preferences to you (this is known as lookalike modelling). We do not allow these partners to email you directly, or to use your data for any other purpose. We rely on legitimate interests as a legal basis for the processing of your personal data for the targeted promotion of our content on third-party platforms.

Vegetarian Express may also collate, process and share any statistics based on an accumulation of information held by us provided that any individual is not identified from the resulting analysis and the collation, processing and dissemination of such information is permitted by law.

Grounds for using your personal information

We rely on the following legal basis to process your personal information:

• Consent: Vegetarian Express may in some circumstances need your consent to use your personal information. You can withdraw your consent by contacting us.
• Obligations of a contract: Vegetarian Express may need to collect and use your personal information to enter into a contract with you or to perform our obligations under a contract with you.
• Legitimate interest: Vegetarian Express may use your personal information for what we identify as our legitimate interests.
• Compliance with the law: we may use your personal information as necessary to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

How we share information with third parties

We share personal information internally. We may also share your personal information outside the Vegetarian Express. This may include:

• Third party agents/suppliers or contractors, bound by obligations of confidentiality, in connection with the processing of your personal information for the purposes described in this Policy. This may include, but is not limited to, our IT and communications service providers, and insurance, pension or benefit providers if you are employed by us.
• Third parties relevant to the services that we provide. This may include, but is not limited to, counterparties to transactions or litigation, other professional service providers, regulators, authorities, governmental institutions.
• To the extent required by law, regulation or court order, for example, if we are under a duty to disclose your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation.

Your personal information may in some circumstances be transferred to locations outside of the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) as well as within it for the purposes previously described above. We do not transfer your personal information outside Europe as a matter of course however, where we have a requirement to transfer your personal information outside the EU/EEA, we will ensure that it is protected and transferred in a manner consistent with legal requirements applicable to the information by for instance:

• The country to which we send the personal information may be approved by the European Commission
• The recipient may have signed a contract based on “contractual clauses” approved by the European Commission, obliging them to protect the personal information , or
• Where the recipient is located in the US, it may be a certified member of the EU-US Privacy Shield scheme.

In other circumstances, the law itself may permit us to otherwise transfer your personal information outside Europe. In all cases, however, any transfer of your personal information will be compliant with the applicable data protection law in place.

Retaining your information and how we secure it

How long Vegetarian Express keeps your personal information will vary and will depend primarily on:

• The purpose for which we are using your personal information - we will need to keep the information for as long as is necessary for the relevant purpose
• Legal obligations - laws or regulation may set a minimum period for which we have to keep your personal information

Vegetarian Express will retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes that we collected it for and for Vegetarian Express to assert or defend against legal claims. The appropriate retention period is determined by the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Upon expiry of the applicable retention period we securely destroy your personal data in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Vegetarian Express ensures that the personal information that we hold is subject to the appropriate security measures.

Your choices and rights
You have a number of rights in relation to the personal information that Vegetarian Express hold about you and you can exercise your rights by contacting us directly. These rights include:

• Obtaining or accessing your data: Regarding the processing of your personal information and access to the personal information which we hold about you. Please note that there may be circumstances in which we are entitled to refuse requests for access to copies of your personal information. In particular, information that is subject to legal professional privilege will not be disclosed other than to our client and as authorised by our client.
• Correcting your data: Requesting that we correct your personal information if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Erasure of your data: Requesting that we erase your personal information in certain circumstances. Please note that there may be circumstances where you ask us to erase your personal information but we are legally entitled to retain it.
• Objecting/Restricting us processing: Requesting that we restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances. Again, there may be circumstances where you object to, or ask us to restrict, our processing of your personal information but we are legally entitled to refuse that request.
• Portability/Moving your data: In some circumstances, receiving some personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or requesting that we transmit that information to a third party where this is technically feasible. Please note that this right only applies to personal information which you have provided to us.
• Withdrawing your consent: In certain circumstances it may be lawful for us to continue processing without your consent if we have another legitimate reason (other than consent) for doing so.
• Lodging a complaint about processing: Complaining to the relevant data protection supervising authority (e.g. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) in the UK), if you think that any of your rights have been infringed by us.

[Last Updated; 13/01/22]

How to contact us and other important information

If you would like further information on the collection, use, disclosure, transfer or processing of your personal information by Vegetarian Express or the exercise of any of the rights listed above, please contact us. You can do this by:

• Writing to us: Vegetarian Express Ltd, Unit 7a, Odhams Trading Estate, St Albans Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD24 7RY UK
• Emailing us: privacy@vegexp.co.uk
• Telephone us: 01923 249 714

Cookies used on this site

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. The page below explains the cookies we use and why.

Our website will display a notice alerting you to our use of cookies and other similar technologies, the notice links to this policy. By using our website, you agree that we can place cookies on your device.

The cookies set place when visiting our website can be split into 3 types:

1. Essential Cookies

These cookies provide the functionality on our site to allow users shop. This includes adding products to baskets and allowing us to remember what products have been added to baskets.

2. Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to review how our website is used, so that we can measure and improve the way it works and its overall performance

3. Advertising and Targeting Cookies

These cookies allow us to personalise our advertising, this means that ads will be related to interests and shopping history. Without these cookies the site may not perform or look as expected and users may see advertising from us that is not relevant to their needs.

How long will cookies remain on my computer?

Cookies remain in the cookies file of your browser after the closing of the browser, and will become active again when the Site is reopened, until removed. The cookie(s) can be deleted at any time by you. The cookie(s) will not collect any information when you are not accessing the Site.

Third party cookies

The single session and persistent cookies are provided on our behalf by a trusted third party service provider to aid in the reporting of user behaviour on the Sites. This behaviour is analysed to provide an improved user experience. The information collected is not linked to personally identifiable information.

Vegetarian Express also use Google Analytics to help analyse use of Sites. Google Analytics generate statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored by users’ web browsers on their computer. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google hold this information and provide us access to it. Google’s privacy policy is at http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html

Cookie Name: basketid
Description: Used by our website to identify a selection of products added to a basket
Expiry: 24 hours

Cookie Name: productFavourites
Description: Used by our website to identify a selection of products added as favourites
Expiry: Session based

Cookie Name: productRestrictions
Description: Used by our website identify which products a visitor should be able to order
Expiry: Session based

Cookie Name: VegexAuthCookie
Description: Used by our website to handle login requests
Expiry: Session based

Cookie Name: __RequestVerificationToken
Description: Used by our website to support its security measures
Expiry: Session based

Cookie Name: _ga
Description: Used by Google Analytics to distinguish users
Expiry: 2 years

Cookie Name: _gac_55165807-4
Description: Used by Google Analytics to record marketing campaign data
Expiry: 90 days

Cookie Name: _gac_55165807-5
Description: Used by Google Analytics to record marketing campaign data
Expiry: 90 days

Cookie Name: _gat
Description: Used by Google Analytics to optimise data logging
Expiry: 1 minute

Cookie Name: _gcl_au
Description: Used by Google Tag Manager to link marketing source across website domains
Expiry: 1 year

Cookie Name: _gid
Description: Used by Google Analytics to distinguish users
Expiry: 24 hours