Privacy policy

This policy applies to the personal data that we process about you as a natural person. This policy does not apply if we process anonymous or business data.

We are Puratos NV/SA, with our registered office at Industrialaan 25, 1702 Groot-Bijgaarden, Belgium, and registered in the register of legal entities under the number BE 0438 632 416, phone number: +32 2 481 44 44, e-mail : info@puratos.com.

We are the ‘controller’ for the processing of your personal data

We expect that you only communicate personal data about yourself to us. If you also communicate personal data about other people to us, then you must ensure that you are entitled to do so.

We also expect that the personal data that you communicate to us is correct and that, if specific data changes, you promptly inform us of this change.

The purposes for which we process your personal data depend on how you enter in contact with us.

You browse on our website

• We process information about your use of our website, in order to remember your choices, manage and improve our website. We refer to our cookie policy for more information about this.

You contact us (e.g. by filling in a form on our website, by sending us an e-mail)

• We process your personal data in order to answer and manage your request (e.g. request for information, subscription to our newsletter, complaint). This processing is based on your consent.

You create a personal account on our website or purchase Puratos products/services

• We process your personal data for client management, based upon the performance of the contract to which you are a party. Without your personal data, we cannot perform this contract.
• We may also process your personal data for the direct marketing of our products/services, based upon our legitimate interests. We believe that it is important to keep you, as our client, informed about our products/services. This processing may involve compiling a profile. This profiling has no effect on you, except to the extent that this processing activity might lead to enhancement of customer experience and personalized offers, which is an advantage for you. The provision of your personal data for this purpose is not a requirement and you can object to this processing (see article 8 below).

You subscribe to a Puratos activity 

• We may process your personal data when you register for a Puratos activity (eg an event, a workshop or a webinar) because this is necessary for the performance of our agreement with you to organize this activity. We may do this in collaboration with commercial partners with whom we may share your data based on their legitimate interest in knowing who is registering. 
• We may also use your personal data for direct marketing of our business based on our legitimate interests. We consider it important to keep you as our customer informed about our activities. This processing may consist of the creation of a profile. Creating a profile does not affect you, except that this processing can lead to an improved customer experience and tailored offers, which is an advantage for you. The provision of your personal data for this purpose is not a requirement and you can object to this processing (see article 8 below). 

Your registration for and participation in the Puratos Sensory programme

The Puratos Sensory programme aims at helping us to better understand consumers’ food expectations and taste preferences. We give you the opportunity to taste our products, to participate in group discussions, to be interviewed and/or to answer certain questions. Your feedback allows us to improve our products and services as well as those of our partners. To that extent, we process the following categories of personal data:

• your contact details (e.g. your name, postal address and email address) for sending products and questionnaires. This processing is based upon the necessity for performing our agreement with you. Without your contact details, we are unable to register your participation in the Puratos Sensory programme.
• other personal data that you have provided to us by answering the questionnaires (e.g. your food habits). We process this personal data based on our legitimate interest in better understanding your preferences and that allows us to send you (questions about) products that might be of interest to you. You are not obliged to provide us with this information.
• personal data concerning your health or religious beliefs if you provide us with such information when answering questions that are related to such matters. We do this processing with a view to ensuring your safety (regarding food allergies) and respecting your beliefs (such as any food restrictions), in the context of your participation in our Puratos Sensory programme. We only process this personal data after we have received your explicit consent by answering such questions.
• the information you have provided us with by answering our questionnaires after tasting our products or during interviews or group discussions. This data will be processed based upon the necessity for performing our agreement with you as processing your feedback is part of the participation in our Puratos Sensory Programme. Once received we will pseudonymize and aggregate this data to gain more knowledge about what the public likes about our products or services (or those of our partners).

In any case

• We may process your personal data for the management of compliance and disputes (eg prevention of unlawful activities, prevention of abuse of the Puratos group’s resources, defense of legal claims).
• We may anonymize your personal data and process aggregate data for research and development, based on our legitimate interests (eg statistics about sales, market analysis, development of products/services). Within the Puratos group, we believe that research and development can lead to enhancement of customer experience, product improvement and innovation, which will help the persons concerned by our products/services (such as customers, distributors, suppliers and end consumers). The provision of your personal data for this purpose is not a requirement and you can object to this processing (see article 8 below). Research and development may involve compiling a profile. All identifying elements, such as your name, your address, etc., are eliminated. This profiling has no effect on you, except to the extent that this processing activity might lead to enhancement of customer experience, product improvement and innovation, which is an advantage for you.
• Puratos NV may also process your personal data as a controller, at a group level, for global management and global research, based on its legitimate interests, those of the other group entities and their stakeholders. We believe that this is necessary for the efficiency, consistency and continuity of the Puratos group operations and for the enhancement of customer experience, product improvement and innovation, which will help the persons concerned by our products/services and eventually contribute to safeguarding and promoting the economic, commercial, social and financial interests of the Puratos group. The provision of your personal data for this purpose is not a requirement and you can object to this processing (see article 8 below). 
  
• We may process your personal data for the direct marketing of our products/services and of the products/services of other companies of the Puratos group, based upon your consent, to the extent that you give such consent.

We can transfer your personal data to companies that are a part of the Puratos group, to companies that process personal data in our name and on our behalf (known as ‘processors’), to scientific institutions in the context of research, to third parties when there is a legal obligation to do so, to our commercial partners (eg when organizing a joint activity), and to the police or judicial authorities at their request if they are entitled to request the personal data. 

We can transfer your personal data to countries outside the European Union, including the United States. Each transfer will be based on appropriate safeguards (adequacy decision and/or standard data protection clauses of the European Commission). If you would like to know how to obtain a copy of the appropriate safeguards, you can contact us at the address stated above (article 2) or via dataprivacy@puratos.com.

Your personal data is retained for as long as you are in contact with us (e.g. you ask information, purchase our products/services, subscribe to our newsletter, register for our Puratos Sensory programme) and for up to maximum 10 years after the end of this relationship.

You can contact us to exercise the following rights, in accordance with the conditions laid down in the applicable legislation:

• Withdrawing your consent for the processing of personal data, to the extent that the processing of your personal data was initially based upon your consent.
• Seeking access to, or any correction, deletion or restriction of your personal data.
• Objecting to any processing for direct marketing and/or any processing based on the legitimate interests as processing ground (such as research, development and improvement of our products/services).
• Seeking the portability of your personal data, which you have communicated to us.
  

You can exercise some of these rights via the settings in your personal account with us (if you have such a personal account).

You can exercise all of these rights by contacting us at the address stated above (article 2) or via info@puratos.com.

You also have the right to file a complaint with a data protection authority.