Frequent questions

Delivery days change in the week running up to Christmas, so we can bring your festive food as close to the big day as possible.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll remind you of your Christmas delivery day. Look out for email reminders, a flyer in your box, and a note when you sign in to riverford.co.uk.

You don’t need to book a slot for Christmas deliveries. Simply place your order online, and we’ll deliver on your allocated Christmas delivery day.

All products available for Christmas will have a separate ‘Add for Christmas’ button. Clicking this will add the item to your Christmas week delivery. You can see what’s in your Christmas delivery underneath your usual ‘Next delivery’ basket.

Don’t wait too long to order; we work with small producers, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.

Please note: We’re delivering a few longer-life festive items (cheese boxes, wine, and cookbooks) early, to leave more space in our vans for your fresh festive food in Christmas week. When you click 'Pre-order' on these items, the delivery date will be displayed. Just hang on to them after they’re delivered; all food and drink will last until the big day.

If an item says ‘sold out’ it is, unfortunately, gone. We work with small-scale growers and makers, and supplies are limited. We’ve stopped taking orders from new customers, and extended supplies as far as possible – but with demand from loyal customers at its current level, even our extended supplies of some items have sold out very quickly. We try to replenish stocks if we can, but there are no guarantees.

With another lockdown on the way, and demand from loyal customers surging, we decided to simplify our festive range by removing Christmas dinner boxes. You can still buy all the items you’d get in a Christmas dinner box – you just need to order them individually.

We’re sorry for the inconvenience; we know it’s nice being able to get the whole lot sorted in one click. But removing these complex products will really ease the pressure on box packing and delivery teams – protecting our co-owners, and helping us deliver to more loyal customers this Christmas.

You don’t need to book a slot or pay a deposit. Simply add whatever you want to your Christmas order online, and as soon as you reach our minimum spend of £15, your delivery is secure.

You’ll be charged for your Christmas order two days before your Christmas delivery day. This is the same as our normal payment process through the year.

Yes. To change your address for your Christmas order, please get in touch with our team at the farm through the live chat on our website, by emailing help@riverford.co.uk or calling 01803 227 227

There are no deliveries between Christmas and New Year, so you might want to order extra to see you through. Deliveries will resume from Monday 4th January, on your normal delivery day.

Do you have a regular order delivered fortnightly, three-weekly or monthly? Check whether it falls in the week we aren’t delivering. If so, you might want to place a one-off order for the first delivery day in January, or change the date your order is due – otherwise you’ll have a long gap without veg!

In the coming weeks, look out for reminders of your Christmas and New Year delivery days: through a flyer in your box, emails, and a note when you sign in to riverford.co.uk.

Because of the latest lockdown, we've seen a surge in demand. To make sure we can meet demand and look after our loyal customers, we’ve temporarily stopped taking on any new customers. Sorry about this. We’d love to have you with us as soon as we’re able; new customers can join our waiting list, and we’ll get in touch when we can take your order.

We've had to reduce our range so we can deliver essentials to as many people as possible. We've focused on the fresh food that we do best, and that we have the most reliable supply of. This new range might not include everything you used to order, but it will allow us to keep you well stocked with fresh essentials from now on.

Coronavirus is not considered a food safety issue by the Food Standards Agency or the European Food Standards Authority. Our main focus is on limiting the risk of spreading the virus through human contact.

Your driver will leave your veg box in a safe place and will only knock on the door if specified in your delivery instructions - and in this case they will stay the recommended two meters away from you.

Please help us by leaving recycling where we can pick it up without human contact. We already maintain very high standards of hygiene, but have briefed our teams to go above and beyond as an extra precaution.

Go to the item you want to order, click the ‘Add’ button, and select ‘Once only’ for frequency. This will add the item to your next delivery, but not to your regular order.

You can change the quantity and frequency of your items by looking at the ‘Next delivery’ section on every page (down the right hand side, or at the top of the screen if you’re on mobile) and selecting ‘Change’ on an item.

If you have ordered the item as a one-off in your next delivery, you can use the +/- buttons to change the quantity. Setting this value to zero will remove the item from your next delivery.

If the item is in your regular order, on-screen instructions will pop up with two sections. The top section is your regular order. Underneath that is an option to ‘Edit Next Delivery only’.

If you want to remove the item from all future orders, use the top +/-buttons to change the quantity in your regular order. If you want you want to change the quantity in your next delivery only, click 'Edit Next Delivery only'. There you can use the +/- buttons to change the quantity in your next delivery. Setting this value to zero will remove the item from your next delivery and not affect your regular order.

Selecting “Confirm” will save any changes made to your order.

Every time you make a change or add something to your deliveries, you will be asked to press ‘Confirm’. You’ll then see either a confirmation message, or a warning message if there’s a problem, at the top of your ‘Next delivery’ section.

To check what’s coming, simply open the site back up and your next delivery will appear on screen. If this week’s delivery is en route, you’ll see ‘Today’s/Tomorrow’s delivery’ listed first, then ‘Next delivery’ (i.e. the following week) beneath that.

Each time you add an item to your order, on-screen instructions will pop up with choices for quantity and frequency.

To add an item to your regular order, not just as a one-off, choose the frequency you would like (i.e. ‘Every week’ or ‘Every 2 weeks’) and click ‘Confirm’. This will secure that item in your deliveries for the weeks and months ahead.

You can make changes to your order online until 11.45pm two days before your delivery day.

Amending your regular order? Stock of some items is still limited, so we recommend adding the box you wish to swap to before removing your previous box, just to make sure there’s always a box secure in your order.

To remove an item from your order, simply click the ‘Change’ button on that item.

If you ordered the item as a one-off (not as a regular order), you will see one option for quantity. Use the +/- buttons to set this to zero. This will remove the item from your next order.

If the item is in your regular order, you’ll see options to edit your regular delivery at the top. Underneath is a button saying ‘Edit Next Delivery only’.

If you click ‘Edit Next Delivery only’ and set that value to zero, the item will be removed from your next delivery only – you will carry on receiving it regularly after that.

Setting the top value to zero using the +/- buttons will remove the item from your regular delivery, too.

If you’re removing an item from your next delivery, but not your regular order, don’t press ‘Once only’ – this will remove it from your regular order as well. Leave it as ‘Every week’, and just change the quantity in next week’s delivery to zero.

Click ‘Confirm’ to save any changes made to your order.

These changes will be confirmed in your order confirmation email, titled ‘What’s coming’. The top of the email shows your next delivery – if you scroll down, we also list what’s in your regular order.

If an item says ‘sold out’ it is, unfortunately, gone. We work with small-scale growers and makers, and supplies are limited. We try to replenish stocks if we can, but there are no guarantees.

To swap to a different box just in your next delivery without risking your regular order, click ‘Change’ on the box in your regular order.

On-screen instructions will pop up with two sections. The top section is your regular delivery. Underneath that is an option to ‘Edit Next Delivery only’ – click that.

Use the +/- buttons to change the quantity in your next delivery to zero.

Next, go to the box you want to swap to, click the ‘Add’ button, and select ‘Once only’ for frequency. This will add the replacement box to your next order.

To help you decide when you might like to swap, once a week we email out what’s coming in all next week’s boxes. If you haven’t already opted into our emails, you can change your communication preferences in your account (the person icon in the top right of the website).

If you’d like to keep things fresh and alternate boxes, you can use our frequency options to mix up your order. Simply click ‘Add’ on one of the boxes you would like to receive regularly.

The on-screen instructions will pop up with choices for quantity and frequency; select ‘Every 2 weeks’, and the date that you’d like this to start from.

On the second box you’d like on the alternate weeks, follow the same steps – but be sure to adjust the date to the following or previous week than the first box is arriving.

Any changes you make to your order will be confirmed in an order confirmation email, titled ‘What’s coming’. The top of the email shows your next delivery – and if you scroll down, we also list what’s in your regular order.

You can also see what’s in your order whenever you’re signed in to our website. Your next delivery will show down the right-hand side of the page (or at the top of the page if you’re on a mobile), with your regular order detailed underneath.

When you’re signed in to the website, you’ll see your ‘Next delivery’ down the right-hand side of the page (or at the top of the page if you’re on a mobile).

To cancel just your next delivery, click ‘Remove all items’. This will not affect your regular order.

If you want to cancel several deliveries in a row, without losing your regular order, you can pause your deliveries. Click ‘Pause deliveries’ (next to ‘Remove all items’), choose a start and end date, then tap ‘Confirm pause’.

You can change your order online up to 11.45pm two days before your delivery. To change your order by phone or email, your local veg team will need two working days’ notice. Cut-off times:

• Monday delivery: phone or email by Friday 5pm, online by Saturday 11.45pm
• Tuesday delivery: phone or email by Friday 5pm, online by Sunday 11.45pm
• Wednesday delivery: phone or email by Monday 5pm, online by Monday 11.45pm
• Thursday delivery: phone or email by Tuesday 5pm, online by Tuesday 11.45pm
• Friday delivery: phone or email by Wednesday 5pm, online by Wednesday 11.45pm

You can also get in touch with us at the farm (call 01803 227 227, or email help@riverford.co.uk) until 5pm two days before your delivery day. In exceptional circumstances and at our discretion, we can cancel orders until 1pm the day before your delivery, but will charge a one-off sum to go towards the cost of preparing your order at the farm, which happens the day before delivery:

• £5 for orders up to £25 in value
• £10 for orders £25-100 in value
• £20 for orders over £100 in value

Because of the way we pack and deliver, unfortunately we can’t cancel an order after 1pm on the day before your delivery.

You can place a one-off order – however, we recommend setting up a regular weekly or two-weekly delivery. This is the best way to secure your deliveries for the weeks and months ahead.

If you’re going on holiday, you can pause your order on the app or online by 11.45pm two days before your delivery day, or by phone or email to your local veg team by 5pm two days before delivery.

To pause your order online or on the app, navigate to the bottom of your ‘Next delivery’ list and tap ‘Pause deliveries’. Choose a start and end date, then tap ‘Confirm pause’.

If you want to change or stop a pause that you have set for your next delivery, just tap ‘Unpause now’. If the pause is scheduled to start on a future date, tap ‘Edit pause’ at the bottom of your ‘Next delivery’ list.

If you order any of our set boxes, there is no minimum spend. If you prefer to build your own box, there is a minimum order of £15 (without meat).To build your own meat box, the minimum meat order is £15. Once your meat order reaches £15, you can add any number of non-meat products.

No – box contents are fixed. We plan our veg boxes over a year in advance, allowing us to minimise waste, keep prices low, and – most importantly – keep our buying commitment to the other organic farmers who help us keep our boxes full and interesting.

Although you can’t swap items, you can set up Veg Alerts in Your Account. Pick up to three fruit and veg you’d like to avoid, and we’ll let you know in your weekly order reminder email if we expect your chosen box to include them, so you can pause or swap boxes.

Occasionally we have to make a change to your box contents because of weather or yields, so first check that we haven’t substituted an item for something else. If something is missing, please let us know and we’ll replace it free with your next delivery. Please ring your local veg team (find their details on your account page), or call us at the farm on 01803 227 227.

When signing in, if you have forgotten your password, click on the ‘Forgotten your password?’ link, where you will be prompted to enter your email address. If you have an account with us we will send you an email with a link to reset your password. If you haven’t received an email or are still having problems logging in please contact customer services on 01803 227 227 or email help@riverford.co.uk.

Occasionally our password-reset email may be misidentified as junk mail. If it doesn't turn up in your inbox don't forget to check your junk folder.

If you have not placed an order for a long time we may deactivate your account. You can have it reactivated by contacting your local veg team or calling customer services on 01803 227 227.

Our website is designed so you don’t need to keeping signing in and out. After you’ve signed in once, you stay signed in, making it really easy to quickly change your next order. If you would like to sign out, select ‘Your account’ to find the sign out option.

At the bottom of the ‘Next delivery’ section you will see a link to ‘Pause deliveries’. Simply choose the dates you want to start and finish the pause. We’ll email you five days before your orders are due to restart.

If you want to change or stop a pause that you have set for your next delivery, just select ‘Unpause now’. If the pause is scheduled to start on a future date, select ‘Edit pause’ at the bottom of your ‘Next delivery’ list.

If you're moving house, you can change your delivery address from ‘Your Account’, under 'Delivery details'. The option won't be available if you have debt or credit on your account, a delivery on its way, or a pause on your orders. We may also pause this option at times when we're coordinating high numbers of deliveries, such as Christmas. In these cases, 'Your Account' will direct you to send us a message on webchat, give us a ring on 01803 227 227 or email help@riverford.co.uk.

You don’t need to be home when we deliver your box. If you need to change the delivery instructions for any reason, please give us a ring on 01803 227 227 or email help@riverford.co.uk.

To find out what to return to us for reuse, and how to dispose of the rest of your packaging responsibly, visit our Packaging page.

We deliver from quite early in the morning up until dinner time on your delivery day. To minimise food miles, our local veg teams (we never use couriers) deliver to everyone in an area on a set day once a week, calculating their routes to maximise efficiency. Delivery is often at a similar time each week – traffic and weather permitting!

You don’t need to be at home – more than 70% of our customers are out when we deliver. Just let your local veg team know where you’d like them to leave your box if you’re not in. We’re used to all sorts of requests. This could be anything from leaving your box with a neighbour or in a shed/garage, to tucking it under a hedge, behind a dustbin or under upturned recycling boxes. Our insulated packaging will keep chilled items like meat and dairy cool until you get home.

We very rarely miss a delivery, so don’t panic if it’s a bit later than usual. If it’s very late, please ring your local veg team (find their details on your account page), or call us at the farm on 01803 227 227. We’ll find out what has happened and try to put it right.

We work hard to bring you outstanding produce – but fresh organic fruit and veg aren’t always perfect. We try to catch any problems early, but if something slips through, please don’t suffer in silence. Let us know so we can put it right and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Please ring your local veg team (find their details on your account page), or call us at the farm on 01803 227 227.

We post box contents on the website every Friday. We also email every week telling you what’s on the way, so you can check whether you’d like to stick with your chosen box, swap to another, or add any extras. We try very hard to stick to the planned contents, but the unpredictability of nature means that we must occasionally make last-minute changes. You can always find the latest box contents here.

Every week, we list what we’re planning to put in all our veg boxes for the next week, to help you choose which to order. We try our very best to deliver what we’ve planned – but with fresh organic produce, sometimes things can change at the last moment. Bad weather, crop damage; lots of things can mean that we sometimes have to swap an item from your box.

Wherever possible, we try to choose a fruit or veg that can play a similar role in your kitchen to the one replaced (a salad veg for a salad veg, for example). We also alert you to the swap in your box – either on a little note of its own, or highlighted on the list of veg attached to your farm newsletter, depending on the box.

If you’re not happy with an item that’s been swapped in your box, please do get in touch with our team at the farm and let us know.

All you need is salt and pepper, oil for frying and roasting (e.g. sunflower), olive oil for dressing, and occasionally a splash of milk. You’ll also need basic kitchen equipment: a range of pans, chopping board, sharp knife, veg peeler, wooden spoon and tongs/spatula. If a recipe calls for something else, we’ll list it on the website and the recipe card. We assume you have a 4-ring hob, oven and grill.

Almost everything has a minimum of 5 days’ shelf life, but it depends on the product and how we've packaged it. Everything comes labelled with a use-by date for you to follow. We also recommend you freeze any meat you won’t be eating within a couple of days, especially mince, sausages, and burgers. It will stay very tender and flavourful after defrosting.

Payment will be taken automatically using the payment info you set up online. For your first order, payment is taken immediately. After your first order, we take payment for each order the day before it’s delivered. We’ll send you a receipt by email when any payment is taken.

As a customer your orders can be modified at any point until 11:45pm two days before your delivery. To make modifying your order straightforward Riverford use your stored card to take payment on the day before delivery for only the items that you have ordered. If we didn't store the information, we would have to ask you for payment or refund you every time your order was updated. We believe that the approach we use gives the best experience for customers.

To maintain the highest level of security, we never store or have visibility of your card details. We use a method called client-side encryption to take your card details. This means that your card details are encrypted on your device before they are sent to Riverford. This encrypted data is sent to our payment provider (WorldPay) ensuring that we are never able to see your card details.

Our payment provider gives us a ‘token’ which can only be used to take payment from your card to a Riverford bank account. If this token were stolen, it would be of no value to anyone else; it can only be used by Riverford to take a payment from your card.

All transactions and communication between your browser and our website are encrypted using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol which is standard in all modern web browsers. Where you have chosen a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. Do not share your password with anyone and change it regularly.

The data that we collect from you is stored within the European Economic Area (EEA). We take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy. Where we share your data with third parties, that information may be held outside of the EU but remains under the jurisdiction and strict principles of the GDPR.

To update your payment information, please go to your account or give us a ring on 01803 227 227.

To redeem your Riverford gift voucher, you need to give us a ring at the farm on 01803 227 227 and quote the unique code on the back of the voucher. Our team will apply the value of the voucher to your account, and it will automatically go towards the cost of your next order. Riverford vouchers cannot be redeemed in Ben’s Farm Shops, or The Riverford Field Kitchen.

We will email your receipt to you on the morning of your delivery. Your receipt may arrive before your delivery. If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with us on 01803 227 227, or email help@riverford.co.uk.

Everything we grow, make and sell is organic, except our wild fish.

Wild-caught fish can’t be certified as organic, because the conditions under which it’s grown can’t be controlled (it’s the sea!). The only certified organic fish is farmed fish, which is reared in enclosed environments.

All our wild fish is line caught. Line-caught fishing is both low impact and selective; there is no damage to the seabed, and by-catch of unwanted species is very rare. As we don’t use nets, there is no risk of lost ‘ghost’ nets which entangle and kill marine life on reefs and in the open sea.

All our eggs are Soil Association accredited organic. We decided years ago that the welfare standards of some other organic certifications were unacceptable (for example, flock sizes were too large, or debeaking was still permitted). Soil Association organic hens are never mutilated, are kept in small flocks, and have constant daytime access to clean organic pasture. Their diet is all organic and natural; they are never fed fishmeal or artificial yolk colourants. From time to time, a producer may feed their hens organic vitamins, derived from organic fruit. The Soil Association certifies this practice.

Organic eggs aren’t usually Red Lion approved. The Red Lion stamp - which isn’t a legal requirement - verifies that a flock has been vaccinated against salmonella. Blanket vaccinations are usually necessary in non-organic flocks; high stocking densities and poor hygiene conditions make the birds more vulnerable to infections. Organic farmers keep their flocks in exemplary conditions, preventing the underlying factors that lead to infection in the first place. Blanket vaccinations aren’t permitted; instead, organic farmers routinely test their flocks for salmonella, and if any is found, individual hens are isolated and treated. Our suppliers would tell us if they thought they had an infection in their flock.

We never air freight any produce. As much of our range as can be is homegrown (around 80% of our veg in an average year). When we do import, it's mostly from growers in France and Spain. The carbon impact of importing naturally grown ingredients by road and sea can be significantly lower than growing using artificial heat in this country. Learn more at Making Riverford Sustainable.

The Riverford Privacy Policy can be found here: Privacy Policy.

The data that we collect from you is stored within the European Economic Area (EEA). We take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy. Where we share your data with third parties, that information may be held outside of the EU but remains under the jurisdiction and strict principles of the GDPR.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers, except payment card information. To maintain the highest level of security, we never store or have visibility of your card details. We use a method called client-side encryption to take your card details. This means that your card details are encrypted on your device before they are sent to Riverford. This encrypted data is sent to our payment provider (WorldPay) ensuring that we are never able to see your card details. Please see the Payments frequent questions for more information on the use of payment cards.

We will hold your personal information on our system for as long as is necessary for the processing of our contractual obligations with you or when you give consent for us to keep your account open.

We keep your account open for a period of 37 months after your last order or last delivery. During this time, we will continue communicating with you as outlined by this policy unless you actively close your account or update your preferences.

At 36 months after your last order, we will email you to check if you’d like to keep your account open and continue hearing from us. If you do not respond, we will remove your details from our active database and you will no longer receive any communication from us. If your account is closed either as part of our retention process or as a request under Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation your personal information will be held securely on a deactivated basis for the remainder of our legal obligations to meet government financial and audit regulations for a maximum of 7 years unless there is an extended legal basis to retain for longer.

Should you wish to become a Riverford customer in the future, you will be prompted to set up a new account.