Certificate of Acceptability

The permit required under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act 54 of 1972 and Regulation R638 of 2018. It must be issued by the local authority where the food preparation premises sit, not where the company is registered.

Contribution per meal

Price less food, consumables, labour, distribution, energy and maintenance, before rent and overhead. R9.92 on an industrial meal and R0.09 on a government school meal by Year 5.

Contract-backed working capital facility

Finance advanced against signed contracts and certified invoices, underwritten on the client’s creditworthiness rather than the caterer’s balance sheet. It revolves against the debtor book rather than amortising.

CSD

The Central Supplier Database. Registration is a condition of bidding for any government contract.

Escalation clause

A contractual right to an annual price review tied to a published food inflation measure. The only real protection against input cost movement on a fixed-price contract.

HACCP

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — a systematic food safety methodology. An externally audited HACCP-based system is a Year 3 gate condition and a condition of institutional supply.

NSNP

The National School Nutrition Programme, feeding more than 9.9 million learners a day across 19 800 schools at a Treasury-set price of roughly R4.80 to R7.50 a meal.

PPPFA

The Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act 5 of 2000 and its 2022 Regulations, which set the 80/20 and 90/10 scoring applied to government catering tenders.

Prime cost

Food, consumables and labour as a percentage of revenue. The control metric of any catering business; 74.7 per cent falling to 72.1 per cent here.

SBD 3.3

The standard bidding document pricing schedule, which asks explicitly whether prices are VAT-inclusive or exclusive. Confusion here is a common cause of disqualification.

Section 20 limitation

The South African tax rule capping the set-off of assessed losses at the higher of R1 million or 80 per cent of taxable income.

SEDFA

The Small Enterprise Development and Finance Agency, the merged national small business funder. Requires CIPC registration, SARS tax compliance and a proposal in its own format.

Service level agreement

The contractual specification of service hours, dietary requirements, penalty clauses and audit rights. National groups compete on the ability to manage complex SLAs because those obligations are expensive.