DIRECT ANSWERS
Everything you would ask in the first meeting, answered beforehand.
No detours and no redirecting you to a call. Where the honest answer is uncomfortable for us — the price, the age of the company, the certification we do not hold — it is here too.
About SAVIA
We start with the question you were going to ask anyway, and the one most suppliers avoid.
How long has SAVIA been operating?
The company was incorporated in Cartagena in 2026, and the team running it comes from the city's hotel sector: the corporate executive chef has more than 15 years in food operations and the general management comes from the same industry. We produce in kitchens holding a current sanitary licence and offer a 30-day pilot with free exit.
We would rather this answer sit here than have you find it at the chamber of commerce. Company age is public record, and a supplier who dodges the question is telling you something.
Where does SAVIA operate?
Cartagena de Indias and its metropolitan area, including the island zone. The rest of the Bolívar department is served by project. The service is delivered at the client's own premises: canteens, cafeterias and events inside your facilities.
Contracting and contractor risk
How to choose, what to require, what joint liability means in Colombia, and how to exit if it does not work.
How do I choose a canteen operator in Colombia?
Ask for four documents before comparing prices: a current sanitary licence for the production site, public liability insurance including product coverage, a written sanitary crisis protocol, and technical sheets for the preparations. An operator who cannot show them today will not have them on the day they are needed.
The most expensive mistake in this decision is comparing quotations that are not comparable. A price per meal may include or exclude tableware, thermal transport, service staff, special diets and the initial setup cost. Equalise the scope before you look at the number.
What is the minimum headcount to contract a canteen?
Daily food service under contract starts from 20 employees. If you would rather not sign a contract, DAILY delivery starts from 25 people per order, placed by 4:00 p.m. the previous day. The two minimums measure different things — headcount on one side, order size on the other — because they are different operations.
And if your company is smaller than that? There is still a way in: the events line has no headcount minimum and covers what a small company usually needs — a board meeting, a client visit, a celebration, a month-end close. Write to us with the date and the real number, even if it is eight.
Can we exit the contract if the service does not work?
Yes. The contract allows termination without cause and without penalty during the first 90 days, with 30 days' notice. Before that you can start with a 30-day paid pilot you may leave freely. After day 90 the same 30-day notice applies to both parties.
The reason we can offer this is the same reason you should ask for it: the burden of proof is ours, not yours. A supplier who asks for trust up front is moving the cost of checking onto you.
How can we verify how you operate before signing?
Before you contract, we walk you through the operating model, the quality and food-safety protocols, the service structure, the team accountable for it and the indicators the operation is measured by, together with the current sanitary documentation. And if you want to see the performance in a live operation, the 30-day pilot exists for that: you can exit without penalty.
What we do not do is open the production site to visits before signing, and we would rather say so here than have you find out by asking. Controlling the access of external personnel to processing areas is precisely one of the things Good Manufacturing Practices require — Resolución 2674 de 2013 — because every unplanned entry is a cross-contamination risk on food that is about to be served. Verification does not disappear with it: it runs on the same documents a sanitary auditor would review, and on the pilot, which happens at your site and with your people.
Are we exposed to our supplier's labour liabilities in Colombia?
Yes. Colombian law establishes joint liability of the contracting company for the labour and social-security obligations of its contractors. A provider that hires by the day or through intermediaries to reduce payroll charges is transferring that exposure onto your balance sheet, where your parent company's audit will find it.
We hire directly, with full social security from the first shift and no intermediate structures. It is not a differentiator we invented — it is the law, and a significant part of this sector does not comply with it. Ask any bidder for payroll evidence, not for a statement.
Cost and tax treatment
How the price is built, what a cheap quotation hides, and how article 387-1 works with 2026 figures.
How is the price per meal calculated?
The price per meal is built from raw materials, production and service labour, thermal transport, tableware and disposables, the cost of the production site, administration and margin. When one quotation is far below the rest, it is almost always because one of those components was left out and reappears later as an extra.
The three most frequently omitted in this sector are the initial setup, the additional cost of special diets, and the Sunday and night-shift labour surcharges, which in 2026 weigh considerably more than in previous years because of the Colombian labour reform.
Is employer-paid food taxable income for the employee in Colombia?
Not within limits. Payments a company makes to a third party for its people's meals are not taxable income for the employee up to 41 UVT per month per person — COP $2,147,334 in 2026 — provided that employee's salary does not exceed 310 UVT, that is COP $16,235,940 per month.
This treatment is not exclusive to an operated canteen: meal vouchers and cards carry it too. The difference between the two options lies elsewhere. This is not tax advice — confirm the treatment with your tax function.
Meal vouchers or an operated canteen — which is better?
Vouchers are simpler and carry zero operational risk for you. An operated canteen transfers that risk to the provider and gives back two things vouchers structurally cannot: data on what your people actually eat, and the ability to act on health and absenteeism indicators.
If the objective is to deliver a benefit and nothing more, vouchers solve it. If the objective is to move an indicator — absenteeism, climate, turnover — vouchers have no mechanism to do so, because the money is spent wherever the employee decides and nobody measures what was eaten.
How much does the service cost?
We do not publish prices, because a price per meal quoted without knowing the operation is an invented number: it depends on volume, time windows, menu type, site logistics and special diets. You receive a proposal with pricing within 48 hours of the assessment visit.
Food safety and compliance
What an HSEQ auditor checks first, and what you should check before they do.
What does Resolución 2674 de 2013 entitle us to demand?
Resolución 2674 de 2013 governs the sanitary conditions of anyone who manufactures, processes, prepares and distributes food in Colombia. In practice it entitles you to require from your supplier a current sanitary licence for the production site, food-handling certificates for every operator, cold-chain control and batch traceability.
The point most often missed: if your operator produces in a third party's kitchen, verify whose name the sanitary licence is issued under and under what arrangement the operator is authorised to produce there. It is the first question a serious HSEQ auditor asks.
Is SAVIA HACCP certified?
Food safety is a pillar of how we operate: the processes are designed on HACCP principles, with preventive controls, traceability and monitored critical points, and certification is on route. That is exactly what we declare, and nothing beyond it. If a supplier declares HACCP, ask for the certificate number and its expiry date.
What happens if there is a food-safety incident at our site?
What you should require from any operator is a written protocol with three things defined in advance: who the single spokesperson is, how long it takes to isolate the affected batch, and who absorbs medical attention and investigation costs. If the protocol is not written before the incident, it does not exist.
A zero-incident absolute policy is a clause that triggers on a case not attributable to the operator. What is defensible, and what serves both parties, is a conduct commitment with response times rather than a promise of an impossible outcome.
Running the service
Shifts, deliverables and mobilisation times.
Do you cover night shifts and weekends?
Yes. The operation is designed around the client's actual shift pattern, night shifts and weekends included. The labour surcharges for those hours are built into the price from the proposal and remain visible: under the 2026 Colombian labour reform a Sunday service costs considerably more, and hiding that only defers the problem.
What do we receive each month besides the food?
An executive report within the first five business days: participation per employee, menu-cycle compliance, the satisfaction measurement result, incidents for the period and — the section no operator includes — what went wrong and what was done about it.
That report is what allows an HR director to justify the spend internally, and it is also why the contract gets renewed without a price argument.
How quickly can you start?
The estimate is two weeks from signature for a standard operation, and we call it an estimate rather than a commitment because we do not yet have a reference operation that would let us guarantee it. The firm date is set in the proposal, after the assessment, once we know your site.
Your question is not here?
Write to us and we answer in under an hour during business hours. If the question is useful to others, we add it to this page.