RESOURCE CENTRE
We are going to teach you how to audit your supplier. Ourselves included.
These seven guides answer the questions almost no food-service provider wants to answer, because answering them gives you leverage to negotiate better — with them and with us. We publish them anyway, for a simple reason: the buyer in this sector is not looking for the best caterer, they are looking not to get it wrong, and we would rather be the ones who help with that.
This is the executive version. The full guide, with the complete method and the sourced figures, is published in Spanish.
SEVEN PIECES
Each one answers a specific decision.
They are ordered by when they are usually needed: first understand the problem, then compare the options, then contract without getting it wrong.
CONTRACTING GUIDE
How to choose a canteen operator without getting it wrong
4 min read
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.
COMPARISON
Meal vouchers or an operated canteen: the comparison without spin
4 min read
Vouchers are simpler and carry zero operational risk for you. An operated canteen transfers that risk to the provider and returns two things vouchers structurally cannot: data on what your people actually eat, and the ability to act on health and absenteeism indicators.
TAX
Article 387-1 explained, with 2026 figures
3 min read
Payments a company makes to a third party for its employees' 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.
HIDDEN COST
What absenteeism really costs, and how to calculate it
4 min read
The cost of an absence is not the day of pay. It is the day of pay plus the cover, plus the productivity lost while the cover gets up to speed, plus the administrative time to manage it. Calculating only the first component understates the real figure by a wide margin.
FOOD SAFETY
What to require on food safety, point by point
4 min read
Resolución 2674 de 2013 entitles you to require a current sanitary licence for the production site, food-handling certificates for every operator, documented cold-chain control and batch traceability. Ask to see last Tuesday's temperature log: a system that exists is filled in up to yesterday.
COST STRUCTURE
How cost per meal is calculated, and what quotations hide
4 min read
A 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 sits far below the rest, one of those components was left out and returns later as an extra.
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
What a sanitary crisis protocol must contain
3 min read
A usable protocol defines three things 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 it is not written before the incident, it does not exist.
TO TAKE INTO THE MEETING
Checklist: 23 points to clear before signing with a food service operator
The actionable part of two of these guides, on a single printable sheet. No form and no email address.
The fastest way to apply all of this is to have someone apply it for you.
We survey your current operation on site and hand you a written report: how many services you actually need, in which time windows, with what logistics, and what you are overpaying for today. It is free, and the report is yours even if you stay with your current provider.