This policy explains what R638.co.za collects, why, who else touches it, and what you can require of us. It is written to meet the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
R638.co.za is an independent South African food safety utility site operating from Cape Town. It publishes a free R638 self-assessment checklist. It is not a certification body and not a Registered Environmental Health Practitioner.
We do not collect payment details. We never ask for passwords. The checklist PDF is built inside your own browser, so its contents are never uploaded to us.
Our legal ground under POPIA is your consent, given by ticking the box and submitting the form. You may withdraw it at any time.
Some of these providers process and store data outside South Africa. We do not sell your information to anyone, and we do not share your form submissions with the suppliers listed on this site unless you specifically ask us to introduce you.
The site itself sets no cookies to make the checklist work. Google Analytics sets cookies to count visits. If advertising is running, Google and its partners may set advertising cookies. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings without losing access to the checklist.
Form submissions are kept until you ask us to delete them, or until they are clearly of no further use. Aggregate analytics data is retained according to Google's own retention settings.
You may ask us to show you what we hold about you, correct it, delete it, or stop contacting you. Ask through the enquiry form on the home page and we will action it. There is no charge.
If you are unhappy with how we handled it, you can complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa). Their details are published at inforegulator.org.za.
The checklist is a self-assessment tool. It is not legal advice, not food safety consulting, and not a Certificate of Acceptability. Compliance with Regulation R638 of 2018 remains the responsibility of the food business operator. For a formal Certificate of Acceptability, contact the Environmental Health Services department of your local municipality.
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Material changes affecting how we use existing submissions will be notified by email to anyone affected.