Find your Certificate of Acceptability office
The “food licence” every South African food business needs is issued by your municipality’s environmental health office. Find yours.
Only 52 of South Africa’s municipalities issue the Certificate of Acceptability: the 8 metros and the 44 district municipalities. No government site lists their environmental health offices in one place. We compiled them from each municipality’s own website and documents. Type your town and get the right office’s phone, email, application form and fee.
Selling food without a registered company?
Most municipalities ask for your business details on the application, and suppliers and landlords will too. Govchain registers your company online for R950, usually within a few days.
What a Certificate of Acceptability is
The Certificate of Acceptability (CoA) is the legal document that says your premises meet the hygiene standards in Regulation R638 of 2018, issued under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act. Anyone who handles, prepares, stores, sells or transports food needs one before trading, and R638 defines “premises” broadly enough to cover a spaza shop, a home kitchen, a caravan, a market stall or a delivery vehicle, not just a restaurant.
You apply to the municipality, an Environmental Health Practitioner inspects the premises, and once you comply the certificate is issued in the name of the person in charge. It must be displayed on the premises. It is not transferable: a new address, a new owner or a major renovation means a new application. Trading without one can bring fines, notices or closure of the business.
The wrinkle that catches most people: not every municipality issues CoAs. Environmental health is a metro and district function, so if your business is in, say, Vereeniging, your local municipality is Emfuleni but your CoA comes from Sedibeng District. That mapping is exactly what the lookup above does.
CoA, business licence, zoning: three different documents
A CoA is not a licence to trade. Cape Town’s own FAQ goes out of its way to say so. If you prepare meals or sell perishable food, you usually need all three of these:
| Document | Who needs it | Where to apply |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Acceptability | Anyone handling or preparing food | Environmental health office (metro or district; use the lookup above) |
| Business licence | Selling meals or perishable food (Businesses Act 71 of 1991) | Your local municipality’s licensing office |
| Zoning approval | Premises not already zoned for business (home kitchens especially) | Your local municipality’s planning department |
The good news is the business licence and zoning usually sit in the same municipal building, a different counter from environmental health. Ask about both when you call.
How the application works
- Find your environmental health office. That is the lookup above; it also shows the application form where the municipality publishes one.
- Get the form. Seven authorities publish a PDF; most issue it when you phone or visit. Cape Town runs the whole application online through its e-Services portal.
- Submit with your documents. Typically a certified copy of the ID of the person in charge and a simple layout plan of the premises. Requirements vary a little by municipality, so confirm when you get the form.
- Pass the inspection. An Environmental Health Practitioner visits and checks hygiene, food storage, pest control and waste handling against R638. If something falls short, you get a list to fix by a deadline, then a re-visit.
- Display the certificate. Once issued, it goes up on the premises where customers and inspectors can see it.
What it costs
There is no national fee. Each municipality sets its own, and the spread is wide. Johannesburg and Cape Town issue the certificate free. Among the other metros, Mangaung charges R467, Ekurhuleni R969 and Tshwane R2,152. Districts that publish fees range from Overberg’s R610 for a small premises up to R3,640 for a supermarket, and Ehlanzeni goes to R5,400 for large premises. Zululand, unusually, charges per year rather than once-off: R220 a year for an informal trader.
Most district municipalities publish no fee at all. The card in the lookup tells you what we found for your authority, and where nothing is published the honest answer is to ask the office. These amounts come from each municipality’s tariff schedules as at July 2026; municipal tariffs change every July with the new budget year, so treat the office’s quote as final.
Common questions
How do I get a Certificate of Acceptability in South Africa?
How much does a Certificate of Acceptability cost?
How long does it take to get a Certificate of Acceptability?
Can I transfer a Certificate of Acceptability?
All 52 offices
Every issuing authority has its own page with contacts, the application form and the towns it serves.
Eastern Cape
KwaZulu-Natal
Mpumalanga
Contact details on this page come from each municipality’s own website and official documents, last verified July 2026. Municipal phone numbers and email addresses change often. If one lets you down, tell us and we’ll fix it. See also our guide to the licences you need to sell food.