NIGP 16561: Pasta Cookers and Machines

NIGP 16561 Pasta Cookers and Machines, an Item code, covers commercial kitchen equipment procurement by state and local entities, specifically including convection ovens, walk-in coolers and freezers with remote refrigeration systems, serving line assemblies, food preparation equipment, mobile racks, and ice machines for institutional foodservice operations. School districts represent the primary market segment soliciting under this code, with equipment specifications driven by K–12 cafeteria modernization and new construction projects. Issuing bodies typically require vendors to demonstrate five or more years of continuous operation supplying commercial kitchen equipment to educational institutions, provide multiple references from school district clients served within recent years, maintain $1 million commercial general liability insurance with 24-hour critical service response capability, and hold NSF certification, UL or ETL listing, and ENERGY STAR qualification on equipment. Award criteria weight pricing and cost structure heavily (40 points in the representative example), followed by technical compliance with food safety and accessibility standards (25 points), vendor qualifications and experience (15 points), and warranty coverage with minimum two-year comprehensive parts and labor terms (5 points).

Temple Independent School District in Bell County, Texas posted RFP00826 in March 2026 soliciting vendors to supply and deliver kitchen equipment for a new Temple High School cafeteria, including six customized serving lines, a walk-in cooler/freezer unit with remote refrigeration, convection ovens, ice machines, and thirty-one additional cafeteria fixtures for October 2026 delivery with installation provided by the general contractor. The RFP—due March 25, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. CST—was structured as a line-item bid permitting multiple vendor awards, encouraged single-source bids with volume discounts, and required firm fixed pricing through delivery with no escalation, fuel surcharges, or tariff adjustments. TISD applied open solicitation without specific set-aside designations but actively encouraged MBE, WBE, and HUB subcontracting participation, and imposed federal compliance requirements including Davis-Bacon prevailing wage and Buy American Act domestic procurement preferences.