July 15th 2021, Release Note: Adaco: Compliance with Natasha's Law

What's Changing?

New functionality to record detailed ingredient statements against purchased products, which are then included in an overall ingredient statement for recipes containing those products. This can then be used when creating and printing labels that display food products' ingredients.

Release date: 13th (EMEA) / 15th July (USA) 2021

Reason for the Change?

To help customers be compliant with Natasha's Law.

Customers Affected

All Adaco users.

• Enabled by Default? - Yes
• Set up by customer Admin? - No
• Enable via Support ticket? - No
• Affects configuration or data? - No

Release Note Info/Steps

To generate labels suitable for displaying the ingredients in pre-packaged food items there are 3 pieces of data that need to be entered.

1. Each product that is used in a recipe should have a weight conversion so that ingredients can put in weight proportion order on the label. 
2. Each product that is used in a recipe should have an ingredient statement entered showing what ingredients and allergens are in the product.
3. Each recipe that is produced for pre-packaged sale should have a label defined.

Example - Beef Burger

Each of the above data requirements is described below using the example of a Beef Burger (see Fig.1) which is produced in-house and packed for direct sale. For the purpose of this example, the recipe is made up of the following ingredients:

• A burger patty – this is a bought-in product containing other ingredients (as specified by the vendor/manufacturer)
• A burger bun – this is made in-house and consists of flour, yeast, salt and sesame seeds, all of which are bought-in products
• Lettuce – which is a bought-in product
• Tomato Ketchup – which is a bought-in product containing other ingredients (as specified by the vendor/manufacturer)

Fig.1 – The Beef Burger Recipe

Step 1 - Ensuring all Bought-In Ingredients have a Weight Conversion

The burger patty is purchased by the unit “Each”, so a pack unit of 227g is used to specify that 1 burger is equal to 227 grams - see Fig. 2.

Fig.2 – Burger Patty, pack unit 227g

The lettuce is also purchased by the “Each” so a pack unit of 100g is used to specify that 1 lettuce is equal to 100 grams - see Fig.3.

Fig.3 - Iceberg Lettuce, pack unit 100g

The tomato ketchup is purchased by the “bottle” and each bottle contains 500ml. The ratio of weight to volume for the ketchup is 1 ml = 0.95 grams so a subpack unit is used to convert ml to grams - see Fig.4.

Fig.4 - Tomato Ketchup, pack unit 500ml, subpack unit 0.95g

When printed on a label, the ingredients will be listed in descending order of total weight. Where an ingredient does not have a valid weight conversion it will be listed at the end of the ingredient list.

  It is strongly recommended that weight conversions are set up for all products used in pre-packed food for direct sale.

Step 2 – Ensuring that all Ingredients have an Ingredient Statement

Top-level ingredients will contain ingredients that could be either products (bought-in items) or sub-recipes. All ingredients within a top-level recipe should have an ingredient statement assigned, which will be used to list that ingredient in the top-level recipe.

Entering Ingredient Statements against Products

• When viewing a product, select Recipe and then the Ingredient Statement tab

The ingredient statement can either be obtained from the manufacturer or vendor or directly from the product packaging. The text and formatting entered in a product's Ingredient Statement will be shown in the label of any recipe that includes that product.

In the example below (Fig.5) the bought-in burger patty contains beef and rusk, and the rusk contains gluten. The product description is “FROZEN BURGER PATTY” but for the purposes of the ingredient statement, this will be listed simply as a "Burger Patty" along with its list of ingredients. "Gluten" has been added in bold and parenthesis after the ingredient name.  Whenever this burger patty is used in a recipe that has an Ingredient Statement label defined, it will be listed as “Burger Patty (Beef, Rusk (Gluten)), as shown in Fig.5.

Fig.5 - Product Ingredient Statement for Burger Patty

• In the Recipe master form select the Instructions tab (bottom-left corner)
• Then select the Ingredient Statement tab (bottom-right corner)
• Enter the ingredient statement into the right-side panel, named Ingredient Statement
  • Enter the name that the sub-recipe will refer to when included in a higher-level recipe as an ingredient
  • The name used in the ingredient statement may not necessarily be the same as the recipe name
  • Follow the name with the special # character, enclosed in parenthesis which will be substituted with the list of sub-ingredients making up that recipe when the label is printed

In the example below (see Fig.6) the sub-recipe called “HOMEMADE BURGER BUN” will be listed as an ingredient in any higher-level recipes in which it is used as “Burger Bun”, followed by its ingredient list which will be derived from the ingredients contained in the sub-recipe.

Fig.6 - Homemade Burger Bun Ingredient Statement

Below are some recommended best practices when entering an ingredient statement against either a product or a recipe:

• Use a consistent font, font colour and font size for all ingredient statements, as the specified font will be carried up to the final recipe ingredient statement
• First, enter the name of the ingredient as it is to appear in the ingredient list, followed by the ingredient list. The name that you want the ingredient to be referred to in the ingredient list may not be the same as the name you refer to the product when purchasing it. The ingredient list should be enclosed in parenthesis.
• After any ingredient that contains an allergen and needs to be highlighted, add the allergen in parenthesis after the ingredient and put it in bold text
• Where an ingredient's ingredient list will be compiled from sub-ingredients, use the special # character to represent the sub-ingredient list (the # will be replaced with the underlying ingredient list when the label is printed)
• Add a comma and space after the ingredient statement to ensure correct listing in the high-level ingredient statement

Step 3 - Defining the Layout and Content of the Label

Within the recipe master form, on the same tab as the Ingredient Statement, there is a panel in which the layout, content and format of the label can be defined.

• In the Recipe master form select the Instructions tab (bottom-left corner)
• Then select the Ingredient Statement tab (bottom-right corner)
• The content of the label is entered in the left-hand panel and can be formatted using the rich text formatting controls
• The label content can contain static text, images and the # character which will be substituted with the compiled ingredient list when printed

In the example below (Fig.7) the image, the item name and the statement “Contains the following….” are all static components whereas the # will be replaced with the ingredient statement. Fig. 7

Fig.7 - Burger Recipe Label Content

The label for this recipe will be printed as shown in Fig.8 below (note the # is replaced by the compiled ingredient list).

Fig.8 - Burger Recipe label