1. Log in to Genesis Foods.

   

2. On the Dashboard, click New Ingredient.

   

This will take you to the Ingredient page. From here, you can complete all the tasks required for creating an Ingredient and access other, nonessential, features.

Naming Your Ingredient

Name

Your organization will likely have established best practices for naming that you should use. If not, we recommend that you agree on a naming system before you get started using Genesis Foods.

To name your Ingredient

• Type the name of your Ingredient in the Name text field. The Name entry can accommodate letters and numbers. Example: Vegetable, raw, sweet potato, 8”

The name will also appear in the header.

To clear out the name text

• Click the round X icon.

To change the name

• Type a new name in the Name field.

Aliases

An Alias is an optional shortened or more user-friendly version of your Ingredient’s name. You will be able to select from the Aliases entered here when creating your ingredient statement. You can enter as many Aliases as you want for your Ingredient.

For example, if the name of your Ingredient is something like Fruit, Apple, Fuji, medium, with peel, your Aliases might be something like Fuji apple or just apple.

To enter an Alias

1. Type any alphanumeric combination in the text field

2. Press Enter on the keyboard

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for additional aliases

Aliases will appear as pills in the order they were created.

To delete an Alias

• Click the round X icon on the pill

Organizing and Searching - Tags, Supplier, Product

The Tags, Product and Supplier fields can be used to make searching for your Recipe easier. This is especially important if you have a lot of Recipe or Ingredient records.

Tags

You can associate a tag to an Ingredient to narrow future searches, which will help you organize your work.

To select a tag for your Ingredient

1. Click in the Tags field. You will see a list of available tags.

   

2. You can also type in the search box to narrow this list.

3. Click a tag to add it to your Ingredient.

   

You can do this for as many tags as you’d like. You will be able to use these tags in future searches.

To remove a tag from your Ingredient

• Click the round X icon.

Supplier and Product

You can associate a product and/or a supplier to your Ingredient for organization purposed or to simplify future searches.

1. Click in the Product or Supplier field

2. Use the type-ahead search to find a Product or Supplier

3. Click a Product or Supplier to add it to your Ingredient.

Weight & Conversions

Weight

This is the weight of the ingredient you will enter the ingredient data for. Ninety-nine percent of the time, this will be 100 grams, but you should use whatever is on your spec sheet, certificate of analysis or other ingredient nutrient documentation. 100 grams has been pre-populated for you.

To enter a weight

• Type in the weight amount and select the unit.

Volume Conversion

If your product is a liquid product, and especially if you want to generate a nutrition facts label for it, you will want to enter a volume conversion for it. Remember, you entered the nutrients per their weight, so in order for Genesis Foods to understand this product as a liquid, you have to manually enter the weight to liquid conversion. You will only have to do this for one unit. Genesis Foods can use that unit to calculate other liquid units.

To add a Volume Conversion

1. Click the plus icon

2. Enter the volume conversion amount by typing in a quantity and selecting a volume measure

3. Enter the weight for the corresponding amount

4. Click Apply.

You can only enter — and will only need to enter — one volume conversion.

Unit Conversion

Since the Ingredient nutrient data is added by weight, you might want to add more user-friendly household measures (like cup, slice, serving, etc.) to your Ingredient. Later, you can use those amounts when formulating your Recipe. In order to correctly add a conversion, you must know the weight of that conversion amount.

To add a Unit Conversion

1. Click the plus icon

   

2. Enter the conversion amount by typing in a quantity and selecting a household measure

3. Enter the weight for the corresponding amount

4. Click Apply.

You can add other unit conversions in the same manner. Genesis will also scale the units appropriately for common measures such as teaspoon (will scale to tablespoon, cup, etc.).

Nutrients

Here is where you will populate the nutrient data for your Ingredient. Enter as much information as you have. You can enter data for all nutrients tracked by Genesis Foods or enter nutrients for one or more of the compiled lists.

To enter Nutrients

1. Choose your list of nutrients. These are premade sets of nutrients you can enter data for. You can create your own list of nutrients on the Options page.
   

   

2. From the Show %DV for menu, choose which recommendation profile you want to show the %DV for. Most of the time, this will be Adult.

3. Populate the nutrient values. You can enter the quantitative value or the %DV per the recommendation profile you have selected. When you enter a nutrient value, that nutrient’s %DV will be automatically calculated for the recommendation you have selected and vice versa.

4. If you have selected one of the longer lists, you can use the type-ahead search to find specific nutrients.

Nutrient List

Select from the existing lists which nutrients you want to populate for this Ingredient. We recommend at least populating the nutrients that are mandatory on your label. For the U.S., this is “Label - US 2016 Mandatory.” Other lists are included, and you can create your own on the Options screen under Nutrients to View.

Yield Adjustments

Yield Adjustments are used to account for the losses to a food during the different types of processing (cooking, baking, broiling etc.).

The different types of Yield Adjustments are:

Moisture Loss/Adjustments

This is used to apply moisture losses to recipes so that the nutrition facts panel and reports can reflect the loss that happened during cooking or processing and account for any deviation from the original values.

Fat Loss/Adjustments

This is used to apply fat loss to recipes so that the nutrition facts panel and reports can reflect the loss that happened during cooking and account for any deviation from the original values.

Processing/Cooking Adjustments

This is used to apply percent processing or cooking losses to recipes. When accounting for processing loss, it is important to note that it's the entier set of ingredients that is reduced. Exampe: While making cookies, some of the cookie dough could be lost to the assembly line or kitchen counter, oven, tasting, etc. This is called processing loss and is calculated in percent to account for the difference between the initial value and the final value.

NOTE: Yield Adjustments only apply to recipes. They do not apply to ingredients.

Moisture Adjustments

The Moisture Adjustment is used to account for moisture (in the form of water) lost during cooking. In order to get the final (post-cooking) nutrient amount to be accurate, you have to account for the moisture loss and the resulting change in weight, so you would enter the weight change (either by percent or by weight) into the moisture adjustment field. You can do so by weighing your Recipe before and after cooking.

Moisture Adjustment: Loss

To apply a Moisture Loss to your Recipe

1. Click Add Yield Adjustments
   

   

2. Select the Moisture/Fat Adjustment toggle

3. Select Loss as the Option under Moisture Adjustment and enter either a percent or a weight amount. Hint: if you are creating large batches, weigh a small portion of the batch before and after, and use the percent change. Note that the Moisture Value is displayed underneath. This will help prevent you from trying to enter a loss greater than the total existing amount of moisture. Genesis Foods will automatically update your Recipe to reflect the moisture adjustment and you can see this by going to the Nutrients and viewing Water. You will also see the change in the Yield Adjustments Summary and when you scroll to nutrients and view the Batch Yield (see image below).
   

   

Moisture Adjustment: Target

If you know the final, post-cooking amount of water that should be in your product, use Target. This may be an industry average for your product or a specific moisture content you’ve determined through lab analysis. The Target value will be the total percent of moisture (water) in the final product. It cannot be greater than the original moisture percent.

To apply a Moisture Target to your Recipe

1. Click Add Yield Adjustments
   

   

2. Select the Moisture/Fat Adjustment toggle

3. Select Target as the Option under Moisture Adjustment and enter a percent. Note that the hint text shows you the range of moisture currently in the Recipe. You must enter a value in this range. Genesis will automatically update your Recipe to reflect the moisture adjustment and you can see this by going to the Nutrients and viewing water. You will also see the change in the Yield Adjustments Summary and when you scroll to nutrients and view the Batch Yield (see image below).

   

Fat Adjustments

The Fat Adjustment is used to account for fat lost during cooking. In order to get the final (post-cooking) nutrient amounts to be accurate, you have to account for the fat lost, the resulting change in the fat nutrients, and the resulting change in weight, so you would enter the weight change (either by percent or by weight) into the fat adjustment field. You can do so by weighing your Recipe before and after cooking or by collecting fat droppings and weighing those.

Fat Adjustment: Loss

To apply a Fat Loss to your Recipe

1. Click Add Yield Adjustments
   

   

2. Select the Moisture/Fat Adjustment toggle

3. Select Loss under the Option for Fat Adjustment and enter either a percent or a weight amount. Hint: if you are creating large batches, weigh a small portion of the batch before and after, and use the percent change. Note that the Fat Value is displayed underneath. This will help prevent you from trying to enter a loss greater than the total existing amount of fat. Genesis Foods will automatically update your Recipe to reflect the fat adjustment and you can see this by going to the Nutrients and viewing Total Fat. If you have original values entered for child fats (Saturated Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat, etc), you will also see those nutrients lowered by the same percentage. You can view the change in the Yield Adjustments Summary and when you scroll to nutrients and view the Batch Yield (see image below).

   

Fat Adjustment: Target

If you know the final, post-cooking amount of fat that should be in your product, use Target. This may be an industry average for your product or a specific fat content you’ve determined through lab analysis. The Target value will be the total percent of total fat in the final product. It cannot be greater than the original fat percent.

To apply a Fat Target to your Recipe

1. Click Add Yield Adjustments

   

2. Select the Moisture/Fat Adjustment toggle

3. Select Target as the Option under Fat Adjustment and enter a percent. (Only percent is available for Target.) Note that the hint text shows you the range of fat currently in the Recipe. You must enter a value within this range. Genesis Foods will automatically update your Recipe to reflect the fat adjustment and you can see this by going to the Nutrients and viewing Total Fat. If you have original values entered for child fats (Saturated Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat, etc), you will also see those nutrients lowered by the same percentage. You can view the change in the Yield Adjustments Summary and when you scroll to nutrients and view the Batch Yield (see image below).

   

Processing Loss

Processing can only be specified as a Loss, there is no Target for the Processing Adjustment. Processing acts like a scaling of your Recipe. If you specify a loss of 10 grams in Processing, your entire Recipe will lose 10 grams and its Nutrients will be affected accordingly.

To apply a Processing Loss to your Recipe

1. Click Add Yield Adjustments

2. Select the Processing Loss toggle

3. Enter a percent or a weight amount. Genesis Foods will automatically update your Recipe to reflect the processing loss and you can see this by going to the Nutrients and viewing all of the nutrients. They will all be reduced by the same percent. You can view the change in the Yield Adjustments Summary and when you scroll to nutrients and view the Batch Yield

Remove Yield Adjustments

To remove a single Yield Adjustment

1. Delete the percent or weight value entered

2. Wait for the auto-save.

To remove all Yield Adjustments

• Click Remove Yield Adjustments. This will remove all Yield Adjustments and collapse the Yield Adjusment section

Attributes

An Attribute is any property of a food item you want to track in order to comply with mandatory labeling laws (bioengineered material, for example), or for voluntary packaging claims and/or marketing purposes (vegan, gluten-free, etc.).

To add an existing Attribute to your Ingredient

• Select from the combo menu

Sub-ingredients

The Sub-ingredient entry is primarily used when a supplier does not give you the full breakdown of an Ingredient that is made up of other ingredients (but isn’t necessarily a Recipe), and you want to show the sub-ingredients on your label – either for compliance or customer information purposes. A good example of this is Aged Parmesan. The COA mentions that it’s made up of Cultured Milk, Salt, and Enzymes, but does not tell you the exact amounts of each.

Sub-ingredient Entry

To Enter a Sub-Ingredient

1. Click Edit Sub-ingredients

2. Type in or paste the sub-ingredients. You can either use a line break or a pipe symbol ( | ) to separate the items. Like so:

   

   or

   

3. Click Add Sub-ingredients and you will see a preview and a table where you can make more modifications.

To delete a Sub-ingredient

• click the trashcan icon in the list
  

  

Percentages

This is where you set the percentage of each sub-ingredient. Genesis Foods will use what you enter here to estimate a weight amount for the Ingredient Statement calculations when this Ingredient is added to a Recipe and, if the Sub-ingredient has the same spelling as an Ingredient in the Recipe, Genesis can merge the two.

For example, if this Ingredient is added to a Recipe that also has “salt” as an Ingredient, Genesis can merge the two salt instances and display “salt” correctly, by weight, in the Ingredient Statement.

To set percentages

1. Click on the 0 in the Percentage of Ingredient column

2. Type in the amount. The total will appear in red if it is anything other than 100%

Supplemental Text

The supplemental text is anything you want to appear in parenthesis next to the sub-ingredient. This could be something like “*to add freshness” or whatever is appropriate.

To add Supplemental Text

1. Click the down arrow

   

2. Type in the text. Anything added will appear in the preview and an ST icon will indicate when a sub-ingredient has supplemental text.

   

You can also drag the sub-ingredients to different positions.

When you have completed your modifications, click Return to Ingredient. Your sub-ingredients will appear in the Sub-ingredient preview:

Sub-ingredients in the Ingredient Statement

When you are polishing your Ingredient Statement, you can opt to merge like ingredients. In this example, salt is both an Ingredient and a Sub-ingredient:

If you select Merged, Genesis Foods will merge the two salts and list the total salt by weight:

Allergens

Not Present

All of the allergens are initially in the Not Present bucket. When you have determined that your product contains an allergen, you should move it to the Contains bucket.

To move an allergen from the Not Present bucket to the Contains, do one of the following:

• Click the left arrow. This will move the allergen to the May Contain bucket. Click the left arrow again to move the allergen to the Contains bucket.

• Drag and drop by clicking and holding the drag icon

Notice that when you move an allergen to the Contains bucket, an alert appears. This is because the regulations require you to display the specific type or species for certain allergens — fish, shellfish and tree nuts.

To display a specific type or species

1. Click the link.

   

2. From the list, select the specific type or species. Use the type-ahead to narrow the selections.

Once you have selected the species, the alert will disappear and the species or type will appear in the Contains Preview in alphabetical order.

May Contain

The May Contain bucket lets you declare allergens that could be present in your food due to processing or other reasons. You are not required to declare these allergens, but if you do, you must also declare the specific type or species of fish, shellfish or tree nuts.

To move an allergen from the Not Present to the May Contain bucket, do one of the following:

• Click the left arrow

• Drag and drop

To move an allergen from the Contains or Many Contain bucket back to the Not Present bucket, do one of the following:

• Click the right arrow

• Drag and drop

Any allergens in the May Contain bucket will appear in the Allergen Statement May Contain preview. Remember, shellfish, fish and tree nuts must display the specific type or species in the May Contain statement as well.

Copy/Paste

Once you have set up your Contains (and/or May Contain) statement, you can copy either or both statements to the clipboard as plain text using the copy icon.

Allergen Verifications

New Ingredient

When you first create an Ingredient, you will see two Allergen verification alerts:

• One at the top of the page

• One at the top of the Allergen section

You will not be able to approve this Ingredient until you have verified the allergens.

To verify the Allergens

1. Double-check that the Containa, May Contain and Not Present allergens are in their correct buckets

2. Click the I verify… button.

Once you do so, the alert at the top of the page will disappear, the Allergen section alert will turn green and you will be able to approve your Ingredient.

Notes, Images, Attachments and Custom Fields

By completing the above tasks, you now have an Ingredient you can use to build a Recipe and its compliant Label. The remaining functions — Notes, Images, Attachments and Custom Fields — are not required for labeling and packaging, but are here to help you customize and organize your foods.

Notes

Anything you want to add to this Ingredient that there isn’t an existing field for can go here. It is a simple text-entry field. The date and login name will be automatically recorded.

Images

The image you upload here will appear at the top of the Ingredient page in the circle.

Attachments

You can attach any type of document to this Ingredient, including (and we recommend this) your spec sheet or COA.

Custom Fields

You can associate up to three Custom Fields with your work and pin them to the top of your page. The Custom Fields will appear regardless of what you’re currently working on. You can only add a Custom Field to the program on the Options page.

Reports

Nutrient Spec Sheet Report

The Nutrient Spec Sheet report shows you the total nutrient content of your Ingredient, broken down by nutrient. This report gives you a quick look at the overall nutrient picture and is often used to share that data with others.

You can also:

• Select which nutrients should appear on the report

• Choose to display nutrient amounts per serving, per Xg or both

• Choose to display the Ingredient name or any of its aliases.

• Show/hide various branding elements

Select which nutrients to display

1. Go to Nutrients to View

2. Click the down arrow to open the menu

   

3. Click the list of nutrients you want to appear in this report

Display the nutrients per serving or per 100g (or another gram amount)

1. Go to Report Measures

2. Select Per Serving, Per 100g or show both

• (Optional) Change gram weight by typing a new value. Genesis will recalculate accordingly

Change how the Recipe name appears

1. Go to Name/Alias

2. Select from one of the available aliases. The name will reflect that change.

Branding

You can customize your report with a logo, signature and other elements.

Foot/Comment text will appear at the bottom of your report. You can use this space to add any pertinent information like an address or any necessary commenting.

1. Click Template

2. Select Footer/Comment

   

3. Type or paste text here

• (Optional) Make the text large

• (Optional) Bold or italicize the text

Logo & Signature is where you will upload images. The logo image will appear at the top of the report. The signature image will appear at the bottom, above the footer/comment.

1. Select Template

2. Click Logo & Signature

   

3. Upload a logo image

4. Upload a signature image

5. When you have finished, click Apply & Close

To show/hide the logo

1. Go to Show/Hide

   

2. Check or uncheck Logo. This is also how you show/hide the date and the Recipe image if you have uploaded one.

Audit Trail Report

The Audit Trail Report shows who made changes, when they were made and what section the changes involved.

To Download the Audit Trail Report

1. Click Export

2. Navigate to where you want to save this report

3. CLick Save.

The report will be saved as a CSV file and can be opened in spreadsheet editors, like MS Excel.

Approve

Once you have finalized your Ingredient, you can click Approve. Genesis Foods will save the Ingredient in that state, and you will not be able to edit the Approved version. If, however, you open this Approved Ingredient and make any changes to it, Genesis Foods will automatically create a new editable version and call it something like: “V1. Draft.”

You can approve an Ingredient in any state as long as it has a name.