Special-purpose recipe management software, such as Bizcaps FoodTech, can speed up the process of commercial recipe development, while also simplifying the collection and storage of the results of test kitchen trials, taste and consumer testing and product costing.
In many food manufacturing companies, product recipes are kept in documents or spreadsheets and much of the work associated with recipe development must be done manually.
Recipe management software also simplifies the production of marketing and regulatory specifications, particularly as food technologists put recipes through multiple “what-if” development iterations, tests and trials.
Here’s five ways that recipe development and management software can help:
1. Recipe storage
Recipes on spreadsheets, scattered around a company or the test kitchen, are easily lost. A central digital repository of recipe data, storing all ingredients, recipes (and sub-recipes) required for manufacture of your company’s food product, makes locating this data simple, even years after the recipe is first developed. Recipe management software can version-stamp the recipe amendments as testing takes place and store multiple versions of a recipe. Sub-recipes can be stored to be included as ingredients in other recipes.
2. Automatic calculation of specifications
A major feature of recipe management software such as Bizcaps FoodTech is its capacity to automatically calculate product, nutrition, RDI and allergen specifications and declarations and to recalculate these, as recipes are evaluated, modified and finalised.
3. Integration with standard ingredient databases
Recipe management software can be integrated with ingredient databases such as AUSNUT, NHPID, EAFUS, or any searchable repository of ingredient information. While reducing the work involved in entering ingredients, integration also ensures that standardised information is readily available and is used.
4. What-ifs and automatic recalculation of specifications
Another major feature of recipe development and management software is the capacity to conduct multiple desktop iterations of ingredient replacement leading to testing, trialling and costing, producing related documentation and calculation of specifications, locking away these versions for decision about the final product to be offered to the market. For instance, such software would allow desktop recalculation of all specifications and costings when fat or carbohydrate content needed to be reduced by replacement of ingredients.
5. Integration with ERP and other software applications
Recipe management software can also be integrated with other systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), product information management (PIM), master data management (MDM). As a result, potential error is removed and close integration of recipe development and other post product introduction systems can be achieved.
Recipe management software such as Bizcaps FoodTech, simplifies the painstaking process of ingredient management and speeds up product development and therefore can dramatically reduce time to market.