- About Food Items: Ingredients and Prepared Foods
- Food Items are "Generic"
- Opening the Foods Listing Screen
- Searching For and Opening a Food Item
- Seeing the Recipes of a Food Item (i.e., Where Used?)
- Exporting Foods Listing to Excel® File
- Changing Display Name and Description of Food Item
- Changing Stock Item Category for a Food Item
- Viewing Nutritional Content of a Food Item
- Performing a Bulk Edit of Multiple Foods
- What are Branded Products?
- Requesting a Food Item/Ingredient be Added to System
- FAQs
About Food Items: Ingredients and Prepared Foods
A recipe can consist of two types of food items: ingredients and prepared foods. Ingredients and prepared foods that are available for use in your account are available from the Foods screen via Recipes > Food Listing.
Ingredient
An ingredient is a food item that is used in a recipe, which in turn is added to the menu (an ingredient cannot be added to a menu as an item). Examples of ingredients are butter, eggs, flour.
- When adding an ingredient to a recipe, you will define the ingredient amount.
- An ingredient cannot be added directly to a menu. For example, you cannot add flour as a menu item.
- In the system, an ingredient is identified with a comma in its name. The main part of the food name is listed prior to the comma, and additional information about the food after the comma. For example, Applesauce, Unswt.
- Each ingredient in the system has a default portion size of 1 gram (per screenshot below). Because the portion size for an ingredient is relative to a recipe, the system requires the user to define the amount of the ingredient when adding the ingredient to a recipe. Therefore, having a default portion size of 1 gram prompts the user to enter an amount for the ingredient when creating/editing a recipe.
Prepared Food
A prepared food is a food item that is purchased ready-to-serve, and only requires heating and/or serving without additional ingredients. For example, a bagel, or a cake that just requires you to slice and serve.
- A prepared food is both an ingredient and a recipe in the system.
- As an ingredient, it can be used within a recipe.
- As a recipe, it can be offered directly on a menu.
- As a recipe, it can be extended with therapeutic substitute recipes.
- In the system, a prepared food does not have a comma in its name (unlike an ingredient)
- The portion size for a prepared food is defined by the food. If the portion size uses a special unit of measure (i.e., "Each", "Slice", etc.), then click the edit symbol to see the amount and the unit of measure (e.g., grams, ounces, cups, etc.) defined for the special unit of measure.
Food Items are "Generic"
The food items (ingredients and prepared foods) in the system are "generic" and are not specific brand products (i.e., vendor products). The system treats food items similar to a cookbook, in which the ingredients are listed as general.
"Behind the scenes" in the system, a food item is associated with one or more actual vendor products that are verified to match with the food item.
From a food item's associated vendor products, one is selected for that food item, which in turn determines the nutritional content of the food and the nutritional content of a recipe for which the food is an ingredient. In addition, the price of the vendor product that is selected for the food item is calculated as part of the cost for the recipe.
The system will automatically select the vendor product for the food item via its product-item selection logic. However, if needed you can manually select a different product for the food item. For more information, see the following articles:
- Verified Vendor Products and the Selected Product for a Food Item
- Selecting Vendor Products for Food Items by Favouring
Opening the Foods Listing Screen
Non-food items are available for use in your account are available from the Foods screen via Recipes > Food Items.
Setting Columns on the Foods Listing Screen
You can set the columns to display on the Foods Listing screen. To do so:
- Click the Set Columns button. The Set Columns pop-up appears.
- For the columns you want onscreen drag-and-drop them from the right side of the pop-up to the left side of the pop-up. For the columns you do not want onscreen, drag-and-drop them from the left side of the pop-up to the right side of the pop-up.
- You can determine the sort order of the columns displayed onscreen by clicking, holding, and dragging a column to it desired spot in the column list.
- Click Apply to apply your changes and close the pop-up.
Searching For and Opening a Food Item
On the Foods screen (Recipes > Food Listing), you can search for a food item (i.e., ingredient or prepared food) via the Search field at the top right (first screenshot below). You can enter the name or ID of the food item.
You can also search for food items by using the Filters, which display items that match your search criteria (first screenshot below) and clicking GO.
If you want to further refine the search results by either foods or prepared foods, then select the appropriate option via the Display Options function (second screenshot below) and clicking Apply.
After the search results are returned, clicking the Look Up Name of a food item opens the slide-out panel for the food, where the information about the food is displayed.
Seeing the Recipes of a Food Item (i.e., Where Used?)
On the Foods listing screen (Recipes > Food Listing), you can see what recipes an ingredient or prepared food is used in by clicking its gear icon and select Where Used (first screenshot below), and a pop-up appears listing the recipes it is part of (second screenshot below).
Exporting Foods Listing to Excel® File
The foods listing displayed onscreen can be exported to an Excel® file. To do so, click the Export button at the top left of the screen (first screenshot below). When the file is ready, click the Download button to the message that appears (second screenshot below).
Changing Display Name and Description of Food Item
When you open a food item (i.e., ingredient or prepared food), its Display Name and Description can be edited. Upon making any changes, click the Save button to apply your changes.
When the default Display Name or default Description has been changed, a "Revert to Default" button exists beside the field for that item. Clicking the button resets to the default name or description for that item.
Changing Stock Item Category for a Food Item
When you open a food item, its stock item category can be changed via the Stock Item Category field (indicated below). Upon making any changes, click the Save button to apply your changes.
When the default stock item category for an item has been changed, a "Revert to Default" button exists beside the Stock Item Category field for that item. Clicking the button resets to the default stock item category for that item.
Viewing Nutritional Content of a Food item
To view the total nutritional content of a food item:
-
Open the food item.
- Scroll down and expand the Nutritional Content section. The Nutrition Facts label is displayed, listing the individual nutrient values.
Ingredient Note: For an ingredient, the Serving Size on the Nutrition Facts label is 100 grams, as per industry standard, as per screenshot below.
Prepared Food Note: For a prepared food, the Serving Size on the Nutrition Facts label is taken from the portion size for the prepared food, as per screenshot below.
- To view all the nutrient values, click the blue nutrient analysis icon (first screenshot below), and the Nutrient Values window appears (second screenshot below), listing each nutrient and its value in the food.
Quick Method of Accessing Nutrient values
On the Foods Listing screen, you can click the gear icon for a recipe and select Nutrient Preview to display the nutrient values window.
How Does a Food Item Pull its Nutrient Values?
The food items (ingredients and prepared foods) are associated with one or more vendor products that are verified to match with the food item.
From a food item's associated vendor products, one is selected for that food item, which in turn determines the nutritional content of the food and the nutritional content of a recipe for which the food is an ingredient.
The system will automatically select the vendor product for the food item via its product-item selection logic. However, if needed you can manually select a different product for the food item. For more information, see the following articles:
Performing a Bulk Edit of Multiple Food Items
MealSuite allows multiple food items to be updated simultaneously via the bulk edit function. The following functions can be updated when performing a bulk edit:
- Publish or unpublish
- Assign stock item category
- Pull by stock unit or pull by exact amount
- Add to a preferences group
- From from a preferences group
- Assign a serving utensil (for a prepared food only)
To perform a bulk edit of multiple food items, complete the following steps:
- Open the Foods Listing screen (Recipes > Food Listing)
- Use the filters and display options to return the foods you want listed onscreen.
- Select the check boxes of the foods you want to edit.
- Click the Bulk Edit button. The bulk edit pop-up appears.
- Select the desired changes.
- Click the Apply Changes button and click OK to the confirmation message that appears.
What are Branded Products?
When you open a food item, its slide-out panel has the Linked Branded Products section listing the branded products that are linked to the food item, as per screenshot below.
A branded product is an entity to link a food item to the vendor products of a particular brand, and to link the food item to a nutrient profile.
Note that a branded product in the colour orange indicates that it is driving the data for the food item. This means that for the currently-selected vendor product for the food item, its branded product is also selected (and displayed in orange), and therefore the nutrient profile associated with the branded product is used for the food item.
Branded products are only available to MealSuite internal staff with database access to the system. If you do not have database access, then clicking a branded product from the Linked Branded Products section results in an "Access Denied" message, as per screenshot below.
As an internal MealSuite user with database access to the system, you can read about Branded Products in the following article: Branded Products.
Requesting a Food Item/Ingredient be Added to System
If you attempted to locate a food item (i.e., ingredient or prepared food) on the Foods Listing screen and a result was not returned, then you can request that the food item be added to the system. The request will be processed by the MealSuite Nutrition Services team. You can open the request form by clicking the Ingredient Request button (screenshot below).
For more information on the form and correctly submitting an ingredient request, see the separate article: Requesting a Food Item/Ingredient be Added to System.
FAQs
A food item (i.e., ingredient or prepared food) is not available in the system. How can I add a new food item to the system?
If you cannot find a food (i.e., ingredient or prepared food) in the system (via the Foods Listing screen), then you can put in a request to the MealSuite Nutrition Services Team to add the food to the system.
The request form can be found here: Ingredient Request Form.
Enter the necessary details and click Submit when done.
How do I see the amount of a specific nutrient (e.g., grams of carbohydrates) in a food item?
The amount of a specific nutrient of a food item can be viewed (e.g., number of grams of carbohydrates (CHO) in pasta penne). To do so, see Viewing Nutritional Content of a Food item.
Where do I see the food category of an ingredient or prepared food?
By opening a food item, you can see its assigned food category. The food category is managed and maintained by MealSuite. You cannot change the food category that a food item is assigned to.