Working with Preference Groups

• What is a Preference Group?
• Displaying the Preference Groups Available to your Account
  • Exporting Preference Group List to Excel® File
• Searching for and Opening a Preference Group
  • Viewing Ingredients, Prepared Foods and Recipes in a Preference Group
  • Exporting the Food Items in a Preference Group to Excel® File
• Viewing the Preference Groups Associated with a Recipe
• Creating and Publishing a Preference Group
• Unpublishing a Preference Group
  • Republishing an Unpublished Preference Group
• Deleting a Preference Group

What is a Preference Group?

A preference group is a group type in the system that contains similar food items and recipes that can be identified in a resident/patient's personal menu as either a “like” or a “dislike”. When ordering meals, the person’s likes and dislike settings can be used to tailor the offerings to their subjective tastes.

For example, the Mushroom Preference group in the system contains food items (foods (i.e., ingredients), prepared foods, recipes) with mushrooms. If a resident likes mushrooms, then this group can be tagged as a like for the resident. If the resident does not like mushrooms, then this group can be tagged as a dislike for the resident.

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To apply preferences groups to a resident/patient's personal menu, refer to the following topics: 

• Tagging/Untagging a Food as a "Like" Preference
• Tagging/Untagging a Food as a "Dislike" Preference

A preference group can also be tagged as do not serve (DNS) for a resident/patient's personal menu, meaning all items in the preference group will be marked as do not serve for the person. See Marking a Preference Group (or Groups) as Do Not Serve for a Resident/Patient

Displaying the Preference Groups Available to your Account

To display the preference groups available to your account, complete the following steps:

1. From the left navigation sidebar, select Tools & Setup > Allergen & Preference Groups. The Allergens & Preferences screen appears, with the Allergen Groups tab listed by default.
    
2. Click the Preference Groups tab. This screen lists the allergen groups available to your account.
   
   

Exporting Preference Group List to Excel® File

The Preference group list 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).  

Searching for and Opening a Preference Group

To search for and open a preference group available to your account, complete the following steps:

1. From the left navigation sidebar, select Tools & Setup > Allergen & Preference Groups. The Allergens & Preferences screen appears, with the Allergen Groups tab listed by default.
    
2. Click the Preference Groups tab. This screen lists the preference groups available to your account.
   
   
    
3. If you know the name of the preference group, search for it in the Search field. You can also use the Owner filter to display preference groups owned by specific parent accounts. 
   
   
    
4. Click the desired preference group. Its slide-out panel appears. 
   
   

Viewing Ingredients, Prepared Foods and Recipes in a Preference Group

The ingredients, prepared foods, and recipes of a preference group are listed in the Assigned Foods section.

You can filter the food items by showing or hiding the following:

• Food Types (ingredients, prepared foods, recipes)
• Display only foods in use in my account - select this check box to only display items that currently appear in recipe extensions, menus, personal menus or diet interventions in your account.

You can search for a specific item by entering it in the Search field and clicking the magnifying glass or clicking Enter on the keyboard.

Exporting the Food Items in a Preference Group to Excel® File

To export the food items in a preference group to an Excel® file, click the Export button in the  

Viewing the Preference Groups Associated with a Recipe

When an ingredient or prepared food contained in a recipe belongs to a preference group, then that recipe is automatically added to the same preference group.

You can see any preference group the recipe belongs to by opening the recipe and clicking the Nutritional Content tab.

For a preference group that a recipe was automatically added to, hovering over the group displays the associated ingredient(s) that caused the recipe to be automatically added.

Creating and Publishing a Preference Group

To create a new preference group, and then publish it, complete the following steps:

1. From the left navigation sidebar, select Tools & Setup > Allergen & Preference Groups. The Allergens & Preferences screen appears, with the Allergen Groups tab listed by default.
    
2. Click the Preference Groups tab. This screen lists the preference groups available to your account.
    
3. Click the Add New button. The New Preference Group slide-out panel appears.
   
   
    
4. In the Name field, enter the name for the preference group.
    
5. From the Type field, select Preference Group.
    
6. In the Definition field, you can enter a short description of what the allergen group will contain.
    
7. Click the Save button. The panel refreshes with an Assigned Foods tab for you to add food items to the preference group. For instructions to do so, start at step 2 in the following instructions: Preference Groups: Adding Ingredients, Prepared Foods, Recipes
   
   
    
8. After food items are added to the preference group, your final step is to publish it so that it is available to be assigned to residents/patients. In addition, it will also be available for use by any child accounts for them to assign to their residents/patients.
   
   An unpublished group appears with a blue Publish notification-button (first screenshot below). Click the Publish notification-button to publish the preference group. The notification-button changes to black Unpublish (second screenshot below). 
   
   
   
   

Unpublishing a Preference Group

If your account created a preference group, then you have the ability to unpublish the preference group. When a preference group is unpublished, the following occurs:

• Its association with any ingredients, prepared foods, and recipes is hidden in the system, meaning when you open an ingredient, prepared food, or recipe, you will not see any previously-assigned associations, and the unpublished preference group will not be available to create an association. 
• The preference group will not be available in a personal menu to be tagged as a like or tagged as a dislike. However, if the preference group has already been marked as a like or marked as a dislike, then that like or dislike is maintained in the personal menu. 
• If you are a parent account, then the preference group is not available for use in your child accounts. 

To unpublish a preference group, complete the following steps:

1. Search for and open the desired preference group that you want to unpublish. 
    
2. A published allergen group appears with a black Unpublish notification-button. Click the Unpublish notification-button to unpublish the allergen group. The notification-button changes to blue Publish.
   
   
   
   

Republishing an Unpublished Preference Group

If a preference group is unpublished, then it can be republished. To republish a preference group, complete the following steps:

1. Search for and open the desired preference group that you want to publish. 
    
2. An unpublished group appears with a blue Publish notification-button (first screenshot below). Click the Publish notification-button to publish the preference group. The notification-button changes to black Unpublish (second screenshot below). 
   
   
   
   
   

Deleting a Preference Group

If your account created a preference group, then it has the ability to delete the preference group. Note, however, that a preference group cannot be deleted if it is currently assigned to a resident/patient's personal menu in the account or any child accounts. To delete a preference group:

1. Search for and open the desired preference group that you want to delete. 
2. Click the Delete button, and then click Delete to the confirmation message that appears. The preference group is deleted.
   Note: If the Delete button is not available, it indicates that the preference group is currently tagged  as a like or marked as a dislike in a person's personal menu in your account or a child account.