May 10, 2023

How Genesis Foods Can Accelerate Accurate Nutrient Calculations

As a food and beverage manufacturer, it’s important for your product labels to not only include accurate ingredient information, but that they also include accurate nutrient values. For consumers, reviewing a label may seem rather straightforward – they consider the ingredients, any potential allergens, calorie counts, nutrient values, and maybe health claims. But from an insider’s perspective, Nutrition Facts labels are a bit more complicated than they seem.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determines how Nutrition Facts labels should be displayed, what nutrients are included, how percent Daily Value (%DV) amounts should be calculated, as well as other guidelines for food product labeling. However, while companies are expected to display accurate nutrient content, there are a few ways that companies can determine how many calories, %DVs, and other nutrient values are contained in their food recipes. Typically, your options are:

Send product samples to a laboratory for nutrition analysis (which can be expensive).
Determine nutrients based on supplier spec sheets and build out recipe calculations in spreadsheets (which can be error-prone).
Or use a software that automates nutrition analysis and features built-in calculations and analysis based on regulatory guidelines (by far, the easiest option).

In this blog, we’ll take you through the latter option using Trustwell’s comprehensive ingredient database and nutrition analysis calculations, which are baked right into Genesis Foods. Get your recipes ready, and let’s dive in.

Formulate Faster with a Trusted Nutritional Database

While Genesis Foods is the latest offering with an updated user interface, Trustwell’s Genesis line has over 30 years of experience in nutrition analysis and labeling. It is thanks to this long-standing experience in the industry that Genesis has collected over 90,000 pre-populated nutrient and ingredient data from sources such as the USDA, FDA, customers, and other government and proprietary collections.

For formulators that want to test recipes, adjust ingredients, or compare nutritional value, the database can be a huge benefit to their process. And if a recipe needs a quick ingredient change – whether due to a change in who supplies the ingredient, or some other supply chain disruption – formulators can quickly update recipes and see accurate nutritional information in the system without having to wait on a lab test. However, where the real magic of Genesis Foods lies is in its code.

Simplify and Automate Regulatory-Compliant Calculations

Our team of regulatory and compliance experts work closely with our product development team to transcribe FDA regulations – such as accurate rounding rules, percent Daily Value (%DV) calculations, caloric content, nutrient unit conversions, and other calculations – all built directly into the software. (Genesis Foods can also be configured for Canada, Mexico, and European Union labeling and nutrition analysis regulations.) These built-in calculations ensure that R&D leaders can efficiently hand off their recipes to the Regulatory and Compliance team to create compliant Nutrition Facts labels, with a significant portion of the work being completed automatically.

The label created will also reflect the formatting requirements by the FDA, such as the appropriate font size, mandatory nutrient declarations, and more. The system also offers alerts for allergen declarations, which can aid compliance leaders when assessing their labels for accuracy, reducing the risk of a potential costly recall.

These built-in calculations and compliance checks are a game-changer for food manufacturers, eliminating the need for manual formulation or data entry.

Plus, when new regulations come out that might change calculation rules or update values, our regulatory team and engineers are quick to update the system before a compliance date arrives.

Streamline the Formulation and Development Processes Even More

In the competitive world of food formulation, companies are constantly looking for ways to streamline their product development process. Along with the built-in database and nutrition analysis calculations, Genesis Foods offers a host of tools to help simplify ingredient management and recipe development.

Add unique ingredients: If you’re unable to find the correct ingredient in the Genesis database, our system also lets you quickly add your own ingredients. All you need is your supplier spec sheet, and the system will walk you through the essential information needed for the ingredient to be appropriately added.
Find ingredients faster with Tags: By utilizing tags to categorize ingredients and recipes, companies can easily identify specific product attributes, allowing for faster searching and more efficient product formulation. With the Tags you can include information to further help you identify the ingredient when creating a recipe, such as tagging ingredients as “Kosher tested” or use naming conventions from within your organization (such as “GF” for gluten free).
Search and replace ingredients: Using the Search and Replace feature, manufacturers can easily swap ingredients across multiple recipes, saving time and effort. For instance, if an ingredient becomes too expensive or is no longer available, manufacturers can search for all the recipes that use that ingredient and replace it with a suitable alternative. Similarly, if an ingredient’s quality or flavor profile changes, manufacturers can quickly update their recipes with the new ingredient.

Access Accurate Nutrition Information and Label Calculations with Genesis Foods

While adding ingredients to a recipe and determining nutrients are only the first few steps in creating a compliant Nutrition Facts panel, they are essential. And with a database of nutrients and ingredients to choose from, Genesis Foods makes it easier than ever to manage recipes, analyze nutrients, and create accurate Nutrition Facts labels for food products.

To learn more about Genesis Foods and how Trustwell’s suite of solutions can help your company maintain consumer trust and loyalty through transparent, compliant solutions, contact the Trustwell team today to schedule a custom demonstration of Genesis Foods.

Tag(s): Product Formulation , Food Labeling , Trustwell Software