December 10, 2025

Smarter Menu and Product Changes Start With Side-by-Side Recipe Comparisons

Food and beverage companies are expected to move fast. The ability to move quickly is required for responding to rising ingredient costs, shifting consumer preferences, shifting regulatory requirements, or even simple seasonal changes. Case in point: the enduring popularity of Pumpkin Spice. To stay agile, teams need a reliable way to evaluate product changes without slowing down innovation and implement them without sacrificing trust or safety. One critical process that supports this is recipe comparison: the ability to assess multiple product versions across nutrition, labeling, cost, and allergen data, all in one place.

For manufacturers and restaurant brands alike, making informed decisions during reformulation or menu development is not just a matter of speed. It also impacts compliance, consumer trust, and cross-department alignment. A structured, data-driven approach to comparing recipes can streamline everything from R&D and marketing approvals to final labeling and launch.

It's Not Just You - Food Reformulation Has Grown More Complex

Changing a single ingredient in a recipe used to be a relatively straightforward decision. Today, the consequences of that change reach much further across a business. Reformulation now requires close attention to:

Nutrition profile adjustments, which may impact eligibility for nutrient content claims
Allergen visibility, particularly for items labeled gluten-free, dairy-free, or vegan
Ingredient cost variability driven by inflation, climate impact, or sourcing disruptions
Regulatory rules that differ by country and evolve frequently
Operational feasibility, such as supplier availability and production timelines

Moreover, many brands have to contend with expectations from their retail partners, who may require added transparency around sourcing, sustainability, and labeling consistency. All of these factors increase the need for structured product evaluation before finalizing any change.

What Happens When Product Recipe Comparisons Are Manual?

Without a streamlined method for comparing recipes, many teams rely on spreadsheets, emails, and manual calculations. In fact, our recent State of the Food Technology Stack Survey found that nearly 40% of organizations still rely on manual solutions to manage some or all of their processes, which can create risk at several levels.

Digital Download: 2025 State of the Food Technology Stack Survey Report

Spreadsheets - formulation and labeling First, manual comparisons can lead to errors in nutrition calculations or missed allergen flags, resulting in incorrect labels. If a “gluten-free” menu item inadvertently includes an ingredient containing gluten, the risk to both the consumer and the brand is significant.

Second, the entire decision-making slows down. Regulatory, R&D, and marketing teams may work in different systems, reviewing slightly different versions of a recipe. This fragmentation can create unnecessary rounds of revisions, delaying launch timelines and increasing costs.

Finally, incomplete or limited visibility into data can lead to overstating product claims or omitting them completely. A reformulated item may qualify as a “good source of fiber” or “low in sodium,” but without an automated tool to flag these opportunities, teams might miss them. These delays and risks are avoidable when recipe comparisons are done with a centralized system that brings together all key data points.

Who Benefits From Side-by-Side Recipe Comparisons?

A recipe comparison tool is valuable across multiple functions within a food business.

Research & Development teams use it to evaluate formulation changes and understand the impact on nutrition, allergens, and functional ingredients
Regulatory teams rely on side-by-side visibility to confirm compliance with U.S., Canadian, or international labeling requirements
Quality Assurance and Operations benefit from early insight into ingredient-level changes, helping avoid surprises during production
Procurement can use comparison data to weigh cost differences between recipe options without requiring another formulation cycle
Marketing teams reference comparisons to support or update product claims in messaging and packaging

By centralizing the comparison process, each department works from the same source of truth and can act with clarity and speed. Companies across the food industry can (and do!) use side-by-side recipe comparisons to solve real challenges in formulation, labeling, and collaboration.

Let's look at two examples — a packaged food brand responding to ingredient cost changes and a restaurant chain refreshing its seasonal menu — to explore how different types of businesses can apply this process using the Food Comparison Report in Genesis Foods to improve decision-making and reduce risk.

Example: A CPG Brand Uses the Food Comparison Report for Smarter Reformulation

Let's imagine a mid-sized consumer packaged goods company called HealthyRoots Foods. They specialize in gluten-free frozen meals sold across U.S. retail channels. Faced with rising almond flour and tomato paste costs, HealthyRoots needs to reformulate its top-selling lasagna. At the same time, the product team wants to reduce the sodium content to support an upcoming “better-for-you” marketing campaign.

The team creates two reformulated versions of the lasagna recipe, each with alternate ingredients that could lower cost or support a nutrient claim. Using Genesis Foods, HealthyRoots runs a Food Comparison Report to:

Load and select three versions of the lasagna recipe: Original, Reformulation A, and Reformulation B
Generate side-by-side nutritional and ingredient comparison, showing differences in calories, sodium, protein, allergens, and ingredient costs
Preview label information that follows FDA rounding rules for each recipe draft
Identify which version has a lower % Daily Value of sodium
Export the report for R&D and Marketing Teams to assess formulation impact, cost-saving opportunities, taste tests, nutrient claim viability, labeling accuracy and regulatory readiness

Reformulation B emerges as the strongest option with a more affordable tomato concentrate, reducing sodium by 28%, and allowing the team to retain a “good source of fiber” claim. The team exports the comparison report to share it with Marketing, Regulatory, and Product Management for final approval.

All told, the HealthyRoots Foods team is able to reduce the time to a final decision by half and eliminated the need for additional outside review. With Genesis Foods, they're able to generate an updated label that's compliant with both U.S. and Canadian authorities, all in one place.

Example: A Restaurant Chain Makes Seasonal Menu Updates with Genesis Foods

Now, let's look at the potential for the Food Comparison Report in Genesis Foods to help restaurant teams innovate quickly without cutting compliance corners. In this example, Harvest Kitchen is a fast-casual restaurant brand with 25 locations across the United States. As the seasons change, the culinary team rotates several menu items to meet sustainability goals with seasonal ingredients and changing consumer preferences.

As they prepare the winter menu, Harvest Kitchen's team decides to refresh the “Autumn Power Bowl” by lowering the calorie count to appeal to January health-conscious consumers and replacing ingredients that will soon be out of season. They create two new versions, one that substitutes farro for quinoa and one that features a different mix of root vegetables.

They have three key objectives:

Identify nutritional differences in all three varients, especially in calories, fiber, and sodium
Ensure accurate allergen tracking with ingredient swaps (e.g., quinoa vs. farro)
Enable the marketing team to make evidence-based menu claim decisions

Using the Food Comparison Report, the Harvest Kitchen's R&D chef loads the three versions of the Autumn Power Bowl into Genesis and runs a side-by-side report displaying calorie, fat, protein, fiber, and sodium content as well as ingredient changes that show that the farro has introduced a potential allergen — the gluten introduced by swapping quinoa for farro.

Digital Download: Menu Labeling 101: What You Need to Know

The chef identifies that Harvest Bowl Version B reduces total calories by 120 and maintains 20% DV fiber and notices that Version C exceeds 5% DV sodium. She then shares the report directly with Marketing and Operations for approval and labeling.

The team assesses the report and together they choose Version B, which meets marketing criteria for a "Good Source of Fiber" and offers a lower- calorie seasonal option. The food safety team can use the resulting report to determine that they need to remove the “gluten-free” label from the new version to prevent regulatory mislabeling, and the marketing team will use the side-by-side data to update menu boards, digital menus, and promotional materials.

By avoiding manual calculations and data entry, and by reducing cross-departmental review, the team accelerates the time to launch while remaining confident in their ability to comply with labeling regulations and make evidence-based claims.

Recipe Comparison Tools Build Agility Into the Product Development Process

Product development in food companies often follows a pattern: test a change, review the results, and then decide whether to launch. What varies between companies is how efficient and consistent that process is. A structured comparison report introduces repeatability to the process. Every recipe version is evaluated with the same standards, the same regulatory logic, and the same format. Teams learn faster from each iteration. Over time, this not only accelerates product development but also improves decision quality.

So, yes, in Genesis Classic, we have a feature called menu label or menu label reports, which we now have available in Genesis Foods. However, we have renamed this feature to food comparison report. In our research, we realized that while menu label reports in classics are really important for building those menu boards with label rounded data for our restaurant customers, that a lot of our customers had actually started utilizing the feature for r and d purposes. So when we built food comparison report in Genesis Foods with that in mind. So I do wanna start with demoing the new feature, and there is a lot to show. It's actually quite robust. So to start to open up your food comparison reports, you navigate here to your main dashboard. And then here, you'll see a card for FCR with this option to take me there. Selecting take me there opens up your selections of reports as well as gives you the option to create a new report in this upper left hand corner. Now these reports are global to your account, which means that if you have multiple users, everyone can utilize these reports. Notice you can see Carrie's french fry comparison report and Beryl's boba tea menu board here. One thing to note, though, is that the food items within reports are still restricted by access groups. So if you do utilize access groups to restrict the view of ingredients or recipes and the report contains at least one restricted item, that user would not be able to see or open the report. But as long as you're not using any restrictions with access groups, then these reports are shareable across all users in your account. So let's start with the new report. I'm gonna go ahead and click on that button. And the first thing I really wanna draw your eye to is this toggle, at the top. Notice how it says edit report versus view report. So when you're setting up your report, adding your food items, or otherwise customizing the layout, you'll wanna do that from here on this edit screen. To see the final report with all of the calculated data and to export it, you'll do that from the view report screen. So let's start with giving this report a name. I'm gonna click on this pencil icon here and give it something easy like braille's demo report and save. Next, on the left hand side, I can build my categories. So categories are the buckets that I wanna put my food items in. So for example, Lisa, if you were building a menu board, you may want categories like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. To add a new category, I select this add category on this left hand side and give it a name. Notice how Genesis has actually automatically created a category for you called food items. If you don't wanna use this, you can either rename it or delete it. You can use the pencil icon to rename it or use the trash icon to delete. In this case, I'm gonna rename this one, and then I'm gonna add a few more categories as well, including I'm gonna add this whoopsie category because now I've decided, oops, I created an extra category. I no longer want this. I wanna get rid of it. So to do so, I simply select the category and then hit the trash icon. I've also noticed that my categories are not in the right order, so I'm actually gonna hover my mouse over the category that I want to move. And I can either use these up and down arrows or simply click to drag and drop to reorder and put my categories into the correct order. Now next, above each category is this option to, add the food items to the report. So I'm gonna go ahead and do that. Now this is our new search model that we are actually rolling out first for food comparison report. And this search model is actually way more robust than our previous search models. One of my favorite things about it is that you can actually select multiple items on the left hand side, and then they will be added to your cart on the right hand side. So you can keep searching and adding things as you go. So, for example, perhaps I was searching for this report things under this specific tag, like b b. I can add that, and then I can continue on with my search as I want to go and keep adding things to my report without having to back out. You can still toggle between your user added items and trustful database items across the top here. And then we've also added an extra filter down below so that now you can search for ingredients specifically, recipes specifically, or if you wanna search across ingredients and recipes, you can now do that as well. So in this case, I'm gonna search for my grandma's red apples. Alright. One other thing we've also added to this search model is we have brought in the ability to add previous versions of a food item. We do this because we don't wanna clog up your search screen with search results, so we only, by default, display the most recent version. However, if you're looking or wanting to add a different version of the food item, you can now use these left arrows next to the name to expand it and expand and see all of the versions of these food items. As you can see, if we displayed every version of a food item by default, your search list could get really long. So that's why we only display the most recent by default, but you can expand and select others. We had another question from Stephanie. And Stephanie asked, how do I compare all versions of my recipe at the same time? So, Stephanie, this would be a really great way to do that. You could search for your recipe, select all of the versions or all of the versions that you would like to compare, and then add that to the report. And that way, you could see the changes made to that recipe over time throughout the different versions. Alright. So I'm gonna go ahead and add these and hit apply. And then now I've created my categories. I've added some food items, and now I wanna customize the data shown in my report. And this is the fun part. So to do that, I'm gonna select the column and data settings, and that's gonna open up this model. Now on this left hand side, I can select which data I want to see and what order. So, Lisa, if I was building a menu board, I'd probably want to include my nutrients, my ingredients, and my allergen statements, but perhaps I don't wanna show my quantity and measure. Notice that these column data settings have the same up and down arrows or drag and drop options as category. So if I wanted to change the layout or order of my data, I can simply just move that here on this left hand side. You may have also noticed that this panel on the right hand side is dynamically updating depending on which data that I am adding to my report. Excuse me. So in this case, I have added nutrients. And because I have selected nutrients, I now have this option to apply rounding rules. Actually, let me go one step back. So first, I wanna point out that we do have the authority selector here across the top. I wanna build this report for my United States authority, but if I did want to build it for other label authority regulations, I can do this so by clicking this. Next, I have this apply rounding rules, which is only available when I do have my nutrients selected for this report. This is a great way to get your label rounded values without having to create a label for your recipes. And before I apply these rounding rules, I wanna draw your eye to this nutrients to view list. You'll notice that when I do go ahead and apply these rounding rules, this nutrients to view list has automatically updated to using the US two thousand sixteen menu board option, when those have been applied. The reason behind this is because rounding rules only apply to specific nutrients. And to avoid a report where you have a nutrient list where some nutrients are labeled rounded and then your other nutrients are unrounded, when you apply the label rounding rules in this report, we restrict the nutrients to view list to either the mandatory label nutrients or this truncated menu board nutrients list that we have prebuilt for you to use. However, if you're looking for the unrounded nutrient data, you can toggle off the apply rounding rules and see that all of the nutrients to view list are now available, including any custom list you may have built. comparison report in Genesis foods, we now support the label rounded values for all supported authorities, including Canada, Mexico, European Union, and Australia, New Zealand. So for example, if I had switched my authority to Canada and then apply the rounding rules, notice how my nutrients to view list has updated to my Canada mandatory label nutrients list. Alright. Few more things down here. Important for menu boards is the ability to show calorie ranges per category, which you can choose to do so by toggling on the show calorie ranges button here. Also, if you like to calculate and show the percent daily value of the nutrients, you can toggle on this percent, show percent reference value here. Also, for your ingredient allergen statements, if you're using a bilingual authority like US, Canada, or EU, you can choose which language statements you'd want to show on this report. For example, for the United States, you'd be showing English Spanish. But if this is for, Canadian authorities, it would be English French. Also, with the allergen statements, you can choose to show only your contains allergen statements, your may contains allergen statements, or both. Alright. So now that I've done this, I'm actually gonna flip over to a report that I've already built for a menu board. To get back to my list of reports, I'm going to actually just use these links across here at the top, and selecting the food comparison reports brings me right back to my list of reports here. And then I'm gonna go ahead and open up this Briele's boba tea menu board report, that I prebuilt. And as you'll notice, as I opened it, it jumps me straight into my view report section. On the left hand side, I have my categories for my milk tea and my fruit teas. I have added in my food items and included my calorie ranges. But maybe while I'm looking at this, I realize, actually, I wanna add my ingredient statements to this report. I only have my allergen statements. I can simply open up my column and data settings, add in my ingredient statements, and, heck, maybe I wanna change the order of my layout too as well while I'm in there. And then hit apply. And then here I go. I have my report with my ingredient, allergen, and nutrient data as well. And then if I want to, I can export this report by using the export button in the upper right hand corner. And this report is exportable in both the CSV and the XLSX, which is the Excel file type.

A company that uses structured comparison data to select between formulations, validate claims, and manage allergen risks is better positioned to adapt and grow. As labeling regulations evolve and ingredient markets shift, that kind of operational clarity becomes a competitive advantage, especially in organizations with seasonal menu items and product offerings.

Faster, more iterative development cycles will require the food industry to adopt new technology and rethink their processes. When we think of agile product development, tech companies tend to spring to mind, but the approach isn't exclusive to social media networks or enterprise SaaS providers. For food brands, agility means being able to test, compare, and finalize formulations quickly without sacrificing compliance or safety while giving teams the visibility they need to collaborate effectively.

Watch On-Demand: Streamline Operations with Food Specification Management

Side-by-side comparison reports provide a structure for iteration, because they allow for an apples-to-apples (or farro-to-quinoa!) comparison. Instead of relying on isolated documents or spreadsheets, teams can bring forward accurate, consistent data each time they test a new version. This speeds up approvals, limits the need for external testing at early stages, and creates a repeatable process for product innovation.

To learn more about how your team can use tools like the Food Comparison Report within Genesis Foods, explore Trustwell's food formulation, labeling, and compliance tools or try a hands on demo of the industry's gold standard in recipe development. Our platform is built to support faster, smarter product development across every part of the supply chain from the very first ingredient to the final version of your label.

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

Theresa Rex

Theresa Rex is Trustwell's Digital Marketing Manager. She has over two decades' experience researching, writing, creating, and marketing content for curious readers and leaders online. A former food and lifestyle writer, Theresa joined Trustwell in 2024.