We spend a lot of time doing the calculations for nutrition panels. These are easy if you know how and have the right information in front of you. They are very difficult and error prone if you don’t know how, and/or don’t have the right info.
There is always have the option of sending your product away to a lab for testing, but you may as well kiss about $400 away though. Then another $400 every time you do a line extension.
Calculating nutrition panels using data and tables is a much better way to go.
Let’s start with the first bit of info I always forget about till the very end, which is when the info is required. You need to know the serving size, and number of serves. This is usually easy information for the client to provide with a little planning, but if it hasn’t been anticipated, then can cause an expensive delay.
Secondly, there are usually issues with the recipe. It all needs to be in metric – grams and litres. No cups of sugar, teaspoons of cinnamon etc.
Thirdly, you need to know the cook losses. For instance, the cake might weigh 1kg before it goes into the oven, but you also need to know what the temperature will be when it comes out of the oven. This can become extremely tricky when dealing with fried foods as they lose water, then take on oil, so there are 2 different mass transfer processes going on. I will explain the solution soon.
You will need to be able to closely define the ingredients. For instance, if you refer to nutrition data tables and look up beef, there will probably be 50 types of beef cut – with and without fat, to consider. Likewise, salt can be iodised, rock salt, sea salt, cooking salt etc.
You need to get hold of all the nutrition information of all the ingredients if possible. This usually means getting hold of the specification or Product Information Form. These usually have a nutrition panel in them that you can use, but not always. Likewise, if you are using the ingredients from the supermarket the wrapper should (not always) have the nutrition information. The big problem I have is when the pack of ingredients has been decanted into a new container and the original packaging has been thrown away. Where possible, always keep an example wrapper, or take plenty of photos and file them accordingly.
With all the right information, a nutrition panel can be produced in no time. But that almost never happens. When producing a Custom Food Control Plan, finishing up the nutrition panels is a massive milestone.
Back to the oily product… This one had me stumped for a while. Here is how you go about measuring it all. Weigh the ingredients before they go into the fryer. Then weigh the entire fryer with all the oil in it. This can only really be done with a benchtop fryer which we have. You then fry the food at the recommended temperature / time profile. Following this, you drain the food and weigh it. Lastly, you weigh the entire fryer and oil. From this, you can use a little maths and work out how much water has been lost, and how much oil has been added.
Other examples also take a lot of thought. A lot. Nutrition panels need to be worked out correctly as a verifier will be coming to your business and will want to see how you have worked out your panels.
You need to get your nutrition panels right from the start as a verifier will be coming to check them and all your labels. You don’t want to be sitting on $10,000 worth of packaging when you’re told you have to get new labels. Give us a call on 0800 475463 and one of our contract food technologists can help.
