Waste Calculator
Waste can be accounted for in Nutritics at multiple levels. In the recipe workspace, if you go to your ingredient list and click to add an ingredient quantity, you will see the option to specify that the quantity ‘includes waste’.
Ticking ’includes waste’ presents 2 options, ‘Ingredient yield’ and ‘Production waste’.
1. Ingredient Yield %:
This is the expected amount of usable ingredient left after the ingredient has been prepared (e.g. skin has been peeled, stones removed etc.)
For example, onions have a 90% yield after removal of the skin. If you pay for 1000g of onions, you will have 900g of usable product going in to your recipes (yet you pay for 1000g). So in this case, you would specify that the ingredient yield is 90%.
Most foods in Nutritics have a suggested yield % already that can be used, or custom values can be tagged onto foods.
To set the yield on an ingredient from the recipe workspace:
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Find the ingredient in the recipe ingredient list
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Click on the ingredient quantity
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Tick 'Includes Waste'
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Tick 'Ingredient Yield' and click on the ‘Ingredient Yield’ percentage to edit the yield and the cost price of the ingredient.
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Click ‘Lookup’ to see our library of suggested yield percentages. These are categorised by food groups.
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Find the food and choose an appropriate yield percentage based on the source. Click the ‘edible_portion’ value to apply it to the food. Click ‘Update’ in the bottom right to attach the usable yield to all recipes the food is used in.
5. Click ‘Lookup’ to see our library of suggested yield percentages. These are categorised by food groups.
6. Find the food and choose an appropriate yield percentage based on the source. Click the ‘edible_portion’ value to apply it to the food. Click ‘Update’ in the bottom right to attach the usable yield to all recipes the food is used in.
If an ingredient yield is changed, this will automatically update any other recipes in which this ingredient is used.
Note: The % usable yield can also be set when inputting ingredient costs from the recipe workspace.
Once an ingredient yield has been entered, the weight of the ingredient excluding waste will be shown in the description box to the right of the ingredient quantity.
The total recipe weight will update to reflect the weight of the ingredients excluding waste and the recipe’s nutritional information will update accordingly.
The total cost of wasted material will be shown along with the total recipe cost under the recipe ingredients if costings are enabled on the account.
Percentage yield has also been added as a column on the food importer spreadsheet and the cost uploader spreadsheet for mass updates (accessed by going to the start menu < batch jobs if this feature is included in your plan).
2. Production waste:
This accounts for waste that occurs due to the recipe production methods. This is an acceptable loss of usable material; for example, 2-3% of pancake batter may stick to the mixing bowl and utensils, or 70-80% of a marinade may be discarded after use.
To set the production waste on an ingredient from the recipe workspace:
- Find the ingredient in the recipe ingredient list
- Click on the ingredient quantity
- Tick 'includes waste'
- Tick 'production waste' and enter the waste value. Waste can be entered in grams e.g. if leftovers are weighed after production. If the gram weight of the wasted material is entered, Nutritics will work out the percentage waste and vice versa.
Similar to with the ingredient yield, specifying production waste will update the total recipe weight and the recipe’s nutritional information and costings will update accordingly.