Cheat Sheet
Recipe types
Item as recipe
Uses one entire food item or a certain quantity of a food item, thus allowing this item to be served on a menu. This recipe does not support multiple serving sizes. This is used mostly to serve packaged goods like a juice box or full pieces of fruit like an apple.
Complex recipe
A recipe is a combination of ne or more items in specific proportions with specific instructions. The recipe builder uses the information for each item to automatically calculate meal pattern, nutrition facts, and recipe cost. Complex recipes can have multiple serving sizes for each meal / grade groups tracked on the same object. The base serving size can be a weight, volume, or each.
Recipe as ingredient
A recipe can be used as an ingredient in other recipes by turning on "Allow as ingredient" on the recipe page. In order for a recipe to be used as an ingredient it has to have weight or volume as a measurement and can only be scaled to the same unit types. The recipe will appear on the ingredient list as one ingredient when writing and scaling recipes, however the full list of sub-ingredients will appear on the forecasting and shopping list.
This is encourage for sub-recipes that are assembled as part of the service preparation. For bulk sauces or ingredients that are prepared independently from the main recipe, consider leveraging central kitchen modules and associated items.
Assorted recipe
An Assorted recipe is a collection of recipes called options put on a menu as a group to allow the school team a level of choice in their weekly offerings. On Production records, Assorted recipes are broken down into a subset of their original options. On the parent portal, the visitor doesn’t get to see which specific options are available for which day because the portal receives data only from menus and not PRs.
Nutrition Calculation: For compliance purposes, the nutritional value of an assorted recipe is set as the minimum of all options. While the system allows for recipes of any nutritional value to be listed under an assorted recipe, an assortment is intended for recipes of identical credits.
Definitions
Details
Recipe Code: User specified code in addition to the system generated code.
Name on Production: Internal name for the recipe. Required.
Name on Portal : Optional public name visible on the portal. Defaults to the internal name if left blank.
Process type: This comes preset with the 3 standard process types as listed in the ICN website. Selecting a process type unlocks the relevant HACCPs for selection. Districts can add process types and HACCP steps by submitting a request. Required.
Standard serving size: The measurement that will be used when serving the recipe. Additional serving sizes can be added for different groups. Required.
Yield: The number of standard servings resulting from the recipe preparation process. Required.
Tags: Recipe tags are not inherited from item tags and have to be specified by the user.
Attachments: Used to stored related documents, photos, and videos.
Shelf life: set a custom expiration date for leftovers
Attributes
Allow as ingredient: Allows to use the recipe as an ingredient in other recipes.
Allow on menus: Enabled by default. When disabled, this stops the recipe from showing up on the recipe book and being added to menus but does not affect being able to use it as a sub-recipe.
Allow as fixing: Allows the recipe to be used as a fixing (e.g., optional toppings or additions) on other recipes.
Nutrition
Ingredients:
A recipe must have at least one ingredient in order to calculate nutrition facts. The smart search allows searching for ingredients by name, manufacturer information, or components. An ingredient can have a primary and secondary units when specifying amounts. Only units supported on the item will be available for selection. Refer to Units section in the Food Items page for more details.
Each ingredient has a drag handle on the left which allows to re-order ingredients or access the editing menu. By right clicking the drag handle you can remove items and add or remove secondary units.
Fixings and Condiments
Optional ingredients that should be included on menus and production records but should not count towards the total recipe calories.
Only recipes marked as fixing can be added in this section. The amount of a fixing takes the standard serving size of the fixing recipe.
When a recipe is added to the menu, assigned fixings will automatically be added on the menu and production records under the Fixings and Condiments sections for that day and can be used for weighted analysis and forecasting calculations.
Special Diets: Recipes DO NOT inherit special diet tags from items, given that they may include contradictory tags or become invalid when other ingredients are added. The user must specify the relevant special diets. An AI feature is in development to provide recommended tags based on the ingredients used.
Grade Group Serving Sizes: Users can assign different serving sizes per grade group, and can see the prorated and compliant calculation by click the relevant grade group tab under Nutrition Facts. Gaia will also recalculate the yield for each group.
Instructions
Instructions can be broken down into pages to help kitchen staff with multi-day recipes.
Gaia uses a rich text editor which support different font formatting, allows adding pictures and videos in the instructions, and allows adding special characters.
Ingredients can be mentioned or tagged in the instructions, which allows Gaia to show you a tally of unused ingredients in the instructions. Select the text for an ingredient and click on the +Ingredient button to assign the relevant item.
When you tag an ingredient on a recipe, that ingredient is mentioned on the same page as the tag text. This ensures that if you print a recipe on multiple pages (using the page break feature), the ingredient shows up with its respective instructions
On the print, ingredients show up in the order in which they are tagged (if there’s at least one tagged ingredient). Else, they show up in the order they appear on the nutrition tab.
HACCP can also be tagged which allows to pull them on reports or display them on production records.
Calculated Fields
System ID: Unique ID generated by Gaia for each version of a recipe.
Nutrition facts: Auto calculated based on the specified measurements of each ingredient. Gaia does not verify that ingredient measurements will produce the correct serving size or yield, as preparation processes can affect volume and weight. It is the user's responsibility to specify the standard measurement and yield. Gaia calculates the nutrition information based on the specified ingredient amounts and yields. Changing the standard serving size doesn’t affect the nutrition calculation of the standard serving.
Component credits: Meal patterns are automatically calculated based on the ingredients and their amounts by applying the USDA compliance requirements for rounding down to the nearest 1/4 for grain and meat / meat altercative and the nearest 1/8 for fruits and vegetables.
Note that the same calculation rules are applied independently to each serving size if multiple serving sizes are provided on the same recipe.
Note that nutrition facts and component credits my be over-written by the user directly from the recipe builder. Gaia continues to display to the recipe writers the original calculations but only the overrides will be visible to the sites or public menus.
Allergens: Allergens are detected on each item and automatically assigned to the recipe. They cannot be edit by the user, the item has to be updated and the recipe will automatically reflect the changes.
Cost Per Serving: Calculated as the total cost of all ingredients divided by the yield. This does not include labor costs or specific inventory used.
Statuses
Draft: Before the first time the recipe is published it will remain in draft and will not show up on the recipe book search (cannot yet be added to menus). Gaia saves all changes to the draft even if it is not published.
Active: Latest published version of a recipe that shows up on production records and public menus.
Revision: Any time you make an edit to a recipe, a revision is created and all changes will be saved without publishing. The Active version remains unchanged until the revision is published. A revision can also be discarded which will maintain the previous Active version.
Archived: Replaced by a newer version of the recipe or de-activated. Recipe will no longer show up in search results unless the archived filter is selected.
Related Objects
You can click on each item in a recipe to see its details. Additionally Gaia tracks each menu plan and menu week that uses this recipe, and users will be able to pull reports in the pantry by applying those filters.
Adding and Editing Recipes
New recipes can be added from the Pantry page or from the Quick Actions section in the Navigation bar. From the actions menu on the top right of the recipe page you can also
Duplicate recipes: This will copy across all the details of the recipe and assign a new system ID.
Scale and print recipes: Select preferred measurement amounts and serving size to export recipes for printing.
Archive recipes: This will inactivate a recipe from the main pantry and recipe book searches without removing the details from the platform. Archived items can be accessed through Custom Pantry Views.
Delete recipes: This will completely remove all records and history of the item from the Gaia platform.