CALCMENU - Making the business profitable with the right culinary solution.

Allergens, Nutrients and the importance of Label Information Shrimps, nuts, and eggs. These are but a few food items that could really trigger an itch and for some, even death. However, these food items are often what makes recipes unique and tasteful. Allergens are often included to ingredients that make culinary masterpieces what they are. Allergens are generally defined as any number of materials (food or chemicals) that produce an abnormally vigorous immunity response to the body resulting to hypersensitive reaction. It’s like introducing something really strange to your body and it starts to defend itself because it is unable to identify it as a food product. What EU authorities say Food allergens are often a topic of concern for most foodservice establishments that serve various menus for different sets of customers. This is why allergen information is critical to both foodservice providers as well as consumers not only for health but also for p...

After using the online demo of CALCMENU, you decided that it is the recipe management solution you needed and decided to buy CALCMENU. EGS sends you CALCMENU in DVD form together with the user manual. You install CALCMENU in your computer but, you are confused as to where to start. Here I will explain how to go about in starting to use CALCMENU. First, you need to configure your CALCMENU . Go to Configuration> Options and Preferences . This is where you set up the basic information you will use in the CALCMENU program itself and in managing your recipes. The Options dialog box displays the several information that you can configure. You can define your preferences for the general and default information, nutrients, picture, currency, import and contact. Define all the information that you will use in CALCMENU. For example, if you are using English as the language of the program, then select English in the General tab. Metric or Imperial? If you want to use kilograms, grams, li...

The USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) recently introduced a new eating guide called MyPlate which replaces the decades-old Food Guide Pyramid. MyPlate is a plate icon sliced into four to represent different food groups. Each colored section is for fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins. A circle icon for dairy is also included in the new guide. MyPlate encourages people to eat more fruits and veggies (should be half of your meal) and reduce sodium-rich soups, bread and frozen meals. The release of a new eating guide is part of the US’ movement to deal with the obesity problem in America. US First Lady Michelle Obama says “ This is a quick, simple reminder for all of us to be more mindful of the foods that we're eating .”* To know more about MyPlate, you can check out this website: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/ . * Reuters.com

For the first part of this entry, click here . source: dailyspark.com 4. CALCMENU Pro and CALCMENU Enterprise allow you to adjust the nutrient/allergen content in a certain food product/dish. This is handy when you want to make changes in your recipes without altering its quality. Let’s say for instance you found out that a certain recipe has quite high sodium content, you may modify this recipe’s sodium content to fit the diet requirement or taste of your customer. Flexibility in your recipes, i.e. being able to adjust your recipes to help improve the nutrient content in meals, will be beneficial in the long run as nutrient and mineral requirements may change over time. This can be aptly demonstrated by a study conducted in 2004 by Donald Davis, PhD, a former researcher for the Biochemical Institute of the University of Texas, Austin. His findings show that there has been a decline of up to 50% in many minerals, vitamins and nutrients sourced from fruits and vegeta...

Last week, we have talked about the importance of nutrient and allergen management tools like EGS CALCMENU and EGS F&B Control, for foodservice professionals. We have concluded that such tools are an effective way to keep up with the growing need of informing consumers of the nutrient and allergen content in food products and in improving nutrient and allergen management in the food industry. This week, we have listed down the various ways on how these tools, specifically EGS CALCMENU and EGS F&B Control help in ensuring reliable nutrient and allergen management. 1. CALCMENU Pro and CALCMENU Enterprise automatically provide nutritional information for your recipes and menus. Each recipe’s nutritional content can be easily calculated to up to 12 nutritional values that you have chosen from several databases or references such as USDA (American reference), BLS (German) and ASA (Swiss).  Nutrient Tab in CALCMENU Enterprise containing the nutrient information of...

Nowadays, it is not enough for customers to just pick out any dish in a menu. Most of them make it a point to know what is in the dish—sometimes even demanding a detailed listing of the ingredients. It is a more vigilant approach to what you eat that can make a big difference in keeping yourself in the pink of health. More and more health-conscious people keep track of each nutrient they take in, making sure that each intake is only within the recommended daily serving allowance. Others however, need to be more particular with the ingredients in their meal due to possible presence of allergens. Allergens are substances in food that cause an adverse reaction, usually affecting the immune system. Virtually all allergens are proteins and can be present in large amounts and most often, survive food-processing conditions. If no extra care is made, ingestion of even a small amount, sometimes less than a milligram (e.g. a tiny fragment of almond or two sesame seeds) can lead to an ups...