Recipes & ingredients FAQ
How recipes, ingredients, allergens and costing work. Also see the Labels FAQ and Inventory FAQ.
How does a recipe become a label?
Add ingredients with amounts and the nutrition rolls up automatically: per serving, with waste percentages and yield applied. The label in the Generator updates live. No manual data entry unless you want to override a value.
Where does ingredient nutrition data come from?
USDA FoodData Central, queried live as you search, the same database the FDA references. A free USDA API key (cog icon next to the search box) lifts the shared rate limit.
What is AI Jumpstart?
Paste your recipe as plain text ("2 cups flour", "200 g butter") and every line is parsed and matched against USDA automatically. Review the matches, swap any, and the whole ingredient list lands in your recipe with nutrition attached.
Can I add my own ingredients with a supplier spec sheet?
Yes, custom ingredients support the full spec: nutrients (including amino acids and IU vitamins), allergen species, HACCP category, safety fields, custom volume/weight measures, and file attachments for the spec sheet itself.
Can a recipe be an ingredient in another recipe?
Yes, sub-recipes. "Save as ingredient" turns any recipe into a reusable ingredient with its per-100g rollup, and it appears in the ingredient search alongside USDA results. Sauces, doughs and bases only need building once.
How do allergens work?
Each ingredient carries its allergens (down to species, such as "tree nuts (almond)"), the recipe unions them automatically, and the label's Contains statement is generated from that union per FALCPA + FASTER Act.
Does it generate the ingredient statement?
Yes, descending order by weight per §101.4, from your actual amounts, in the Statement tab. Sub-recipe ingredients are expanded parenthetically.
Can it cost my recipe?
The Cost tab computes per-batch and per-unit cost from ingredient prices, packaging, labor and overhead, with margin targets and a cost history so you can see drift over time.
Is my work saved automatically?
Yes, everything saves to your account (never to the device). In-progress work autosaves every 30 seconds and restores on any device; saved recipes live in your cloud library with duplicate, version history and tags.
Can I move recipes in and out?
Import/Export JSON round-trips the complete recipe + label state. CSV/data-feed import for bulk migration is on the roadmap; contact us if you're migrating from another tool and we'll help.