Ingredients
An ingredient is a single food item with a nutrient profile attached to it. Ingredients are the building blocks for recipes and labels: every recipe is a list of ingredients with quantities, and every label pulls its nutrient values from an ingredient or a recipe.
Nutritionist Pro ships with a large library of source ingredients (shown as created by Axxya Systems) that you can search and use as they are. You can also create your own custom ingredients, shown under My Data, when the ingredient you need isn't in the source library or you want to store your own nutrient values for it.
Finding an ingredient
Open Search Ingredient(s) from the Ingredients dashboard's Edit Ingredient tile. The basic search box matches on name or ID.
Advance Search adds three tabs of filters:
- By region or date - data source (Axxya Systems or My Data), create/update date range, region, unique code.
- By source or tags - manufacturer source, manufacturer, references, discontinued status, common, generic.
- By nutrients or groups - include or exclude a food group, and filter by the value of specific nutrients (per serving or per 100 g).
You can save a set of search filters as a named saved search to reuse later, and customize which columns the results table shows with Column Views. The dashboard also keeps a My Recent 100 Ingredients list and a Recent Ingredient table for quick access without searching.
Creating an ingredient
From the Ingredients dashboard, choose Create Ingredient. The ingredient editor opens on the General tab. Type an Ingredient Name and the ingredient is created. The remaining tabs stay disabled until it exists.
Once the ingredient exists you can work through the tabs in any order:
- General - ingredient name, an optional image, food group, whether the ingredient is common or generic, manufacturer source (Axxya Systems or My Data), manufacturer, reference, and a unique code.
- Measures - the serving sizes the ingredient can be measured in. Add each measure with a serving amount, a unit, and the gram weight it corresponds to, plus an optional note.
- Nutrients - the nutrient values for the ingredient, shown for the typical portion you entered. You can base nutrient goals on the Axxya Systems template or your own, and use the Calorie Checker to confirm your calorie value matches what the macronutrients add up to.
- Statements - the common name and ingredient statement, entered per language if you work in more than one.
Your changes save as you type, so there is no Save button. The header shows Saved once everything required is in place, and Draft until then. A tab with something missing is marked with an asterisk, and hovering over it tells you what to add. A banner above the tabs lists what is still outstanding. Only two things are required: an ingredient name on General, and at least one measure with a serving amount, unit, and gram weight on Measures. The Nutrients and Statements tabs are optional.
Until the ingredient is complete it stays a draft and is marked with a warning icon in the Recent Ingredient list. It is published as soon as the required information is there, so you can stop partway and come back to the rest later.
Choose Generate Report in the header to report on the ingredient, or Save & Close to finish and return to the dashboard.
Editing an ingredient
Find the ingredient and choose Edit. This opens the same tabbed editor used to create an ingredient, with the existing values filled in.
Duplicating an ingredient
Choose Duplicate on an ingredient's row to create a copy of it. The copy is named after the original with "duplicate1" appended (and "duplicate2" and so on for further copies), so you can tell it apart before renaming it.
Deleting an ingredient
Choose Delete on an ingredient's row and confirm. If the ingredient is currently used in a recipe, label, recipe book, menu, or client plan, Nutritionist Pro checks for that before deleting it.
Trial accounts have a limit on how many custom ingredients you can create. If you reach the limit, upgrade your account to create more.