Managing Ingredients - New
- Ruth Mills
Introduction
In preparation for Natasha's Law which comes into effect in October 2021, our clients' suppliers are now able to upload ingredient data into the IndiCater Supplier Portal.
Catalogues are currently uploaded into the portal by a supplier for a specific client. This enables you to manage the product range and the prices.
For Natasha's Law we have created a new tier of supplier called the Product Supplier. At Product Supplier level, you can upload ingredients which can be accessed by all of your IndiCater clients. This means you don't have to upload the same info for multiple clients. You can also enter links to images (graphicstring) and some other fields although please note that whilst these are available for the orderer to view when ordering, only the ingredients are used elsewhere in the system.
Assumptions
A catalogue is being submitted for at least one client.
Where to find this
In the Supplier Portal.
Step-by-Step guide
1.You will be sent a new Product Supplier log in by either IndiCater or one of your IndiCater clients.
2. Log into the portal with your new log in details.
3. You will land on the Product Info page which is where you can manage the ingredients data. Please note that you can't manage catalogues with this log in, you will need to continue using your old log ins for that.
4. Click on the Download Blank Product Info Template
5. As a minimum please complete the Product Code data in column A and the Ingredients data in column C. Please note that the other columns are under review as part of the ongoing portal project and are subject to change in the coming months.
6. As this data is accessed by multiple clients, we recommend that you add your entire product range if possible.
7. Ingredients should be added for all food and drinks items even if the item is the sole ingredient, eg an egg or tomato.
8. Once complete, save and upload.
9. To update your uploaded data on an ongoing basis, click on the Download Product info button to retrieve your previously uploaded data, amend the data and re-upload the file. This will archive the old data and store a new record to enable the change to be date stamped.
How should the ingredients be entered?
The ingredients for each item need to be in descending weight order, this is as they appear on the manufacturer's packaging.
Allergens should be included and can be in capitals but this is not essential. The IndiCater application will search for and bold all allergen words when displaying the data to the client
Ingredients are still required for an item that contains no extra ingredients, for example a carrot.
Here is an example of how the data might look. Please note column B is not required to be completed but is completed in this example for clarity:
Once uploaded the data will be available for the client to print as part of their label. It will also be made available to any integrated 3rd parties through our API.
Using some of the items in the above csv file, the label created through IndiCater for a chocolate tiffin would look like this:
