MENU PLANNING & PRODUCTION

PrimeroEdge is USDA-approved for nutrient analysis to meet school meal program requirements offering both State Agencies and School Food Authorities (SFAs) real-time tools that provide compliance feedback, remote monitoring, and increase efficiency.

Customers

South Dakota DOE

Key Benefits & Features

  • Proactively identify and correct deficiencies prior to meal service

  • Provide an affordable solution for small SFAs with limited staff and resources

  • Eliminate the need for SFAs to invest in server hardware and associated IT staff resources

  • View built-in compliance indicators and reports to stay in compliance

  • Save a significant amount of time during reviews by accessing ingredients, recipes, menu cycles and production records

  • Eliminate paper clutter and physical storage costs with electronic production records which are more complete, accurate, and legible

  • Gain excellent internal monitoring and control capabilities

  • Eliminate duplicate data and manual data entry of nutritional information

  • Give SFAs access to find intriguing new recipes to increase student participation

  • Standardized, statewide menus or menu cycles save SFA’s valuables time

  • Mark allergens at the ingredient level for automatic tracking to the recipe and beyond

  • Recipe reports can be automatically generated to communicate HACCP requirements for kitchen staff

Centralized Database

A centralized database of ingredients, recipes, menus and menu cycles greatly benefits SFAs by reducing their workload.  The fewer people entering base data also helps reduce human data entry error. In addition to time-saving advantages gained through data entry reduction when utilizing a centralized database, there are significant efficiencies gained when sharing menu and menu cycles that already meet requirements.

Ingredient Management

PrimeroEdge is pre-loaded with the most current Child Nutrition (CN) database to create local foods and new recipes. Containing more than 10,000 food items for food and recipe management, SFAs can cut back on time-consuming imports.  New ingredients not already in the database can easily be added, imported, or created by copying existing ingredients in the system and configuring as needed. Nutrition label images for each ingredient can also be scanned and stored for convenient access at any time.

Menus and Nutrient Analysis

Share ingredients, recipes, menus and menu cycles and modify menus in one shared environment for all SFAs at the same time. Mark any shared ingredient or recipe as ‘Verified’ to help SFAs know what items are ready for use. At the SFA level, menu planners can get real time compliance feedback as they build their menus. Users can check nutrient compliance each step of the way with the click of a button. Color coded indicators let the menu planner know if their meals fall within the required ranges. 

Electronic Production Records

Electronic production records enable SFAs to gain excellent internal monitoring and control capabilities as well as making them easily accessible to the SA for review purposes. Production records are well organized and readily accessible from anywhere, anytime. By maintaining production records electronically, SFAs can benefit from higher data accuracy, and improve their projected counts with the PrimeroEdge built-in forecasting tools.  

Forecasting

Manage your budget and ordering by projecting food quantities and costs in customizable Forecast Periods. Users can choose from multiple Forecast types or create a custom forecast type by Date Range, Meal Type, and Site Group. Each Forecast will show the projected number of menu servings, required materials, and calculated costs. Servings are easily adjustable for planning and costing purposes. These methods help SFAs identify how much of USDA commodities you can utilize to maximize PAL funds. 

Streamlined Reviews

There are significant advantages when State Agencies have access to the same ingredient, menu, and production data as the SFAs in a centralized cloud-based platform:

  • SAs can review and analyze data available centrally without having to duplicate data entry efforts.  
  • From ingredients and recipes to production records, state agencies can optimize on-site reviews through remote accessibility.
  • Nutrient analysis reviews for all SFAs can be performed entirely online.
  • Shared ingredients and recipes can also be flagged as “verified” once they are reviewed, greatly reducing SA review workload and increasing SFAs confidence in menu selection and building.
  • If corrections are needed, they can be done in one shared environment to correct for all SFAs at the same time.

Since a significant amount of the review can be accomplished remotely at the convenience of a reviewer’s desk, time spent on-site can be used to target specific areas to determine if potential findings exist. More time on-site can be spent in providing training and technical assistance or educating SFA child nutrition staff in order to improve program results.

Affordable for small SFAs

SFAs with access to a menu planning tool can have greater potential for compliance with regulations. PrimeroEdge utilizes a cloud-based platform that is remotely managed, thus eliminating the need for each SFA to invest in server hardware and associated IT staff resources. SFAs that could not otherwise afford a high-quality solution.

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