FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Data Management
Data Sources are containers for Ingredients, Recipes and Menu Cycles that are available to use by the Districts. In Indiana, there are four Data sources. These are:
- Local Data Source: All data in this source is specific to the District. This will contain Ingredients, Recipes and Menus that were created or copied by the District.
- Indiana Shared Data Source: The information in this Data Source are data provided by Districts in Indiana. These will include Ingredients, Recipes and Menus. This is available for all Districts in the State of Indiana only and is not modifiable by users.
- Child Nutrition Database: The information in this Database are from USDA and only includes Ingredients. This is available to all PrimeroEdge clients and is not modifiable by users.
- Cybersoft: This data source is provided by PrimeroEdge. This data source will function just like Indiana Share Data Source and Child Nutrition Database.
The Indiana Shared Data Source is the data source specific to the State of Indiana. This data source includes Ingredients, Recipes and Menus that the Districts in Indiana have voluntarily given to PrimeroEdge to add into the data source. The main purpose of the Data Source is to ensure that there would be less data entry into the system. Districts can use this information immediately without any changes.
The Indiana Department of Education have contracted PrimeroEdge to do data entry for the Indiana Shared Database. To add the Ingredients, Recipes and Menus into the Indiana Shared Data Source, Districts can send their scanned information to CustomerData@primeroedge.com
The PrimeroEdge Data Management Team will then contact the District for any questions as they are entering the information.
Districts cannot modify any of the Share Database (Indiana, Child Nutrition and Cybersoft). If they want to use these databases but just need to make a few changes, Districts will need to copy this information into their local database, by clicking on the “Copy” button, typically found on the top right hand corner for the Generals tab of the Ingredient, Recipe and Menu page.
After our Data Management team entered your Ingredients and Recipes, they will send you a report of what they have entered into PrimeroEdge and give you the Ingredient and Recipe Codes for your items. Using the given codes, you will be able to filter your Ingredients and Recipes and use it immediately.
When you sent your data to us, we would compare it to the ones already in PrimeroEdge. If the data is already in the Indiana Database, then we do not enter it in. The reason for this is that we want to make sure that all the data in the Database are unique. If we have multiple copied data in the database, this will make it cumbersome to filter.
Another reason that we do not enter your Ingredients and Recipes is if the data are incomplete. We want to ensure that the data that we enter is already ready to use. Our Data Management Team will contact your if there are information that they need in order to enter your data into the system.
You will be unable to modify the data in the Indiana Shared Database. However, you will be able to copy the data into your Local Database and modify it from there.
We do not have a direct contact with the manufacturers. If the data has been changed, please, report the information to us and we will make sure that the information is current on that item. If you do use the Indiana Shared items directly into your Recipes and Menus, all of the update that we made will automatically populate into your system. However, if you do copy the data into your local database, any update that we make in the Indiana Shared will not be applied.
The time it takes for your data to show up in the Indiana Shared Database depends on the amount of data to be entered, as well as the quality of the data. If there are missing information or some questions regarding the data, then this will slow down the process since the information needs to be verified. Our Data Management Team will work with your throughout the process to ensure that we have the most accurate information in PrimeroEdge.
For Ingredients, we would prefer if you scan and send us the actual Label since it has all of the information that we would need and we need to upload the Labels in the documents tab for that item. This way, there is a Label associated with the Ingredients.
As for the Recipes, we would need as much information for that recipe as possible. Examples include Ingredients with their measurements, HAACP information (if available), serving sizes, and other information typically seen in Recipes.
Menu Planning
The commodity code is provided by the USDA and is available in the ingredients coming from the Child Nutrition Database. USDA requires us to display this field and District can search for an ingredient by that code. However, it is not needed not for entering ingredients unless the District would like to.
Tags are labels for ingredients and recipes it with words that pertain to the ingredient or item. For instance, beef stew may have the following tags: beef, meat, carrots, stew, and broth. This can help organize the District’s recipe and food items and essentially replaces the categories drop down list where they could select dairy, fruit, vegetable, meat and so on. This is a great way to add as many categories as they need quickly and easily.
- Tags can also be used for various purposes in Menus and/or Menu Cycles:
- Tags can be used on Menus to flag them for a specific use i.e. Special Menus for holidays, field trips, etc.
- Tags can be used to mark menus with types of food ; i.e. Asian, Mexican, BBQ, etc.
- Tags can be used to differentiate between menus with high protein vs. low protein, or specific food type contents such as fresh green beans to associate menus with sale items or seasonal items offered by a vendor.
Exact Match will only show results that exactly match the user’s search criteria, such as Chicken Nuggets as the ingredient name will only display any ingredients with that name. However, Smart Search will look for all possible matches and apply Chicken Nuggets to all possible labels such as description. This does a form of search as well as the words can be in a different order, for instance “Raw Strawberry” would match “Strawberries, raw”.
The difference between As Purchased and As Served is a simple one. As Purchased indicates that the ingredient will be distributed as it was purchased and requires no preparation, such as a Banana Nut Muffin that come prepackaged. As Served means that there is preparation involved such as a can of corn which would need to be opened and heated. This is required by the USDA and can come in handy when working with single ingredient recipes.
The Name of the ingredient should be the full name of Ingredient for instance Chicken Nuggets, WWA-WG 79872. The short name on the other hand could be something as simple as Chicken Nuggets. Short name is used for searching purpose only. All other functions will use the Full Name.
A marketing name is the name the District can give an ingredient or recipe on PrimeroEdge that will appear on the menu for SchoolCafe. So, instead of parents seeing Chicken Nuggets MMA WG 2342, they’ll see Chunky Chicken Nuggets or whatever the District choose to market it as.
The Strict Batching check box allows the user to prevent any scaling of the recipe or ingredient. For instance, if a District have a single-ingredient recipe such as a muffin and they do not want it ever served in half. They can enforce Strict Batching meaning that they may not split the serving or scale it in any way. Another example to consider is a can of green beans, they don’t want to serve half of it but need to serve the whole can. If they get 22 (1/2 cup) servings for the recipe, they might select the “Strict Batching” option to only allow this recipe to be planned for and produced in multiples of the can.
On the Production Plan; if the site does not input a multiple of the strict batch servings (i.e. Strict Batch = 22, servings must be 22, 44, 66, etc.; they cannot be 35, 50, etc.); the Production Plan will NOT save as complete until the number for Strict Batch recipes on the plan has been modified appropriately. A red message bar DOES Show on the page with the recipe affected by this strict batching requirement.
This tells the system to only use the step for nutritional analysis only, not on the production side of the recipe. You might use this for a spaghetti recipe where a lot of water is used and then drained off.
This indicates the Menu Item is prepared at another facility when the Food Preparation Site is different from the serving site.
This indicates the Menu Item should appear in the summary view of the Menu Calendar Report.
If the standard measurements the recipe scales to are not to the user’s liking, they can work around it by utilizing “Preferred measures” where the user specifies all measurements to use.