Food product developers who wish they could have information about ingredients, nutrition, and labeling at their fingertips will greatly benefit from a computerized service that allows them to analyze information and to easily do calculations when they make formulations adjustments.

Genesis R&D, a program from ESHA Research, Salem, Ore., assists product developers in customizing their work, and saves time by making re-entry of pertinent data and hand calculations simple. It takes them from data entry on ingredients, to NLEA labeling formats and ingredient statements.

“The database is the foundation of the program and the foundation of the company,” says Patrick Murphy, technical support manager. The information presented on the database is gathered from more than 1,300 sources and includes USDA data sets, literature sources, and brand name food products. “USDA Standard Release 14 provides a foundation of core foods,” says Elizabeth Braithwaite, MPH, database manager. “We offer data from over 450 brand name suppliers.” The program tracks 133 nutritional components including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, dietary fiber fractions, sugar and sugar alcohols, and organic acids. Some of the newest ingredient information covers tropical fruit purees, powdered vegetables and legumes, and vegetable proteins. The growing functional foods market is served by nutritional information on ginseng, soy and other specific nutraceutical-type food ingredients.

The database is continually modified by eliminating items that are no longer marketed, updating current items and adding new items. Updates are available to customers twice per year, says Braithwaite.

Users can see the labeling formats and ingredient statements for their products. The program contains nine NLEA labeling formats and gives users the ability to design and print their labels in a variety of sizes and formats. It has many tools to aid in the creation and modification of a complete ingredient statement. The program allows users to follow government regulations on the latest nutritional claims and the staff refers users to appropriate help sources, as needed.

A Testimonial

“I use Genesis R&D to analyze food formulations, create Nutrition Facts panels, write ingredient declarations, and perform 'what if' analyses to help clients adjust their formulations to meet nutritional targets for food labels,” says Karen Duester, MS, RD, president and founder of The Food Consulting Co. Her company develops food labels and provides nutrition analysis to the food industry. “I also use Genesis R&D as a 'lookup' tool for nutrient composition of foods and to compare one food source of an ingredient or nutrient with another food source (such as the highest fruit source of potassium, a comparison of the fatty acid ratios in various plant oils, etc.).”

Among other things, Genesis allows her to factor in moisture adjustments and processing losses, calculate densities, add nutrient data and sub-component information for client-specific ingredients, and to create various formats and types of Nutrition Facts panels to meet her clients' diverse needs.

The technical support staff, headed by Murphy, responds to user queries very quickly. “New users need guidance,” he says. “There is a tutorial built-in, but we can also do a walk-through with them on topics like recipe analysis, food formulations and basic usage. Some of the most common questions are 'How do I do this'...put in formulations to show nutrients, for example.” The database group also answers questions about the sources of information.

For more information:
Scott Hadsall at 800-659-3742, ext. 327, or directly at 503-585-6242, ext. 327
scott@esha.com | www.esha.com
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