Use mixing groups in your ingredients list

Mixing groups let you combine several declaration names into a single declared ingredient in your final ingredients statement.

Many manufacturers buy or store an ingredient as separate parts. For example, wholemeal flour is often made in the bakery by blending white flour with a bran and germ premix. Your recipe lists those parts separately, but your label needs to declare them as the ingredient the consumer recognises: Wholemeal Flour.

A mixing group tells Foodworks how those parts recombine. You define it once for your workspace, then switch it on in any recipe that contains all of its components.

Common examples

• Wholemeal Flour = 85% White Flour + 10% Wheat Bran + 5% Wheat Germ
• Wholemeal Rice Flour = 85% Rice Flour + 15% Rice Bran

Why use them

• Your ingredients statement declares the whole ingredient, rather than its separated parts.
• The combined ingredient is ordered correctly by its total weight in the recipe.
• You set the blend up once and reuse it across every recipe in the workspace.

Before you start

Mixing Groups are available in Nutrition Labelling workspaces for organisations on Enterprise plans. If you can't see the Mixing Groups tab in Workspace Settings, contact Foodworks support for assistance. 

A few terms used in this article:

• Mixing Group name: This is the combined ingredient name declared in the ingredients list, for example Wholemeal Flour. Names don't have to be unique, so you can have several Wholemeal Flour groups with different compositions.
• Components: These are the declaration names that combine to make the mixing group. Each has a percentage, and the percentages must add up to 100%.
• Eligibility: A mixing group is eligible to be enabled in a recipe when every one of its components is present in that recipe.

Creating a mixing group

Mixing groups are created at the workspace level, so every recipe in the workspace can use them.

1. Open Foodworks. 
2. Go to Workspace Settings, and select the Mixing groups tab.
3. Select + Create mixing group.
4. Enter a Name. This is the declaration name that will appear in the ingredients list, for example Wholemeal Flour.
5. Optional: Select or create an Ingredient group. Use this if you want the mixing group to sit inside an ingredient group in the ingredients statement.
6. Under Components, enter a declaration name and a percentage for each part of the blend. As you type, Foodworks will suggest declaration names already used in your workspace.
7. Select Add component if the blend has more than two parts.
8. Check that the Total shows 100%, then click Create.

Rules to keep in mind:

• Every mixing group needs at least two components.
• Percentages must be greater than zero, and the total must equal exactly 100%. The total turns red and the dialog won't save until this condition works. 
• A component doesn't have to be an existing raw material. Foodworks only matches on declaration name, so you can enter a name you haven't created yet.

Apply a mixing group to a recipe

Mixing groups are off by default in every recipe. You turn them on per recipe, so you stay in control of each label.

1. Open Foodworks. 
2. Open your recipe and go to the Labelling tab, then select the Ingredients sub tab.
3. Expand the Mixing groups section. It lists every mixing group whose components are all present in the recipe, with its composition shown underneath.
4. Switch on the mixing group you want to use by selecting the checkbox.
5. The ingredients list now shows the combined ingredient under the mixing group name, in the correct position for its weight. 

Using mixing groups with other labelling settings:

• Ingredient groups: Mixing groups are applied first. An ingredient group can then include the mixing group, or any leftover components.
• Characterising ingredients: Once a mixing group is switched on, it appears in the Characterising ingredients section, so you can show its percentage on the label.

How the ingredients statement is calculated

Foodworks uses as much of each component as it can while keeping the ratio you defined. Anything that doesn't fit the ratio stays in the statement as its own ingredient.

Your recipe doesn't need to match the ratio exactly. It only needs to contain every component.

Worked example

Your mixing group is Wholemeal Flour [85% White Flour + 10% Wheat Bran + 5% Wheat Germ] . Your 100 g recipe contains:

The 5 g of Wheat Bran is the limiting component. At 10% of the blend, it can make 50 g of Wholemeal Flour, which uses 42.5 g of White Flour and 2.5 g of Wheat Germ. That leaves 17.5 g of White Flour and 2.5 g of Wheat Germ that doesn't fit the ratio.

With the mixing group switched on, the ingredients are declared in this order:

If two mixing groups that share a component are both switched on, Foodworks splits that component's weight equally between them.

Edit or delete a mixing group

To edit a mixing group:

1. In Workspace Settings, select the  Mixing Groups tab.
2. Select the mixing group in the list. 
3. Make your changes, then select Save changes. 

To delete a mixing group: 

1. In Workspace Settings, select the  Mixing Groups tab.
2. Hover the mixing group in the list and select Delete. 
3. You'll be ask to confirm your deletion. 

Editing and deleting a mixing group is permanent and can't be undone. Any recipes using it will have their ingredients statements updated, so check your affected labels afterwards.

Any user with access to the workspace can create, edit and delete mixing groups.

Troubleshooting and FAQs

My mixing group doesn't appear in the recipe. The recipe must contain every component of the group. Check that each declaration name in the recipe matches the component name exactly, including spaces.

Can I have more than one mixing group with the same name? Yes. If more than one is switched on in a recipe, their weights are combined under the one name.

Can a component be used in more than one mixing group? Yes. If both groups are switched on in the same recipe, the component's weight is split equally between them.

Do I still need to check my label? Yes. Mixing groups change how ingredients are declared, so always review the final ingredients statement, including allergen declarations, before you publish a label.