Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for food ingredient manufacturers.
A checklist built from how food ingredient manufacturers work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Customer formulations and versions
- Specification sheets by customer
- Sample requests and trials
- Raw material approval
- Blend batch records
- Certificate of analysis
- Allergen statements and retention samples
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For technical and formulation staff
- For laboratory staff
- For production leads
- For purchasing
- For sales and customer service
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Samples out and awaiting feedback by customer and recipe revision
- Formulation revisions with approver and approval date
- Lots released, held and rejected by failed parameter
- Raw lots used in a chosen customer product
- Certificates of analysis issued by shipment
- Retention bags due for disposal by shelf
- Open orders by customer product code
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS
- Laboratory instrument import
- Label printer
- Accounting export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- What is kept when a recipe changes?
- Can the certificate follow a customer’s own format?
- How are trial samples recorded?
- Can we block a lot from an unapproved supplier?
- Does it support lots blended from other lots?
- Can retention samples be listed by shelf position?
- Do we have to change the way the laboratory works?
- What happens at the first meeting?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Approved recipes exist in several versions
- Specifications arrive in many formats
- Certificates are typed by hand
- Raw material suppliers change without notice
- Samples have no trail
Prefer to talk it through? See the food ingredient manufacturers page.