Frequently, parts of a recipe or product specification are recurring. For example, consider a standard allergen statement or a preparation method. Sometimes it may involve a whole filled-in tab, such as microbiological values or packaging information.
You can define this type of recurring data in a data block. Recipes can then load this data from a data block. In this way, you build a library of fixed values that can be used by multiple recipes.
So how do you create a data block?
In this example, we create a data block for an "ingredient statement."
1) Click on data blocks in the main menu
2) Create a new data block
3) Enter the data for our new data block
[1] Give the data block an appropriate name so that it can be located easily from the recipes
[2] Enter the appropriate data
[3] Click on "save"
How do you use a data block?
From within a recipe, one or more data blocks can be used.
Wherever you see the blue icon above, data can be loaded from a data block.
Sometimes the data block includes an entire tab (as in microbiology data or packaging). It may also be a single field, such as the ingredients statement.
Follow these steps to use our data block in a recipe
1) Open a recipe and go to the "ingredient declaration" tab
Then click on the blue icon behind "ingredients statement" to be able to select a data block
2) Select our data block
Select the previously created data block [1] and click retrieve data [2].
3) The data block has been loaded
Now the data has been loaded and the connection with the data block is in place.
Notice:
The loaded data may be modified manually. If "retrieve data" is clicked again you will see that the data is re-read from the data block.
A data block can contain multiple fields. For example, the same data block may be used for "microbiological data," "packaging," and "method of preparation."