Remember how I said that I was able to get an exemption from nutritional labels? Well, I was. If a company has less than 100 full time employees and/or produces less than 100,000 units of the item per year, it can qualify to get an exemption. Well, it seems like the time has come for me to start having nutritional labels. No, I wasn’t an overnight success and suddenly added 100 employees or got onto the shelves of some major chains and started slamming out tons of orders. Technically, I can still have an exemption. But the timing felt right to start looking into getting nutritional info. I knew that I eventually would, but I thought it’d be somewhere further into the business.
As I started adding on more keto items to my menu, the need and requests for nutritional labels became more expected. Folks order keto want to know all the macro info, especially with the carbohydrates, to know that they’re not going over their limit.
In the midst of the pandemic, meal prep companies seemed to be having their moments of time to shine. Many of the meal prep companies I’ve been connecting with are ones that focus on healthier/lighter eating. That’s where my keto items come in. The items are enjoyed by folks that can’t have sugar, are on a keto diet to lose weight, or simply want to feel less guilt when indulging in sweets.
When the topic of nutritional labels was first brought up to me (like during my State inspection), I vaguely remember being told about places where they can be made. So tracing back, I researched to try to recollect such places. Also, at the LGI, the kitchen that I use, Marjan (the owner) also told me that she can help me make labels as well, for a fee. As I continued browsing to find the best option, I stumbled upon Recipal. It came highly recommended by other foodpreneurs and had stellar reviews. The first three nutritional labels can be created for free . It is $19 per recipe after that. There are other monthly options, but I don’t need that just yet. But okay, I was sold on the free part of the first three. I figured, it’d be a good way to at least get an idea of how to create a nutritional label, at no cost.
There were some things that confused me. During one of my consultations with Marjan, I tried to see if she can help me figure out certain things that I was struggling with while using Recipal. It was her first time being introduced to Recipal too. The whole program confused her at first. She’s been so used to the software that she’s been using for decades. But after fiddling around with it for a minute, she realized the simplicity of it and called it “wonderful and simple to use”, so much “simpler” than what she’s been using all these years. Okay, I was further convinced that I needed Recipal in my life.
One of the things that I love about Recipal is their quick response time to any questions I’ve had via email. Recipal was designed by a food entrepreneur for food entrepreneurs. Lev, the founder of Recipal, was running a beef jerky company and struggled to find just the right software to meet the needs of what his business needed. He’s not just a software developer. As a fellow food entrepreneur, he understands in detail, exactly what we go through and need.