A spreadsheet that has to be remembered
The matrix is a grid: products down the side, the fourteen regulated allergens across the top, and ticks in between. It is referred to in audits, used to answer customer questions and fed into spec sheets. It is also maintained by hand.
When a supplier swaps a flour, when a sauce gains a new ingredient, or when a sub-recipe is shared by a new product, someone has to remember to update the grid. Usually they do. The worry is the time they do not.
Where the gap comes from
The matrix is separate from the records that change. Purchasing approves a replacement ingredient in one system, the technical team updates the recipe in another, and the matrix is a third file. There is nothing that says: this change touches these twenty products.
- Ingredient substitutions agreed by purchasing during a shortage.
- Sub-recipes reused across products without a link back.
- Supplier specification updates that arrive by email.
- Several versions of the matrix saved in different folders.
Why this matters to the office
The risk itself is for your technical team to judge, and we do not advise on it. What we can address is the admin: the hours spent reconciling the matrix before an audit, the customer questions answered from a version that might be old, and the reliance on memory to trigger a review.
What we build
- Recipes, sub-recipes and ingredients are linked in one database, so the system knows which finished products use which ingredient, directly or through a sub-recipe.
- Each ingredient record holds the allergen declaration from the supplier specification, entered or approved by your technical team, with the document attached.
- Any change to an ingredient, supplier or recipe creates a review task listing every affected product.
- Affected products are marked as awaiting review until a named person on your team re-approves them.
- The matrix is generated from the approved records, dated, and can be exported for audits, customers and spec sheets.
- A history shows who changed what and when, for your own records.
| Change | What the system does |
|---|---|
| Supplier swaps an ingredient | Lists affected products for review |
| Recipe edited | Marks that product awaiting re-approval |
| Sub-recipe edited | Flags every product that uses it |
| New supplier spec received | Links the document and opens a review |
The system does not decide anything about allergens. It makes sure the right person is asked to look, and records that they did.
The difference in practice
Reviews are prompted by the change rather than by someone remembering. The matrix a customer receives is the approved one, with a date on it. Audit preparation becomes an export rather than a reconciliation exercise.
Purchasing also gets a clearer picture. Before agreeing a substitute ingredient during a shortage, a buyer can see how many products use the original and how much review work the swap will create. That is useful to know before the order is placed, not after the delivery arrives.
Customer services, answering a caterer's question on the phone, can read the approved record rather than hunting for the latest spreadsheet, and can see if a product is currently awaiting review.
Does this sound familiar?
- Your allergen matrix is a spreadsheet updated by hand.
- Ingredient substitutions are agreed outside the technical team's system.
- There is more than one copy of the matrix in circulation.
- Audit preparation includes checking the matrix against every recipe.