Design recipes, production processes and costs in one system.
Build recipes from ingredients, portion weights and product specs. Calculate food cost automatically, design the production process, and generate standardized work instructions with the help of AI agents.
What the module does
Turn a product ideainto a production-ready standard.
Design recipes, scale ingredients, control costs and prepare the production process in one place. Every approved recipe becomes the direct basis for purchasing, production, inventory issues and margin calculation.
Module capabilities
- Recipe and ingredient structure design
- Automatic portion and weight scaling
- Food cost calculation
- Costs updated from purchase prices
- Control of loss, trim and yield
- Production process design
- AI-generated work instructions
- Recipe versioning and approval
- Allergens and nutrition values
- Integration with purchasing, inventory and MES
Every recipe, cost and product change in one view.
The dashboard shows current product costs, the status of recipes in development, food cost variances, and ingredient price moves that affect margin. Chefs, dietitians and finance work from the same current data.
- Active recipes
- 482
- Recipes in development
- 18
- Average food cost change
- +3.4%
- Cost alerts
- 7
- Awaiting approval
Teriyaki bowl
RCP-2841 · Food cost: $2.96
Cost up: +2.1%
- Over target
Chicken tikka masala
RCP-2842 · Food cost: $3.30
Cost up: +6.8%
- Incomplete
Premium salad
RCP-2843 · Food cost: $2.37
One ingredient has no price
- In development
Bolognese pasta
RCP-2844 · Food cost: $2.23
New recipe version
Design the product from ingredient to finished portion.
Build recipes from ingredients, sub-assemblies and sub-recipes. Set portion weights, units, portion counts, expected yield and the finished product's specs. The system recalculates the whole structure after every change.
- Build dishes or finished products from recipes
- Single- and multi-level recipes
- Ingredients, sub-assemblies and sub-recipes
- Net and gross portion weights
- Automatic portion scaling
- Approved ingredient substitutes
- Trim and process loss
- Expected production yield
- Allergens and nutrition values
Chicken tikka masala
- Portions
- 1,000
- Portion weight
- 420 g
- Total yield
- 420 kg
- Food cost per portion
- $3.30
Main ingredients
- Chicken breast168 kg
- Basmati rice92 kg
- Tomato sauce74 kg
- Coconut milk38 kg
- Spice blend6.4 kg
See what every recipe actually costs.
INVO calculates food cost from current purchase prices, ingredient usage, trim, yield, packaging and real production cost. Any price or formulation change immediately shows its effect on cost per portion and on margin.
- Current ingredient purchase prices
- Net and gross ingredient cost
- Cost of sub-assemblies and sub-recipes
- Process loss accounted for
- Packaging and consumables cost
- Labor and production operation cost
- Cost per portion and per kilogram
- Planned versus actual cost
- Alerts when the target food cost is exceeded
- Simulation of price and formulation changes
Chicken tikka masala
- Ingredients$2.46
- Packaging$0.19
- Production cost$0.47
- Process loss$0.20
- Selling price
- $6.23
- Product margin
- 47.0%
- Change vs. previous version
- +$0.21
Biggest drivers of the cost change
- Chicken breast+$0.13
- Coconut milk+$0.05
- Packaging+$0.02
Production process design
Turn a recipe into a production processautomatically.
From the ingredients, sub-assemblies, product specs and available operations, INVO proposes a complete production process. It sequences the steps, flags dependencies, and helps set times, temperatures, equipment and quality parameters.
- Stage 1
Ingredient analysis
The system identifies ingredients and sub-assemblies, their properties, and how each needs to be prepared.
- Stage 2
Proposed operations
Factory Brain selects the operations needed to make the product and puts them in the right order.
- Stage 3
Process parameters
The chef completes or approves times, temperatures, equipment, throughput rates and checkpoints.
- Stage 4
Production-ready standard
The approved process feeds production planning, the MES, station instructions and cost calculation.
Synced · Recipes · MES · Planning · Quality · Finance
Design every operation needed to make the product.
Build digital routings that describe the whole production run — from picking and preparing ingredients, through cooking, combining and chilling, to portioning and packing.
- Sequence of production operations
- Preparation and run times
- Temperatures and process parameters
- Machines and stations assigned
- Operator skills required
- Quality checkpoints
- Throughput and yield standards
- Parallel operations and dependencies
- Product packing parameters
- Process linked to cost calculation
Chicken tikka masala
Pick and weigh ingredients
DoneIngredient store · 15 min
Meat pre-processing
DonePrep station · 25 min
Sauce preparation
To verifyKettle K-04 · 45 min · 92°C
Thermal processing
ApprovedLine L-03 · 38 min · min. 75°C
Chilling
ApprovedBlast chiller S-02 · to 4°C
Portioning and packing
ApprovedPacking line P-04 · 420 g
- Estimated process time
- 3 h 18 min
- Expected yield
- 96.8%
Let AI draft the first version of the process.
Factory Brain reads the recipe structure and draws on what it knows about ingredients, equipment and processes already in use. From that it drafts a production process the chef can review, adjust and approve.
- Analysis of ingredient composition and properties
- Selection of the operations required
- Proposed process sequence
- Suggested times and temperatures
- Machines and stations selected
- Reuse of similar processes
- Missing parameters flagged
- Potential conflicts detected
- Recommendations on yield and loss
Analyzing recipe RCP-2842…
- 12 ingredients analyzed
- 3 sub-recipes identified
- 6 operations proposed
- 2 parameters need approval
- 1 potential quality risk
Recommendation
Sauce temperature at the end of processing should be verified before it is combined with the prepared meat.
Stop writing work instructions from scratch.
AI agents write the work instructions from the recipe and the process you designed. Every instruction comes out in the same standardized structure, so the documentation is consistent, complete and ready to review.
- Work instructions written automatically
- One documentation standard across the organization
- Step-by-step operation descriptions
- Time, temperature and equipment parameters
- Quality checkpoints identified
- Food safety rules accounted for
- Updated automatically when the recipe changes
- Review and approval by a chef
- Instructions generated per station
- Multiple language versions supported
Tikka masala sauce preparation
Add the measured quantity of tomato sauce and coconut milk to kettle K-04. Start the agitator at the level given in the process parameters. Add the spice blend gradually, keeping the agitator running.
Run for 45 minutes until the batch reaches 92°C. At the end of the operation, check temperature and sauce consistency and record the result in the MES.
Parameters
- Equipment
- Kettle K-04
- Operation time
- 45 minutes
- Target temperature
- 92°C
- Quality check
- Temperature and consistency
- Instruction status
- Generated by AI
How chefs and dietitians work
Cut the time it takes to createand launch a new product.
Chefs and dietitians work from a shared product record. Changing an ingredient updates portion weights, nutrition values, allergens, food cost and the process documentation at the same time. Nobody retypes the same data across several spreadsheets and systems.
One shared product record
Recipe, costs, nutrition values and the production process in one place.
Automatic recalculation
Every change to a weight, portion count or ingredient updates all the related calculations.
Less manual documentation
AI agents draft the first version of instructions, descriptions and processes.
Faster approval
Recipes move through a defined review, approval and publication flow.
Safe changes
The system shows how a change affects cost, allergens, nutrition values and production.
Straight into production
An approved recipe and process are immediately available to planning, inventory and the MES.
Control every recipe change and what it does to production.
INVO keeps the full history of changes to ingredients, weights, costs and process parameters. At any point you can see who made a change, why it was made, and which recipe version a given production order ran on.
- Recipe version history
- Comparison of ingredient and weight changes
- Food cost compared between versions
- Statuses: draft, review, approval and publication
- Approval by a chef or dietitian
- Planned effective dates
- Withdrawal of superseded versions
- Versions linked to production orders
- Full history of users and changes
Version 1
ArchivedBase recipe created
Food cost: $3.02
Version 2
ArchivedMeat supplier and sauce weight changed
Food cost: $3.09
Version 3
Awaiting approvalProcess and packaging updated
Food cost: $3.30
See which recipe version every product lot was made to.
Every production order is tied to a specific recipe version, the production process, the ingredient lots used and actual consumption. That makes it quick to reconstruct how a product was made and to run a full cost or quality audit.
- Recipe version used in production
- Lots and suppliers of the ingredients used
- Planned and actual consumption
- Production process parameters
- Quality check results
- Actual yield and loss
- Planned and actual cost
- Link to the finished product lot
- Full history of changes and approvals
RCP-2842 · Version 3
- Stages
- 5/5
- Recipe conformance
- 99.4%
- Actual yield
- 96.2%
- Quality check
- OK
Recipe run
Recipe
ApprovedRCP-2842 · version 3
Ingredients
Conforming12 ingredient lots identified
Production
CompletedOrder PO-4812 · Line 03
Quality check
ApprovedAll parameters within range
Finished product
Moved to inventoryLot LOT-A2418 · 984 portions
Start designing recipes from a complete database.
INVO comes with its own extensive food ingredient database. Every ingredient carries a standardized data model covering what dietitians, chefs, purchasing teams and production need. Customers get access to it as part of the engagement and can connect it to their own item codes, products, suppliers and purchase prices.
- Standardized ingredient names and categories
- Energy and nutrition values
- Macro- and micronutrients
- Vitamins and minerals
- Allergens and dietary markers
- Units of measure and automatic conversions
- Net and gross weights
- Loss, waste and yield factors
- Substitutes and related ingredients
- Purchase formats and pack variants
- Storage conditions and quality parameters
- Links to recipes, purchasing and inventory
- Change history and data sources
Milk, 2% fat
- Category
- Dairy
- Base unit
- kg
- Nutrition values
- Complete
- Allergens
- Milk
- Unit conversions
- Available
- Process parameters
- Complete
- Reference sources
- NIZP PZH–PIB · USDA
- Status
- Ready to use
Reference data
A data model aligned with the referencesused in Poland and the United States.
The INVO database is structured to match recognized food composition sources. That makes it easier to complete ingredient records, calculate nutrition values, and develop recipes for both the Polish and the U.S. market.
- Poland
Food Composition Tables
NIZP PZH–PIB
Reference data on the composition of foods and dishes used in the Polish market.
- United States
USDA FoodData Central
U.S. Department of Agriculture
The official U.S. database of food composition and nutrition values.
- United States — base ingredients
Foundation Foods + SR Legacy
USDA
Detailed data on base products, minimally processed ingredients and historical reference data.
One database for nutrition, culinary, purchasing and production.
The ingredient a dietitian picks is the same ingredient a chef puts in a recipe, purchasing orders from a supplier, inventory receives, and production draws against an order. Nothing has to be retyped or reconciled between teams.
Synced · Recipes · Nutrition · Purchasing · Inventory · MES
One source of truth for the product, its process and its cost.
Every ingredient, weight, cost, allergen, process parameter and approved change is written to one product record, and from there feeds purchasing, inventory, planning, production, quality and finance.
Develop products faster. Produce them to the right standard every time.