Providing ingredient weights is important to accurately assess the impact of a product. If you have not already provided ingredient weights for a product, Latis will automatically assign them. You also have the option to manually edit ingredient weights.
What are ingredient weights?
Ingredient weights refer to the inclusion percentage of each ingredient in the final product. In other words, it reflects how each ingredient contributes to the total composition of the product. One approach is to consider how much of each ingredient you need to produce 100kg of final product.
In most cases, the inclusion percentage (ie. ingredient weight) of all the ingredients in the product will add up to 100%. However, in some instances, producing the final product requires more inputs than the final output. Latis allows you to account for products where the ingredient weights are greater than 100%.
This is especially common for cheese, greek yogurt, pasta, and alcohol products.
When would you need ingredient weights to add up to more than 100%?
If your product produces a significant amount of co-product or by-product during manufacturing, you likely have a greater ratio of ingredients than the final product. Products with moisture loss due to evaporation would also have a similar case. Ultimately, this feature in Latis allows you to account for losses during the manufacturing process.
Example
To produce 100 kg of semi-hard cheese (like cheddar), you need:
900 kg milk
1.2 kg salt
0.25 kg rennet
0.02 kg calcium chloride
0.015 kg starter cultures
This would mean that the ingredient weights you need to input are:
Milk: 900%
Salt: 1.2%
Rennet: 0.25%
Calcium chloride: 0.02%
Starter cultures: 0.015%