Food Database

The ingredient catalog is a list of generic ingredients that makers use: flours, sugars, butter, eggs, nuts, oils, spices and the like. Each entry has an Ardent Seller name, its nutrition per 100 g, a density where one is known, and the allergens it contains.

You reach it from the Food picker on an ingredient tagged Food (see Ingredients in the Source guide). The catalog holds generic ingredients only, not branded or packaged products. When nothing in it matches what you buy, tick I can't find it — I'll enter the allergens myself under the picker and set the item's allergens from its package.

The catalog is built from two government food databases, together with Ardent Seller's own curation (names, aliases, densities and allergen facts):

• USDA FoodData Central, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is in the public domain; Ardent Seller credits it as a courtesy.
• The Canadian Nutrient File (opens in new tab), from Health Canada, published under the Open Government Licence – Canada.

Ardent Seller no longer uses OpenNutrition data. Items that were linked to an OpenNutrition food were moved to a matching entry in the new catalog. Where the new catalog had no match (some extracts, blends and colourings), the link was removed instead: the item keeps its allergens and unit conversions, now shown as entered on the item, and its history says so. Pick a catalog entry for it, or tick I can't find it.

The government databases list nutrients, not allergens, so the catalog's allergens are worked out from each entry's description by automated checks that must agree with each other. They are automatically identified and not reviewed by a food-safety professional. Where the checks disagree, the entry keeps every allergen any of them proposed rather than drop one, and asks you to check your package.

A catalog entry names the specific type where it can (almonds rather than just "tree nuts"), so labels and recipe PDFs can print the name the rules require. A catalog entry with no allergens means none were found in a generic version of that ingredient, not that your product is free of them: a brand can add ingredients or share equipment.

Some entries cover more than one ingredient (a mix, a blend, a sauce) or have allergens the checks couldn't settle. Those entries say to check your package. Linking one fills in its allergens, but the item shows Check package and counts as not set: it appears under the Allergens not set filter, and labels and recipe PDFs ask you to check it before they print.

1. Find the Contains and May contain lines on the package you buy.
2. Compare them with the allergens on the item, and add or remove any that differ.
3. Tick Confirmed against the package on the item sheet, and save.

Saving without confirming or changing the allergens keeps the item waiting for the check. The full list of allergen statuses is in Allergen Status.

Each allergen chip on the item sheet can say where that allergen came from:

• From catalog — the linked catalog entry contains it.
• Entered on this item — someone entered it on the item itself: typed, picked, imported from a spreadsheet, or pre-filled.
• Copied in a transfer — the item was transferred from another location, and the allergen came with it.

When more than one source backs the same allergen, the chip shows yours: Entered on this item comes before From catalog. Items saved before sources were tracked may show no source until they are next updated. Whatever the source, the package is the final word.

Each location follows one country's allergen labeling rules, set as its Allergen Rules (see Allergen Rules in the Settings guide). The rules pick the allergen checklist on that location's items:

• United States — the nine major food allergens (opens in new tab): milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame.
• United Kingdom — the UK's 14 allergens (opens in new tab), which add celery, the cereals containing gluten, lupin, molluscs, mustard and sulphites.

The catalog is the same everywhere; only the checklist and the wording of statements change. The cottage food label always uses US rules.

The catalog is corrected and refreshed over time. When updated data finds an allergen in an ingredient you've linked, and labels at the item's location must declare that allergen, Ardent Seller adds it to the item automatically and shows a red notice on the item naming the allergen and the ingredient it came from. Labels you printed before the change may be missing it, so check them and reprint where needed. An item you had confirmed as containing none of the major allergens becomes Declared, and the notice says so.

An ingredient fact your location's rules don't put on a label (for example coconut; in the US also barley, oats and rye) is recorded on the item but raises no notice and doesn't change a "Contains none of the major allergens" confirmation.

Ardent Seller never removes an allergen from your items for you. When updated data no longer finds one, the allergen stays on the item until you remove it yourself.

At the move to the new catalog, only Contains allergens were added to items automatically, not May contain ones. For that one-time move, Ardent Seller emails the owners of affected accounts personally; catalog updates send no automated emails.

If an allergen added with a red notice isn't in what you actually buy (lactose-free butter linked to plain butter, for example), choose Not in my product on that item's red notice and confirm. Ardent Seller removes the allergen, and the choice applies to that item and that allergen only: later catalog updates won't add it back. To add it back later, tick it under Allergens on the item. If the allergen is right, choose Got it: it stays on the item and the notice goes away.

A Food recipe's nutrition panel is worked out per 100 g of the weighed recipe from its ingredients' catalog data. A nutrient an ingredient doesn't report is shown as unknown, never counted as zero, and the caption under the panel names what is missing. Nutrition follows the current catalog, so figures can change when the data is updated. See Recipes in the Create guide for the panel and its caption.