Recipe Modification

Use the Food and Nutrition Guidelines to direct your recipe planning

This document provides a Guide to standard serving sizes which will help you determine the appropriate quantity of some common foods for service.

The Australian Heart Foundation has produced good guidelines for developing healthy recipes.  This has been adapted for New Zealanders and can be downloaded here:  

• The right ingredient.  Guidelines for healthier recipes

For more information these external links provide a variety of information and tools to aid in your recipe modification.

• Food Composition Database-  A database containing the nutrient content of many common foods in New Zealand
• Weight and volume converter-  An online tool that allows you to enter the volume or weight of different ingredients and convert it to the unit you want
• Food product development guide-  Information for people embarking on the development of new food products, especially manufactured foods
• Study guide for hospitality students-  Vegetables NZ study guide on vegetable use for hospitality students, although there is plenty of good information for all

Foodworks and SERVE are software available for purchasing which can calculate the nutrient content of your recipes and produce nutrition information panels for your products.  Two of these packages use New Zealand food composition data.  For more information visit their sites:

• Foodworks
• SERVE.

There is also free nutrient calculation software available from Food Standards Austraila New Zealand which is available here:

• Nutrition Panel calculator

Here you can read a case study about altering a recipe to make it healthier and to meet specific nutrient criteria:

• Making a Recipe Healthier