How can I avoid unnecessary proxies in the PS Impact Score?
By entering specific and comprehensive details in Data Entry, the calculation will be better tailored to your product.
How do I avoid unnecessary proxies in the PS Impact Score?
The more specific your data, the less needs to be filled in during the calculation. In this article, you’ll learn how to avoid unnecessary proxies in Data Entry, so that the PS Impact Score better reflects your product.
When do you use this?
When you enter new products, and when you see in My PS that an ingredient or country came back differently from what you entered.
How to enter your data as specifically as possible
- Use specific ingredient names. A collective name such as “antioxidant” or “herbs” is matched to a general ingredient, so name the substance or crop itself instead.
- Check the English translation. Ingredients are matched on their English name, using the list HowGood currently has available. A typo or an unfamiliar term can lead to a match with a completely different ingredient.
- State the form. Fresh, frozen (IQF), dried, powder and puree are separate ingredients in the database, each with a different footprint per kg. You state the form in the English name. For spinach, for example, HowGood recognises “spinach”, “IQF spinach”, “dehydrated spinach”, “spinach powder” and “spinach puree”. For frozen products, the list uses “IQF”, not “frozen”. Not every form exists for every ingredient; in that case, the closest match is used.
- Choose a specific country of origin. Origins that aren’t clear-cut are interpreted, so it’s best to choose a specific country. If you enter several countries, the ingredient’s percentage is divided equally between them. An ingredient of 1% with four countries then counts for 0.25% per country. If an ingredient comes from 5 or more countries, choose EU-27 or Global.
- Enter percentages, even small ones. Missing percentages are estimated, and your own percentages bring the calculation closer to your recipe. If you don’t know the exact percentage, you can enter an upper limit, such as <1%. HowGood then estimates the percentage based on the order of the ingredients and the product group.
- Break down compound ingredients yourself. A standard recipe is prone to errors and doesn’t exist for every ingredient. In Data Entry, you can add sub-ingredients to a main ingredient, with percentages and countries of origin. You can read how this works in How do I enter sub-ingredients?. Good to know: the ingredient list in Data Entry is based on your ingredient declaration. If it contains brackets, such as mustard (water, mustard seed, vinegar, salt), these are sometimes carried over into the list. HowGood then also treats the content of the brackets as sub-ingredients and splits the ingredient accordingly. So check that this breakdown is correct.
Important to know
Complete the PS Impact Score tab as well as the Ingredients tab. If you only complete the Ingredients tab, HowGood only receives the QUID percentage, not the internal percentages or countries of origin.
Check the result
After the next calculation, you can see in My PS which data was used. You can read how to check this in How can I see which data was used to calculate my PS Impact Score?.
Need help?
Not sure about the right name or country for an ingredient? We’re happy to help. Email us at support@psinfoodservice.com.