Reverse Engineering – General Description

Reverse engineering is the process of developing a product based on an existing product. The user needs to collect information on the existing product including its composition and list of ingredients along with any information available on ingredient sources and processing parameters.

In many cases the exiting product’s Nutrition Facts label and ingredient listing can be used as a starting point for developing a similar product. The TechWizard Online™ allows the user to enter the Nutrition Facts information which is based on a per serving amount. The TechWizard Online™ then converts this information for each nutritional property (e.g. total calories, total fat, protein, etc.) into a probable composition range based on a 100-gram amount. These compositional ranges are transferred to the Formula Development section.

Working in the Formula Development section, the user adds any additional information available to further constrain the composition. For example, imagine you are working with an ice cream product. You would need to add other constraints such as stabilizer and flavor usage level since this information is not extractable from the Nutrition Facts. The price of each ingredient can be modified to induce the same order of ingredients. For instance, if water is the first ingredient listed on a product’s ingredient declaration you could make water the cheapest ingredient in the Formula Development section. Conversely, if maltodextrin is third or fourth on the list then it should have a higher price than water. To learn more about formulating for a desired composition please refer to the Formulation & Batching section.

Viewing the Nutrition Label to Formula Spec. Translator

Click the Go to button and select Reverse Engineering.