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UK nutrient databank: Do you have the FSA Composition of Foods Integrated Data Set (CoF IDS)?
Tinuviel Software products contain the McCance and Widdowson nutrient databank (MAFF/OPSI). The CoF IDS contains no new data, it contains the latest data for each food. Tinuviel Software nutrition analysis products automatically use the latest data for each food and have done so since 2003.
Nutrient databank: can I use both the UK and USA nutrient databank?
The UK and USA food composition databases are not compatible with each other. This is because some nutrients are expressed differently. Therefore, the databases should not be used together, in the analysis of one food intake record, one recipe or one menu. To simply combine the two databases would be scientifically flawed and nutritional calculations would be incorrect. Tinuviel Software products correctly, prevent people from using both databases together in one analysis. Not all other software companies understand this.
Do your products work with Windows 7?Yes - All Tinuviel Software products can run under the latest Windows operating system, currently Windows 7 and Vista.
Do your products only work in the Windows environment?Yes - Our products are designed to operate under Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Currently we have no plans to provide support for the Linux environment, nor for Apple Macs.
Are demonstration versions available?In most cases, we have 28-day limited-use demos of our programs. Contact us for details.
Do you offer training?
As a general aim, we try to make all our products with a shallow learning curve, so that formal training is not required. Products also contain a comprehensive help system. In addition, we provide free hotline support. Nevertheless, we recognise that many organisations desire formal training programmes, so we have developed these for all our standard products. The courses normally last one or two days, include hands-on activities and are run at our Anglesey HQ. Courses can be given to individuals or groups of up to four. For more information on courses, click the link.
Your software is supplied on CD-ROM. Are other formats available?
Unless you state otherwise, software is distributed on CD. You can also request DVD-ROM, USB memory stick, Iomega Zip® disks or ESD (electronic software distribution).
What about updates? Do we need a service contract?
There are two types of update. If a minor change or service pack is generated, this is normally downloadable from our website without charge. If a program goes up an issue level, you would be offered the upgrade at a low price. There are a range of maintenance agreements available which include automatic updates and revisions to the nutrient databank (where appropriate). Contact us for pricing.
We have a range of different users. Can the software supply different features to these users?
Yes - all our products have password access. This allows features to be made available dependent upon the password entered. For example, a supervisory password allows you to perform all functions. A different password might not allow you to delete items. Programs such as WISP and CARAT have 5 levels of password and the functions available to each level can be set by the supervisory user.
You seem to have two programs which analyse recipes. What are the differences between them?The CARAT and WISP programs can both handle nutritional analysis of recipes. However, the range of outputs and types of data stored are different. CARAT has a wide range of features for product labelling purposes and is mainly used by food manufacturers and retailers. WISP's recipe analysis features are used mainly by caterers to audit the nutritional adequacy of school meals and care home menus and dietetians to assess patients' nutrient intakes. WISP can also link to the ICS Integrated Catering System. It can also be used with RecipE-book.
Yes - nutrition information is presented in 3 formats: 1. as it would appear on a product label (per 100g and per serving); 2. the Food Standards Agency (FSA) traffic light panel; 3. the food industry panel, including Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs).
WISP - Does the Labelling Options Pack include nutrition panels for front of pack?Yes - nutrition panels for front of pack can be either the Food Standards Agency (FSA) traffic light panel, the food industry panel, including Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs), or a combined panel.
WISP - Is the program easy to use?Yes - there is a wizard to help the inexperienced user with parts of the program. If you need help, there is a comprehensive Users Manual, tutorial and Web Help system. In addition, you can press F1 at any point, to display help on that part of the program. You can also ring us for help at any time.
WISP - What is the minimum subject age?
There is no minimum age - you can include subjects from infants to the elderly.
WISP - What are the limits for an intake record?
By default, these are set to 12 eating occasions/day max., 28 days max. Total number of food/weight pairs in a record is 4500. However, these limits can be increased if required.
WISP - Can I compare intakes with Dietary Reference Values (DRVs)?
Yes - WISP chooses the correct DRV group automatically from the age and sex of the subject, plus any other relevant information.
WISP - I need to provide written information to my subjects on their diet. Is there a simpler output than the mean daily intake printout?
WISP has an Advice Module which allows you to generate textual advice linked to the intake of specific nutrients. All texts are user-defined, allowing you to create a custom report. You can either print out the report, or send it as an e-mail.
WISP - Can I add nutritional supplements and other items to be used in intakes?
Yes - the nutrient databank can be extended by up to 8,000 custom items. These can be any food or other ingredient for which you have nutritional data. The program includes a simple data entry facility for you to extend the databank.
WISP - Can I calculate fatty acid intakes?
WISP calculates intake of total saturates, total monounsaturates, total polyunsaturates and cholesterol. Data for individual fatty acids are only available for 10% of food records in the UK database, so these are of limited value. However, fatty acid data can be provided from other sources. Contact us for further information, if you need to calculate intakes of individual fatty acids.
WISP - Can I calculate dietary glycaemic load?
Yes - WISP contains glycaemic index values for a large number of foods and automatically calculates glycaemic load from food intake records and dietary glycaemic index.WISP - Can we audit the nutritional adequacy of school meals?
Yes - you can calculate both the nutrient composition of what the menu provides and what is served from the menu. You can compare nutrient compositions with published standards. Where the menu does not comply with nutritional standards, there is a web help system to guide you. We also have registered nutritionists and dietitians who will be pleased to help you to improve the menu.
WISP - Does the program have statistical functions?
Yes - there is a Statistics Module, which enables you to carry out a range of analyses on stored nutrient intake results. WISP calculates mean, standard deviation, median, minimum and maximum as well as 2-sample t-tests, paired-sample t-tests and correlation coefficients. You can also use an external package, such as SPSS, to perform more complex statistical analyses. WISP can generate an output file format which is compatible with SPSS. It can also generate Excel spreadsheets, if you wish to carry out basic statistics in that package.
WISP - Does the program have a way of estimating energy expenditure?
Yes - WISP can calculate basal metabolic rate and factor this with activity information. These data are used in comparisons with energy intakes. There is also a separate Energy Expenditure Module which enables detailed physical activity diaries to be entered to calculate mean daily energy expenditure. The module is supplied pre-loaded with the expenditure values of around 300 activities. Additional activities can be added by the user.
WISP - Can results be transmitted electronically?
Yes - WISP has a range of web and e-mail facilities. It can generate HTML-formatted e-mail results from intake and recipe analyses to clinicians, colleagues or even the subjects themselves. WISP can also generate HTML web pages which you could place on your organisation's intranet site. In addition, the program can generate XML schemas containing analysis results, allowing electronic communication with a wide range of other packages.
WISP - We are particularly interested in the cost of recipes. Can WISP handle costs?
Yes - providing that you input cost/kg of all ingredients used in recipes, WISP will provide cost/100g and cost/portion data. Note that if you have the cost data in another system, there is an WISP feature that allows import of the data, providing it is in the correct format.
WISP - We have an Integrated Catering System (ICS) networked to our WISP system. Is there a way that we can discover what choices patients are making from menus, without requesting a printout?
WISP can automatically receive data on patient selections if you have identified a patient's selections to be tagged. These data are then sent from ICS automatically to your WISP system for local review and nutritional analysis.
WISP - Can this program help me to analyse recipes and menus for the Better Hospital Food initiative?
Yes - WISP has a full recipe analysis system and menu planning tools. It can assist you by evaluating the nutritional adequacy of recipes, menus, meal and day intakes.
WISP - Can I use this program to analyse food intake questionnaires?
WISP is ideal for analysing food intake records, recipes and menus. It is not appropriate for use with food intake questionnaires: data entry would take too long; maintaining consistency both within- and between- data entry personnel is difficult; further range checks on entered data would be needed.If you wish to carry out a questionnaire survey, you should use QBuilder. This would enable you to design your own questionnaire and collect data with it. QBuilder automatically generates a paper form, computer-based interview and web form for each questionnaire. You can therefore use any of these to collect data. When designing the questionnaire, you have much more choice concerning food codes and portion weights to be used. Consistency between data entry personnel is assured, data entry is fast and essential range checks are done automatically. Click here to find out more.
Yes - the supplied CD can be used to install the Computer-Based Interview software (CBI) on any other PCs in your organisation. This allows remote data collection. Files can be transferred to DIETQ for analysis. There is also an optional PocketPC-based data collection program for DIETQ.
DIETQ - Can the questionnaire be modified to include other foods?If you want to modify the questionnaire, we recommend that you use our QBuilder program instead. QBuilder contains DIETQ as one of its sample questionnaires. So you can easily modify this and then use the modified version to collect food intake data and calculate nutrient intakes. Click here for details.
DIETQ - We want to carry out a larger survey, of which DIETQ is part. Can the program be amended to collect other data?
DIETQ itself cannot be amended to collect a lot of additional data. However, you can do this using our QBuilder program. Click here for details. Alternatively, we can provide a custom solution for you. Click here for further information.DIETQ - Is the program widely used and has the questionnaire been validated?
Yes - in excess of 100,000 DIETQ questionnaires have been processed in various studies in the UK. The original questionnaire has been validated against 7-day weighed intake records - click here for information.
DIETQ - We have collected a large number of questionnaire forms. Is there any way to scan these in to the computer, rather than keying the coded results manually.
Yes - DIETQ has an option to read in data files collected by a page scanner. Contact us for more details. Generally, data entry takes around 2-4 minutes per record, depending how fast you can type!
Yes. Recipe analysis automatically displays a Food Standards Agency panel (fat, saturates, sugar and salt per serving) and an industry panel (energy, sugar, fat, saturates and salt per serving, plus percentages of Guideline Daily Amounts). You can print out either panel, or a combined panel, if you wish.
CARAT - Why do we need to take water loss on cooking into account when calculating the nutrient composition of recipes?
If the recipe is cooked, you need to take water loss on cooking into account. If you do not, you will not calculate the nutrient composition of recipes correctly. CARAT takes water loss on cooking into account when calculating the nutrient composition of recipes. This is not the case for all other software suppliers.
CARAT - Product labelling now requires QUID declarations. Does the program do this?
Yes - the Label Ingredient Order calculator will automatically include ingredient percentages for any items you select.
CARAT - AOAC fibre values are now recommended for fibre declaration on product labels - can CARAT handle this?
Yes - The databank within CARAT has the ability to include AOAC fibre and can use these data instead of Englyst fibre in calculations. CARAT uses AOAC fibre values mainly from USA food composition tables, as there are currently few AOAC fibre figures in the UK tables.
CARAT - We want to put salt equivalent values on product labels, to help consumers. What is the best way to do this?
CARAT automatically calculates salt equivalent values, so you can include these on product labels, if you wish.CARAT - The program generates a wide range of reports and file outputs, but we have standard forms we need to fill in. Can CARAT generate these forms?
Yes - Tinuviel Software can produce custom outputs which exactly match your internal documentation. Contact us for details.
CARAT - We want our technologists to develop their recipes separately, but use a common ingredient databank - can this be done?Yes - there are two methods. If you are using a number of stand-alone CARAT systems, there are export/importfunctions allowing you to transfer the nutrient databank between users. If you have a NetCARAT system, this is set up automatically.
CARAT - The program has a limit of 30 food/weight pairs per recipe. We make pizzas with far more ingredients. What do we do?
CARAT can handle sub-recipes easily. Simply create one recipe for the pizza base and a second for the sauce. You can then create a range of final recipes with different toppings, using the standard base and sauce already created. There is no limit to the number of layers of sub-recipes that you can include.
Yes - There are a number of sample questionnaires supplied with QBuilder. These are : Two widely used food intake questionnaires; Lycopene intake questionnaire; Smoking habit questionnaire; Chest pain (angina) questionnaire and Psychosocial factors questionnare. These show how questionnaires can be built with the program and illustrate how different question types could be used. A computer-based interview and paper form is provided for each questionnaire. These can be used to collect data if desired, or could be used as the basis for new questionnaires.
How can I collect data with my questionnaires?
QBuilder produces a computer-based interview, a paper form & web form for your questionnaires. You can therefore use any of these for your survey. The paper questionnaire is automatically generated with coding boxes on the right hand side of each page of each page. Forms can be easily coded using simple instructions supplied in the Users Manual. QBuilder automatically generates a data-entry system for the paper form. Computer-based interviews can be conducted either within QBuilder or on other computers using the Remote Data Entry system supplied with QBuilder. Alternatively,you could use a web form for your questionnaire that subjects can complete on the internet.
I want to collect data via the Internet. Can I do this with QBuilder?
Yes - QBuilder automatically generates a web form for your questionnaire. The responses can be automatically e-mailed to an address of your choice and then easily imported into QBuilder for further analysis.
Is there a limit to the number of questionnaires that can be developed with QBuilder?
No, you can develop as many questionnaires as you wish. Each questionnaire must, however, be given a unique name.
Can I add foods to the nutrient databank?
Yes - The program is supplied with a databank of approximately 5,300 food records. You can add up to 8,000 additional foods to this, if required. You can also create new foods that are composites of two or more foods, or two or more foods/portion weight pairs. These can be either a true average or weighted average.
