MinutaVirtual, software for food service and menu planning
Plan menus, calculate nutrients and keep your costs under control in one place. Recipes, menus, store orders, shopping lists and cost per portion, all worked out for you.
What MinutaVirtual does
MinutaVirtual handles the daily work of planning meals for hundreds of portions: building recipes, putting menus together, checking the nutrients they provide and knowing what each dish costs before you buy.
The modules feed into each other: what you define in one flows into the next, from the individual food to the store order. It runs in the browser, on a computer, tablet or phone, with nothing to install.
Who it is for
- Dietitians in staff canteens and collective catering services.
- Catering companies that need the nutritional information of their menus for clients and public tenders.
- Dietitians and managers advising nurseries and other food services.
- Nutrition and Dietetics degree courses, as teaching material.
Main features
Foods
The 656 foods of the Chilean INTA table preloaded, plus any you add yourself.
Recipes
Recipes with their preparation steps and their nutrient and cost calculations.
Menus
The whole day: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and snacks, with how the nutrients are spread across them.
Cycle plans
Menus laid out day by day across a cycle, comparing their protein, fat and carbohydrate content.
Production
A plan with real dates and portion counts that generates the store order for perishable and non-perishable goods.
Reports
Your letterhead, signature block and whichever nutrients you want each report to show.
References
Food composition table of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA, 2018), by Isabel Zacarías H., Lorena Barrios L., Carmen Gloria González G., Tamara Loeff W. and Gloria Vera A. It includes all 656 foods and lets you add your own with their macro- and micronutrient content.
Do you use the desktop version?
MinutaVirtual is the web version of MinutaVisual. If you use the desktop version, it keeps working until your licence expires; licences are no longer renewed.
Frequently asked questions
Is there anything to install?
No. MinutaVirtual runs in the browser, on a computer, tablet or phone. If you need the Windows version, that is MinutaVisual.
Which food composition table does it use?
The 2018 INTA table, with its 656 foods. You can also add your own foods with their macro- and micronutrient content.
Can I try it before subscribing?
Yes. At minutavirtual.com you can ask for a trial run and plan a real cycle with your own menus, with no credit card. If you decide to subscribe, the recipes and menus you loaded stay in your account.
Is it useful for universities?
Yes. It is used as teaching material in Nutrition and Dietetics courses in Chile, with modules for lecturers to supervise their students' work. Lecturers can request an academic demo at minutavirtual.com.
Who owns the recipes and menus I load?
You do. MinutaVirtual stores them only in order to provide the service: working out nutrient content, generating your reports and keeping them available to you.