Formula validation
The recipe validation panel: pick a formula type, read the validation score and the range warnings, and export the analysis.
What it is
Formula validation is the recipe-editor panel that measures how well your recipe's composition fits the target ranges of a formula type (a saved set of parameters with a minimum, a maximum, and an optimum). It gives you a validation score from 0 to 100 and a warning for each parameter: in range, caution (near the limit), or out of range.
It works for any recipe, not just fillings: the formula type is the template you compare against (a ganache, a caramel, a pâte de fruit, or one of your custom types).
- Path:
https://app.areacacao.com/validation?id=<id> - How to get there: open a recipe, expand the side charts panel, and go to the Validation sub-tab.
- Availability: any user with an account. The panel is available on all plans.
Pick a formula type
When you open the panel without a type selected, you'll only see the Select a type button: no indicator appears until you pick one.
Click Select a type to open the selector. There you'll find:
- Five predefined types, the same ones the Filling formulator generates: Bonbon ganache, Soft caramel, Pâte de fruit, Creamy praline and Truffle. They are the source of truth for the default ranges: the panel and the formulator compare against the same ranges. The score can differ slightly: here a pH you've measured counts (in the formulator the estimated pH doesn't score), and percentages are calculated on the mass of known composition, not always on the recipe's total weight.
- Your custom types, if you've created any (see Custom formula types).
- A Create custom type option, which opens the type manager.
The chosen type is saved on the recipe. If you open a recipe that already points to an unusual type, the panel still resolves it and shows a subtle notice, "Non-standard type — you can switch it to a built-in one.", in case you'd rather pick one of the five predefined types.
The parameter table
Once a type is selected, the panel shows one row per parameter of the formula type. The parameters aren't a fixed set: they depend on the chosen type. The predefined types use Water, Sugars, Other fats and Cocoa butter fat (pâte de fruit without the cocoa butter fat), plus water activity (aw) and, except for the praline, pH. Soft caramel replaces Sugars and Other fats with Sugar block and Total fat, and adds Bicarbonate and Lecithin at fixed doses, which the panel shows as "Fixed: 0.1%" and "Fixed: 0.4%". Below them it shows the Sugar block split (indicative), which doesn't count toward the score (see Soft caramels). In a custom type you can also use Total fat, Saturated fat, Carbohydrates, Protein, Dietary fiber, Salt and Total cocoa.
Each row shows:
- Your recipe's calculated value for that parameter, with its unit (
%,Aw, etc.). - The type's target range (minimum–maximum, with the optimum for reference).
- A status warning: in range, caution (near the limit), or out of range.
Parameters with no data don't penalize
If no ingredient in the recipe provides data for a calculated parameter, that parameter is skipped from the calculation instead of counting as 0%. That way the score isn't dragged down by fields your recipe can't have (for example, a parameter that none of your recipe's ingredient records declares). Skipped parameters don't count in the "X in range" tally. When what is missing is a figure on an ingredient's record, the panel says so in the An ingredient sheet is missing a figure notice, which names the parameter and the ingredients that don't declare it: add the figure to the record and the parameter comes back.
Unidentified ingredients
If more than 25% of the formula's mass is made up of ingredients whose composition is unknown, the panel gives no score: it shows We cannot give a score yet and lists those lines with their grams. Below that threshold the score is calculated, and a line tells you what share of the mass it was calculated on.
This is what makes the panel consistent with the Filling formulator: both use the same ranges and skip what they can't compute. Even so, the score may not be identical: the panel counts a measured pH, which the formulator doesn't have, and it calculates on the mass of known composition, while the formulator uses the recipe's weight (they match when every ingredient sheet has its macros).
The validation score
Below the table you'll see the validation score, from 0 to 100, with the detail "N in range · N attention · N out". The closer each parameter is to its optimum and the fewer parameters that fall outside, the higher the score.
This score evaluates an existing recipe against a formula type. It's different from the score the Formulator shows when it generates a recipe with AI (which decides whether the recipe is delivered or refunded). See the difference in Validation score.
Preservatives and market limits
Below the parameter table, the panel includes a separate block: Preservatives and market limits. It is not part of the score (it neither adds nor subtracts points) because it does not measure fit against a range. It measures something else: whether the preservatives in your formula exceed the maximum the rule allows in the market you sell into.
It asks you two things, where you sell and what the product is, and compares on that basis. The same gram figure can sit comfortably in one market and go over the line in another, so it assumes neither.
The calculation is deterministic: no AI, no credits, and the same formula always returns the same result.
The block has no approved state. Its most favorable reading, "Below the figure we hold", is neutral and comes with a panel explaining what it is not saying. It is worth reading Preservative check before relying on it.
Preservative check
The five verdicts, the group ceiling and what each figure is calculated on.
Using the preservative check
Step by step, and what to do when the block cannot reach a verdict.
Labeling advisories
Polyols and colors: the two blocks that sit beside the check without being part of it.
Physicochemical measurements (aw / pH)
Two parameters are handled separately, and they don't behave the same way:
- pH — it is not estimated from the ingredients. It only enters the calculation if you measure it in the workshop and type it in.
- Water activity (aw) — besides entering your own measurement, the panel includes an estimator: it computes an indicative range from the recipe's composition and renders it in this same panel, below the score, with the guidance shelf-life reference from the course table (and a second line based on your measured aw, if you've entered one). It's an indication, not a measurement. See Estimated water activity.
In both cases the instrument reading is what counts: the aw estimate never replaces a meter, and pH has no other route. Measurements are entered in the Full analysis, Dashboard tab, Physicochemical measurements (optional) section.
- They're optional: if you don't measure them, those parameters are simply skipped (no penalty).
- Enter them in their real units (aw between 0 and 1; pH between 0 and 14).
They do not count the same way in the score:
- A measured pH enters the calculation just like any other parameter: it counts in the score, the table, the visual profile, and the exports.
- A measured aw is a guide only in the predefined types: it is compared with the reference range, but it does not count in the score (on the A4 sheet and in the CSV it is marked as a guide only). If you need an aw range that does count, create a custom type with the aw parameter: there it counts exactly as you set it.
Full analysis
The Full analysis button opens an expanded view with four tabs:
- Dashboard — a summary of the score, the parameters, and their status, with the visual profile (radar).
- Detailed analysis — the full parameter-by-parameter table, with the deviation from the optimum and the top ingredients contributing to each one.
- Simulator — adjust values and see how the score would change without touching the recipe. When a simulation is active, a Simulation active badge marks it in the header and the exports use that state.
- Comparison — compare your recipe against the offered predefined types and your custom types.
From here you can also open the type manager with Manage custom types (see Custom formula types).
Export the analysis (PDF and CSV)
From the Full analysis you can export the result:
- PDF — the Print A4 sheet button opens your browser's print dialog with an A4 report carrying AreaCacao branding, which you can save as a PDF. It includes the visual profile (radar), the parameter table with the out-of-range deviation and the top 3 contributors for each parameter, and the ingredients table. If you print with a simulation active, the report marks it as Simulated data.
- CSV — the detail of each parameter to open in Excel or another spreadsheet. Labels are exported in the app's language (if you use it in Spanish, the columns come out in Spanish).