How SATN calculates nutritional values from recipes

Understand the mass fraction method, the nutrients SATN tracks, the calories formula, and how moisture loss correction works in nutritional calculations.

When you register a unitary or mix product, SATN automatically calculates a complete nutritional profile based on the ingredients you enter and their quantities. The calculation follows Colombian regulatory standards, using data from the ICBF (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar) food composition table as the source of per-100g nutrient values for each ingredient.

The mass fraction method

For each ingredient in your recipe, SATN determines how much of the total product that ingredient represents — its mass fraction — and scales the ingredient’s ICBF nutrient values accordingly.

mass fraction = ingredient amount (g) ÷ total product amount (g)
nutrient contribution = ICBF value per 100g × mass fraction

SATN sums the contributions of every ingredient to produce the nutrient totals for the finished product. This gives you values both per 100 g of product and per serving (based on the serving size in grams that you enter).

Nutrients tracked

SATN calculates the following nutrients for every unitary and mix product:

• Total fat
• Saturated fat
• Monounsaturated fat
• Polyunsaturated fat
• Trans fat
• Cholesterol
• Total carbohydrates
• Total sugars
• Added sugars
• Dietary fiber
• Protein
• Sodium
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin D
• Iron
• Calcium
• Zinc
• Potassium
• Calories (kcal)

Added sugars are identified automatically. Any ingredient whose sugar type in the ICBF table is not classified as naturally occurring (sugar type ≠ 1) contributes its sugar content to the added sugars total.

Calories formula

Calories are calculated using the standard Atwater factors:

Calories (kcal) = (total carbohydrates × 4) + (total fat × 9) + (protein × 4)

These factors are applied to the final summed values, not to each ingredient individually.

Moisture loss correction

Some products lose water during processing — baking, frying, dehydrating, or cooking. If you enable the water significance flag on a unitary product, SATN applies a dry-base correction before running the mass-fraction calculation.

How the correction works

SATN first calculates the moisture loss percentage from the raw batch data you supply:

moisture loss % = ((total raw amount + water added − final product weight) ÷ total raw amount) × 100
dry base = 100 − moisture loss %

Each ingredient amount is then adjusted to reflect its proportion in the dried product:

adjusted ingredient amount = original amount × 100 ÷ dry base

These adjusted amounts are used in place of the original amounts when computing mass fractions, so the nutritional table represents the composition of the product as consumed, not as it was mixed before cooking.

Worked example

Suppose you make a baked snack with a raw batch of 500 g, you add 50 g of water during mixing, and the finished product weighs 420 g.

Step 1 — Calculate moisture loss:

moisture loss % = ((500 + 50 − 420) ÷ 500) × 100 = 26%
dry base = 100 − 26 = 74%

Step 2 — Adjust an ingredient: One ingredient (wheat flour) was entered as 200 g in the raw recipe.

adjusted amount = 200 × 100 ÷ 74 = 270.3 g

Step 3 — Calculate mass fraction: If the total product amount you entered is 420 g:

mass fraction = 270.3 ÷ 420 = 0.6436

SATN multiplies the ICBF per-100g values for wheat flour by 0.6436 to get its contribution to the final nutritional table.

Always enter the final product weight (after cooking or drying) as the total amount when moisture loss is enabled. This ensures the per-serving values on the nutritional label reflect what the consumer actually eats.

Moisture loss correction is only available for unitary products. Mix and combo products do not support this flag. If a component of a mix product undergoes moisture loss, register it separately as a unitary product first, then reference it in your mix.