Menus

Table of contents

Menus let you build set lunch, à la carte, evening, and other menus from named categories and dishes. Every dish you add includes its 14-allergen information. The dishes and their allergens appear automatically on your Allergens matrix. You can manage your menu and prepare for an inspector’s allergen check in one place. You’ll find Menus in the Production section of the sidebar. It is available when the Menus module is on for your account.

Menus sit alongside the Allergens page, they don’t replace it. The Allergens page stays your flat list of dishes; Menus is the layer that groups them into set lunch, à la carte and so on.

What you’ll see

The landing page shows a card for each menu. The card shows the type icon, name, status dot, and a summary of its categories, such as Starters (5) · Mains (1). The status dot is green when the menu is Active and grey when it is inactive. Click a card to open the menu editor. Use the search box in the header to filter by name or description.

Create a menu

1. Click New Menu.
2. Enter a Menu Name (e.g. “Spring À La Carte 2026”).
3. Pick a Menu Type: Breakfast, Set Lunch, À La Carte, Pre-Theatre, Evening, or Custom. The type is a label and icon that helps you organise your menus.
4. Optionally add a Description.
5. Leave Active (in use) on for a menu that’s currently being served. Turn it off to keep a menu without marking it live.
6. Click Create Menu. You’ll land straight in the menu editor.

To change any of these later, open the menu and choose Menu details from the ⋯ menu.

Add categories

A menu is organised into categories like Starters, Mains and Desserts.

1. In the menu editor, click Add Category.
2. Enter a Category Name and click Add.
3. Use the arrow buttons on each category to move it up or down, the pen to rename, and the bin to delete. Deleting a category also removes the items inside it.

Add an item

Inside any category, click Add item. You can build the item from scratch or start from a recipe.

1. (Optional) Start from a recipe. Search your recipes in the Start from a recipe box. Picking one fills in the name and price and suggests allergens derived from that recipe’s ingredients (see below). If nothing matches, just fill the item in by hand.
2. Enter the Item Name, an optional Description, and a Price.
3. Under Suitable for, tag the dish as Vegetarian, Vegan and/or Halal. Choosing Vegan ticks Vegetarian automatically.
4. Under Select Allergens, tick each of the 14 major allergens that applies. When you tick one, a Free-from available option appears below it. Tick this option if you can serve the dish without that allergen, such as a gluten-free version. If you tick Cereals with Gluten or Tree Nuts, a field appears. Use the field to name the specific cereals or nuts.
5. Click Add Item.

Allergens suggested from a recipe

When an item comes from a recipe, Forkto reads the recipe ingredients and pre-ticks the allergens it recognises by matching ingredient names. The item has the badge Derived from recipe: please confirm. A note shows which ingredient caused each tick.

This feature helps you identify allergens, but it does not guarantee the result. You are responsible for confirming every allergen is correct before you save. Keyword matching can miss or incorrectly flag an allergen. Always review the ticks.

• If you change a suggested allergen, the badge becomes Overridden: differs from recipe.
• Re-sync allergens re-reads the recipe and refreshes the suggestions.
• Unlink detaches the item from the recipe so you manage its allergens by hand.
• If the recipe changes later, the item shows a Recipe updated flag. Open the item and re-sync it to get the latest allergens.

Add dishes from your library

If you’ve already recorded dishes on the Allergens page, click Add from library in a category to place several at once.

1. Search and tick the dishes you want (or use Select all).
2. Click Add. Each dish becomes a line on the menu, bringing its allergens with it.

Dishes already on this menu are hidden, so you cannot add them twice. When you add a dish, its allergens are copied to the menu line. Later changes to the library dish do not change a printed menu. If the menu line and library dish become different, the line shows a Differs from library flag. Open it and select Use library allergens or Update library dish to match.

Reorder, edit and delete

Each item row has arrows to move it up or down within its category, a pen to edit, and a bin to delete. Small icons on the row show whether an item came from a recipe or your library, its dietary tags, and its allergens.

See the allergen matrix for a menu

At the top of the editor, switch from Items to Allergen matrix. The matrix shows the menu dishes in a grid, grouped by category, with a tick for every allergen. A filled dot (●) means the dish contains the allergen. A half dot (◐) means it contains the allergen but a free-from alternative is available. Click Export PDF to download the matrix. Staff can use it for reference or during an EHO inspection.

The same dishes also appear on the main Allergens page automatically, so your one allergen matrix always covers every menu.

Archive a menu

To take a menu out of use, open it and choose Archive menu from the ⋯ menu. The menu is hidden but keeps all its categories and items. This action does not permanently delete anything.

Roles

Users with the auditor role can view menus and the allergen matrix but can’t add, edit, or delete anything.

Related articles

Allergens→Deliveries→Dispatches→Ingredient Intake→