Erudus teams up with Merlin to streamline food data

Newcastle-based food data platform, Erudus, has teamed up with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software house Merlin to create an application programming interface (API) integration that will streamline communication of nutritional and allergen data to more businesses in the food service landscape.

Demand for up-to-date, accurate food data has risen sharply following new legislation such as Natasha’s Law, which mandates all food businesses to include full ingredients labelling on their products.

With demand set to rocket in the future, Erudus is working with a number of API integration partners like Merlin to streamline and simplify the communication of food data.

Ashley Jones, sales and marketing director of Merlin, said: “The food and drink distribution industry has been a key market sector for us since the early days of the business, and we’ve recognised the vital importance for our customers to have instant access to accurate and up to date product information on ingredients and allergens; so we jumped at the chance to develop an Erudus integration.”

Erudus hopes that having its food data on tap will not only help attract new business but will also save its existing customers hours of time each month by having access to a a single source of accurate information that would otherwise be spent manually importing data.

John Shayler, chief operations officer of Erudus, explained: “Integration partnerships allow us to push food product data even further across the industry, supporting brands, wholesalers and caterers alike.

“It’s a time-consuming process for the foodservice chain to manage product specification data and exploring options with companies such as Merlin allows us to reach more people and make their life easier.”

Phil Nicholson, sales & marketing manager of foodservice wholesaler Q Catering, who use both Erudus and Merlin software, added: “Our office and telesales team are frequent users [of Erudus], and now that the API link has pulled through relevant allergen and nutritional data and imagery into Merlin, they are in a position where they can answer product questions literally at the click of a button.

“Reps in the field benefit from the same luxury, as they can research product data whilst using Merlin – instead of having to open up Erudus separately or make unnecessary telephone calls to colleagues.

“It also helps us greatly in our advancement towards online ordering and a transactional web presence.”