The ice cream mix calculator on the  Dairy Science and Food Technology website uses advanced mathematics to calculate the ingredients required to convert a specification e.g. 8% fat, 11.1% MSNF, 13% sweetener, 3% CSS, I % egg yolk, 0.5% stabiliser into a recipe. The subscription service enables users to access the calculator, save calculations and return to access or edit the saved calculations.

This is an educational service designed to help students and product developers to determine the weights of ingredients required to make a mix to a given composition.

How do I pay for a subscription and do I need a PayPal account?
You can make a secure payment using any credit or debit card supported by PayPal. You do not need a PayPal account. Note while PayPal accepts Echeques it takes 7-days for these to clear and you may get an error message when attempting to log on. If this occurs let me know and I will send you Log In details.

How much should I donate?
A donation of £9.99 secures 3 day's access; £14.99, 40 day's access and £20.00, 80 day's access (charges correct at the 20/02/2012).

What happens after I make a donation?
You will be taken to the calculator where you can immediately start to use it. You will also receive an Email giving your logon details. Please retain this information, this is needed to access the service again. In particular you need to remember the name you used (user name) when registering! You can reset your password any anytime using your Email address and user name.

When logging in you input your user name (not your Email address!) and your password.

What happens when my subscription is up?
When you login you will be reminded that your subscription has ended and given an opportunity to subscribe again. Your stored calculations and your information will be removed after your subscription has elapsed

I need a customised calculator solution.  Can you customise the calculator for me?
Possibly. Please send me an Email at webmaster at this Domain explaining your requirements. Please include custom calculator in the title of your Email.

Can I be certain that the calculator will be available all the time during my subscription?
No. The Internet is not 100% reliable. From time to time all web-based applications can be unavailable due to Internet access problems that are completely outside the control of website owners. This site is hosted on a server provided by Web Whiz which is exceptionally reliable. In the event that there of any significant downtime I will provide an additional period of access at no charge.

Do you provide technical support?
Generally no! But if if you have a problem I will try to help. You can send queries to me at webmaster at this domain. I would also encourage you to use the site- forum to post queries.  

Is the calculator warranted?
No. You use at your own risk. While any data that you store will be safely and securely stored its privacy and security are not guaranteed in any way. So if the servers fail your stored data will be lost. The web-host for this site uses state of the art database back up facilities and I have never had a problem due to data loss or security problems.

Why will the calculator not perform some calculations?
The calculator cannot perform mathematically impossible calculations! There is a limit to the number of MSNF and fat sources that the calculator is permitted to process. If these limits are exceeded you will get an error message. Similarly I have made it impossible to undertake some obviously wrong calculations. But be aware of the maxims concerning data quality inputs and what comes out!

How accurate are the calculations?
You can check accuracy by looking at the balances in the output tables.  Note that you cannot vary MSNF with some recipes!

Qualifications
Only use this service if you understand that you assume all risks! You use the service "as is" and accept full responsibility for your use of the results.

Written by Michael Mullan