The food industry hasn't widely adopted e-commerce as a means of procurement, but Otter Valley Foods of Tillsonburg, Ont., is nonetheless making its Web site a destination for the food service and institutional buyers of its Care Cuisine frozen meals.

The attraction is easy to understand: the Otter Valley site at www.ottervalley.com painlessly performs the onerous task of calculating nutrition and protein content, portion size and even protein-cost comparisons with alternatives.

For the dieticians who calculate menus for health care facilities, correctional institutions, resorts, hotels and cafeterias, this makes for considerable time savings, says John Kelly, Otter Valley's president and co-founder. "When they make their own products, for instance, they have to enter each ingredient into a program, and the more complex the recipe, the longer it takes, and sometimes there are variances in the ingredients and quantities. With us, they get the exact laboratory results for our specific products."

Mr. Kelly says his "e-strategy" is a critical component of his efforts to distinguish Otter Valley from the huge food conglomerates that dominate the industry. With 200 employees and a new 88,000-sq.-ft. plant, Otter Valley has carved its niche through highly flexible production runs and an ability to accommodate even the most complex products.

The emphasis of the Web site is therefore on individual customers - assisting with menu planning and customized presentations.

When customers visit the site, they specify their industry and the product list is geared for that specific sector. "There are some products they won't even see," says Mr. Kelly, "because they're not appropriate for them."

After selecting a product, visitors are then given a complete nutritional breakdown per 100 grams, plus a list of potential allergens or ingredients such as lactose or glutamates for which people may have intolerances. They are also invited to use the site's calculators.

In the nutrition calculator, customers choose a pack size and either the number of servings or the desired protein content per meal. The calculator then displays a complete nutritional breakdown for the portion size. If they have specified a desired protein content, it also tells the user how many portions to divide the tray into.

The protein cost calculator is designed for menu planners who need to supply a specific amount of protein with each meal, a common situation in hospitals, for instance, where patients need to rebuild tissue but cannot eat in high quantities. A visitor can compare a Care Cuisine product to a competitive product, or even a traditionally prepared product, to ascertain the cost per serving of protein. "It shows our customers that even if a competitor's product is cheaper per case," says Mr. Kelly, "ours is denser in protein so you're going to get more servings and more protein."

Both calculators, he adds, are enjoying a positive reception from users. "Dieticians come to us at trade shows and tell us they really like them. They're interactive, they're on topic and the nutrition calculator even tells them how many pieces to cut the tray into to get the level of protein they want." It's a good demonstration of one of the great sales techniques: making it easy for customers to purchase.