Good results start with a well-prepared file. This article covers the template, the fields, the validation rules and the SKU rules.
Before uploading anything, download the Product Data template from the platform and fill it in.
Digital Twin vs Industry Average - why ingredients matter
Mondra can calculate your footprint in two ways, and the difference is significant:
- Digital Twin - a recipe-based calculation built from the actual ingredient list on your product's packaging. This is the more accurate result, and it is what you get when you provide the On Pack Ingredients for a product.
- Industry Average - a category-level estimate used when no ingredient list is provided. It is a useful fallback, but noticeably less precise than a Digital Twin.
The single most valuable thing you can do to improve your results is to include the on-pack ingredient list for each product. Products with ingredients become Digital Twins; products without fall back to Industry Average. In most cases ingredients give you a Digital Twin, though occasionally a product may still be modelled as an Industry Average.
The product data fields
Your file has one row per product (or, as explained below, one row per product-supplier-country combination). The template contains the following columns:
Field | Required? | What it is |
| Product Name | Mandatory | The full product name as it appears on pack or in your systems |
SKU ID | Mandatory | Your internal product code / stock-keeping unit. |
EAN | Optional | The product's barcode (EAN / GTIN), if it has one. |
Supplier Name | Mandatory | The supplier or manufacturer that produces the product. |
Country of Manufacture | Optional | The country where the product is made, e.g. 'United Kingdom'. |
Net Weight | Mandatory | The net weight of the product in grams, excluding packaging. |
Is Brand Owner | Mandatory | 'True' if you own the brand, 'False' if it's owned by another party. |
On Pack Ingredients | Optional | The full ingredient list, copied verbatim from the packaging. |
Product Category | Optional | Your internal product category (multi-level supported). |
Is Organic | Optional | 'True' / 'False', or leave blank for Mondra to detect automatically. |
2023 Volume ... 2026 Volume | Optional | Annual units sold or purchased, with one column per calendar year (2023, 2024, 2025, 2026). |
*On Pack Ingredients is technically optional, but strongly recommended - it is the difference between a Digital Twin and an Industry Average result.
Field-by-field guidance
Product Name - Use the name you use in your own systems, and keep it consistent across uploads. Inconsistent naming (e.g. 'Cheddar 400g' one time and 'Mature Cheddar 400g' the next) can create duplicate product entries.
SKU ID - Your internal product code. See "How SKU IDs work" below for how to handle products with more than one supplier or country.
EAN - The barcode, as 8, 12 or 13 digits with no spaces or hyphens. Only leave it blank for products that genuinely have no barcode (e.g. loose fresh produce). Note: if you later choose to share your carbon data with retail customers or partners, an EAN is required to match products - products without one can't be included in shared reporting.
Supplier Name - Keep supplier names consistent across all your uploads. Mondra uses the name to recognise the same supplier across products, so 'Supplier A Ltd' and 'Supplier A' may be treated as two different suppliers.
Country of Manufacture - Use the full English country name. If you leave it blank, Mondra defaults to your company's registered country, which may be wrong for anything made overseas and will reduce accuracy. This field drives the transport emissions between where a product is made and where it's sold.
Net Weight - The net weight in grams, excluding packaging. The two most common mistakes are entering the value in kilograms instead of grams (e.g. '0.45' instead of '450') and including packaging weight - please avoid both.
Is Brand Owner - 'True' or 'False'. Mondra uses this to manage who can see a product's data when it's shared between parties, so it's worth getting right.
On Pack Ingredients - Copy the ingredient list exactly as it appears on pack, as a comma-separated string. Preserve the original order and keep any nested ingredients in brackets. Don't paraphrase or summarise. (As above - this is what unlocks a Digital Twin.)
Product Category - Optional, and used for organising products on the platform. For multi-level categories, separate each level with ' / ' - a space, a forward slash, and a space - e.g. `Dairy / Cheese / Hard Cheese`. Other separators like `>`, `|` or `/` without spaces won't be read correctly. If you leave it blank, Mondra applies its own classification.
Is Organic - Leave it blank and Mondra will try to detect organic status from the product name. Set it to 'True' only where the product is certified organic but the name doesn't make that obvious. Organic status affects the land use, fertiliser and pesticide profiles in the calculation.
2023 / 2024 / 2025 / 2026 Volume - Optional. Enter the total number of units you sold or purchased in each calendar year, as a whole number, in that year's column. There is a separate column per year, so fill in only the years you have data for. You no longer choose a reporting year on the upload screen - the year is simply whichever column the figure sits in. Volume feeds volume-weighted (Scope 3) reporting; a product with no volume is still imported and still gets a PCF. Re-uploads update each year independently: if you upload the same product again, a year that contains a value (including 0) replaces the figure held before, while a year left blank keeps whatever was previously held - a blank never clears an existing figure. To set a year's volume to zero, enter 0 explicitly.
How SKU IDs work
Your SKU ID is the core identifier Mondra uses to track a product. The important rule is: