The product and the base
Which product this goes into, and what it goes into it with. Stirred yogurt, plant-based yogurt, ice cream, a bake-stable filling, a fruit tea and a hotel portion are six different jobs, and the same fruit is built differently for each. If the base is plant-based, say which base: oat, soy and coconut sit at different pH and body, and a recipe built for dairy will not behave in them.
The process step and its temperatures
Where the ingredient enters your process and what happens to it afterwards. Dosed cold into a filled cup, blended into a mix before pasteurisation, deposited and baked, or frozen after dosing — each changes the recipe. Temperatures and hold times matter more than most people expect, because heat applied twice is not the same as heat applied once.
The target
Fruit content, Brix, pH, piece size and a colour reference if colour matters. If you are replacing an existing ingredient, the most useful thing you can send is that ingredient's specification, or the product itself. Matching a target you can measure is far quicker than matching a description.
The problem, if there is one
If you are changing supplier because something is wrong — pieces breaking, ripple freezing hard, filling boiling out, purée settling in the tank, colour bleeding over shelf life — that sentence is usually the most valuable line in the enquiry. It tells us which route to lead with and saves a trial round.
Pack, volume and destination
Whether you can take a 20 kg bag-in-box, a 200 kg drum or a frozen block; annual volume, even roughly; and the destination port. Those three set MOQ, lead time and whether the quotation comes back EXW, FOB or CIF. They also decide the format question — a customer with no freezer is buying aseptic whatever else is true.
The documents your process needs
Every buyer's qualification process asks for a different set. Tell us at the start what yours needs — specification, certificate of analysis, allergen and nutrition statements, traceability records, company registration, food-safety system certificates — and it travels with the quotation instead of being chased afterwards.
What comes back
A lead recipe and a comparison route, each with a specification, and a formal quotation with MOQ and lead time. Two routes rather than one, because a first round that answers a question is worth more than a first round that confirms a guess.