SweetlyTM Stevia – Press Kit

Introducing SweetlyTM Stevia:

A Guilt-Free Sweetener

in the Fight against Diabetes & Obesity

SweetlyTM Stevia – Press Kit

Table of Contents

Company Vision 3

What is Stevia? 4

From Field to Table 5

The Consumer Need & Governmental Concern 6

Introducing SweetlyTM Stevia: A New Solution 7

Brief Regulatory Timeline 8

For Additional Information 9

SweetlyTM Stevia – Press Kit

Company Vision

SweetlyTM Stevia – Press Kit

What is Stevia? Stevia (stevia rebaudiana), as God created it, is a white-flowered bush bearing leaves that not only offer an intense sweetening ability but also significant nutritional value. It grows naturally in the subtropical ecosystems of South America. The leaves contain eight

compounds which give stevia its sweetness. These compounds are called steviol glycosides, the most common of which are steviosides and rebaudiosides.

Latin American indigenous communities refer to stevia as the “sweet herb”, “honey leaf”

and “sweet leaf” and have been using it as a sweetener for centuries. About 60 years ago it was taken out of its natural environment to be propagated, initially in Japan (where,

incidentally, it now accounts for around 70% of sweetener consumption there). Stevia is a proven, safe alternative to sugar.

Studies have shown that stevia’s non-caloric sugars are up to 400 times sweeter than regular sugar and do not produce the health concerns associated with artificial sweeteners. Stevia is a great option in the global fight against the sugar demon. Given soaring rates of obesity,

diabetes and heart disease, The World Health Organisation predicts that stevia intake could eventually replace well over 20% of all dietary sweeteners.

Additionally, some research even suggests that stevia has benefits beyond just calorie reduction.

The Open Obesity Journal, 2010, 2, 101-109

Stevia: It’s Not Just About the Calories

Jocelynn E Thomas – Montclair State University, Montclair NJ USA

Michael J Glade – The Nutrition Doctor, Skoie, IL USA

Abstract:

Objective: Although stevia leaf extract is an accepted sugar substitute that can contribute to improved caloric management and weight control, it also may enhance other aspects of human health. The effectiveness and safety of stevia leaf extract in these additional roles was evaluated. Methods: A detailed literature review was conducted and summarized.

Results: An extract of the leaf of the herb, Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni (“stevia”) is a natural, sweet-tasting, noncaloric substance and does not produce unhealthy side effects. In addition, the inclusion of stevia leaf extracts in the diet has been associated with antihyperglycemic, insulinotropic, glucagonostatic, hypotensive, anticariogenic, antiviral, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, immunostimulatory and chemopreventative responses. Conclusion: Stevia leaf extracts and their constituent phytonutrients promote caloric balance and can be beneficial components of a healthy dietary lifestyle.

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SweetlyTM Stevia – Press Kit

From Field to Table Farming

SweetlyTM Stevia sources its organic Rainforest Alliance Certified stevia leaves primarily from South America and forms long term relationships

with local farmers with a view to improving the lives, health and prosperity of the communities there. Our stevia is a non-GMO crop. Its farming, extraction and

purification requires less water, land and energy to produce than the same amount of sweetness found in other sweeteners like sugar (up to 90% less).

Harvesting

By late in the growing season, the stevia plant will

typically be 1m high and the appearance of the small white flowers indicate it is time to harvest the plant.

Extraction & Purification

Unless you want to chew on leaves, stevia needs to have its sweetness extracted from it (result = steviosides). However, many extraction processes do not use 100% natural

products to extract the steviosides. Many use ethanol, methanol, or even rubbing alcohol to extract and purify. This not-so-natural process can result in a bitter after-taste.

At Sweetly™ Stevia, however, we use a patented process that extracts and purifies the sugary goodness using only water. Our process is 100% Natural and results in a product that genuinely tastes just like sugar.

Blending In pure extracted form, steviodes are too sweet for human taste buds so companies need to

add fillers to make the sweetness more palatable. Most companies use fillers such as dextrose (corn fibre) and erythritrol (sugar alcohol) or so-called “natural flavours” to create the final product. There is debate whether these fillers are really natural…

At Sweetly™ Stevia, we only use Acacia Gum, Vegetable Fibre and a tiny amount of low

GI (Glycemic Index), Tooth Friendly Fruit Sugar so our blend is 100% Natural.

Packaging & Shipping

SweetlyTM Stevia endeavours to use sustainably sourced material wherever possible. For

example, our shelf ready casing uses FSC Certified material and even the ink is

environmentally friendly. And, we picked our UK transportation company due to its efforts

to reduce its environmental impact. It operates, for example, a full recycling programmer

including rainwater collection for vehicle washing, paper, card and plastic. Plus all its

warehousing is fitted with energy efficient lighting and the warehouse vehicles operate with

the latest battery technology to reduce charging time and energy usage.

Acacia Gum

Vegetable Fibre

Fruit Sugar

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SweetlyTM Stevia – Press Kit

The consumer need…

For consumers who are health and/or weight conscious there’s a trade-off between indulging their sweet tooth

and ingesting too many calories. Existing sweeteners offer only a partial solution as there is both a trade-off in

taste and in how natural the sugar alternative is. To get the desired

calorie reduction usually involves eating something artificial as well as

settling for something with an undesirable after-taste.

Most stevia blends on the market today leave a bitter after-taste whilst

other, more artificial sweeteners like Sucralose and Aspartame taste

metallic.

A consumer segmentation study, commissioned by The Silver Spoon

Company in 2010 identifed two types of people for whom stevia-based

sweeteners have particular appeal: the ‘Proactively Healthy’ and the

‘Sweetener Treaters’. Key findings from the study include:

Consumers want a calorie-free sweetener that has the taste, texture

and crunch of sugar but is a healthy, natural alternative

‘Proactively Healthy’ consumers actively seek to lead a healthy lifestyle and are constantly seeking to lose

or manage their weight

79% of ‘Proactively Healthy’ consumers try to avoid artificial ingredients and 74% wish that they could

have something natural that didn’t have the calories of sugar

“Sweetener Treaters” use sweeteners because they allow them to treat themselves without feeling guilty

The governmental concern…

There’s a lot of media and government attention on getting consumers to reduce their sugar content, especially in food

targeted at children. In fact, sugar is fast on its way to becoming Public Enemy Number 1. There’s even been talk of

introducing a sugar tax.

The World Health Organisation (WHO)

has suggested a person’s sugar intake should be halved to 6 teaspoons a day to help avoid mounting health problems like

obesity and tooth decay.

Action on Sugar, a group appointed by Jeremy Hunt (UK Health Secretary) to look into childhood obesity, has called for a 40% reduction by 2020 through mandatory health

reformulation targets. Labour’s Andy Burnham has also indicated the party is planning to slap new regulations on sugar levels in children’s food if it comes to power.

Already, tough talk on sugar is leading towards actual changes in official government

standards. For example, the School Food Standards relating to school dinners announced 17 June 2014 restrict the amount of added sugars or honey in non-water drinks to 5%.

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SweetlyTM Stevia – Press Kit

Introducing SweetlyTM Stevia A New Solution

SweetlyTM Stevia is the brand name for the first 100% Natural, Ultra Low

Calorie Sweetener* which Genuinely Tastes Like Sugar. It is different from

other stevia sweeteners on the market which tend to leave a bitter aftertaste.

In a study of 250 people (aged 16-58 years, 50% male & 50% female)

conducted by the Oxford Brookes University’s Consumer Quantitative

Research Food Science Dept in December 2013, 70% could NOT tell

the difference between SweetlyTM Stevia and Sugar.

Unless you want to chew on leaves, stevia needs to have its sweetness extracted from it (result = steviosides). However, many extraction processes do not use 100% natural ingredients to extract the steviosides. Many actually use ethanol, methanol, or even rubbing alcohol to extract and purify. This not- so-natural process can result in a bitter after-taste.

SweetlyTM Stevia is made with the best-tasting part of the leaf and its sweetness

is extracted via a patented process which uses ONLY water (unique to

market). This helps gives Sweetly Stevia its clean, sugar-like taste.

In pure extracted form, it is worth noting that steviodes are too sweet for human taste buds so companies need to add fillers to make the sweetness more palatable. Most other stevia brands use fillers such as dextrose (corn fibre) and erythritrol (sugar alcohol) or so-called “natural flavours” to create the final product; there is debate whether theses fillers are really natural. At SweetlyTM Stevia, we use Acacia Gum, Vegetable Fibre and a tiny amount of Low GI*, Tooth Friendly Fruit Sugar. Our blend is 100% Natural.

At Sweetly™ Stevia we believe natural products are those which:

Do not contain man-made synthetic ingredients

Are not subject to harsh chemical processes

Are only minimally processed and can be certified non-GMO.

SweetlyTM Stevia helps people reduce their caloric intake, is suitable for diabetics, is tooth friendly (ie doesn’t

foster cavities) & is free from just about everything you can imagine (eg no gluten, no GMO, no chemicals

etc). And, given its great taste consumers are likely to keep using this healthy sugar alternative

The product is Halal (no sugar alcohol like most other sweeteners) as well as kosher certified. It is also the

UK’s first Vegan certified stevia sweetener and is made from organic,

Rainforest Alliance Certified stevia leaves.

It is available as a retail product to consumers as well as to trade as a

sweetener sachet for hot drink making stations, in food service meal/dessert

preparation and as an ingredient to a wide range of product types including

beverages, yogurts and ice cream.

The name

SweetlyTM Stevia comes from the combination of “sweet” and “naturally”.

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*1 teaspoon Sweetly Stevia (5.2kcal) = 2 teaspoons (40kcal)

**Glycemic Index may vary slightly by batch but is typically 12 (vs sugar at 65)

SweetlyTM Stevia – Press Kit

Brief Regulatory Timeline

US / EU Approvals

July 2008

Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) established the safe use

of steviol glycosides and set a permanent acceptable daily intake (ADI) for steviol glycosides, including

rebiana.

June 2009

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inventory of GRAS substances was expanded for stevia by

the addition of high purity steviol glycosides with rebaudioside A and stevioside as principal components

being GRAS and safe for use in food and beverages.

November 2011 EU Regulation 1131/2011, which came into force on 2 December 2011, permits steviol glycosides to be used in certain specified foods at permitted maximum levels (expressed as steviol equivalents). Expansion of use is currently under consideration with news expected October 2014.

Elsewhere

Steviol glycosides are also permitted for use in foods and beverages in Argentina, Australia, Brazil,

China, Colombia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, Switzerland,

Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and Uruguay

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SweetlyTM Stevia – Press Kit

For additional information

CONTACT:

Susan Marinakis – Managing Director

+44 7808 088 738 susan@sweetlystevia.com

Susan is a pragmatic sales & marketing leader with experience in both start-ups & “Big Corporate”

environments. Prior to joining SweetlyTM Stevia in June 2014 she spent nearly a decade with

Johnson & Johnson in the UK in a variety of sales & marketing roles. For example, as UK Group

Brand Manager she drove the growth of UK’s #1 ACUVUE Reusable Contact Lens Brand, developing

sales materials described as “best ever”. At DePuy UK she co-managed its £65 million knee implant

franchise where her efforts helped lead to a market share gain in its #1 brand for the first time in 5

years. Susan also co-created, & then sold, Cafe Corfu, a 150-person, top rated London venue

described by Time Out as “Best Hellenic Restaurant”, by the Evening Standard as “One of London’s

Top 5 Places to Have a Party” and by The Independent as “One of London’s Top 50 Restaurants”

(Top 20 North London). She is also a strong strategic thinker having spent 4 years working for a

global firm providing management consulting services to a range of groups including CEO-level

audiences at publically listed companies. She is an MBA graduate of the world #1 ranked Wharton

School, University of Pennsylvania (2003 – 2005) where she was awarded the Joseph Wharton

Fellowship Grant for her “leadership, integrity and interpersonal skills”.

(https://www.linkedin.com/pub/susan-marinakis/0/543/a27 )

ON THE WEB:

https://twitter.com/sweetlystevia

https://www.facebook.com/sweetly.stevia

http://www.pinterest.com/SweetlyStevia

https://plus.google.com/+Sweetlysteviauk/about

https://www.youtube.com/user/sweetlystevia

SweetlyTM Stevia Limited Sweet House 31 St Olav’s Court Lower Road London, SE16 2XB

www.sweetlystevia.com

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