Eat Balanced on the BBC News - Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

The pizza, one of the world's most popular foods, recently took a step forward into food history with the launch of the world's first nutritionally balanced pizza.

As featured on the BBC News website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-18663969, the new pizzas, invented by a new company called Eat Balanced, contain the correct proportions of calories, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, salts, sugar, fibre, vitamins and minerals that humans need for a balanced meal. Each individual pizza has been designed to provide about 30 per cent of the guideline daily amounts for each of the main nutrients that we need.

The Eat Balanced pizzas use all-natural, high-quality ingredients and lose nothing of the classic pizza taste, convenience and sense of fun.  The range currently includes Cheese and Tomato, Ham and Pineapple, and Spicy Chicken, demonstrating that the toppings don't have to scare people off!

Having recently announced the concept to the food trade at the UK's largest food trade show, the potential for the products was confirmed by Eat Balanced picking up the award for "Best New Idea".  Subsequently, there has been very strong interest from buyers ranging from specialist health shops to supermarkets and catering industry giants.  It is not on sale anywhere yet, but they have had commitment from one of the major supermarkets to launch later this year, and the others are very interested.

Donnie Maclean, the entrepreneur behind Eat Balanced said,

"The concept of a balanced diet is well established in people's minds. However, it's not easy to make sure that you are getting
exactly the right balance of what you need from each meal.  I set up Eat Balanced to try to make it as convenient as possible for people to achieve the balanced diet they know they should be getting.  I wanted to prove that a balanced meal could still be properly tasty, by choosing one of the nation's favourite foods. 

"Working with the brilliant Professor Mike Lean, one of the country's top nutrition academics and a leader in health promotion, we've spent a long time refining these recipes to get the nutritional and taste balance just right. This means that the consumer
doesn't have to go to any hassle - the hard work has been done for them.  

"I wanted our pizzas to be something that make people think - "That's a great idea! I'll give that a shot". We have worked hard to make the nutritional balance with the nations' favourite toppings, so that they'll not be scared to try them. I'm confident that once they try our pizzas and realise that a balanced meal doesn't have to taste bland or like cardboard, people will happily choose them so that we can make a difference to the nations' health."

The pizzas have been developed and are produced in Scotland, a country where there has been no shortage of debate about the role of unhealthy foods in creating a culture of unhealthy eating.  Professor Mike Lean is one of the world's leading
authorities on human nutrition and has been involved in the Eat Balanced project from the start. Speaking very positively about the new products he said,

"I've encouraged Donnie all the way through the development of this concept, and our team have enjoyed the challenge he set us.  It's a clever idea that clearly demonstrates that a balanced diet can be achieved with a convenience food.  By eating a nutritionally balanced meal, it is far easier to get on the right track towards a well-balanced diet.

"The Eat Balanced pizza helps make healthful eating accessible.  Working with Donnie to bring the pizza back from junk food status and return it to its nutritionally sound origins has been a technical challenge, but we've had great fun!   Having
reviewed the full nutritional analysis, I can formally confirm that this is a complete, nutritionally balanced meal.

In our department, we have just analysed a range of popular ready meals from the 5 main supermarkets. They were nutritionally chaotic.  Not one is remotely balanced and some could actually be dangerous. The Eat Balanced pizza range is a triumph!

Eat Balanced is in discussions with a number of major retailers and catering heavyweights, with one supermarket buyer dubbing it as "the biggest innovation in the frozen pizza market that I can remember".  At this year's Food and Drink Expo in Birmingham, the largest food trade show in the UK, Eat Balanced was voted 'Best New Idea' by the food industry professionals attending the exhibition.  Each of the discerning industry voters tasted the pizzas, and the feedback was very positive.

There has been no shortage of support for the product from major players in the food business, 

The Nutrition Manager for Waitrose, Moira Howie, said  "This is exactly the sort of product innovation that the UK requires - and it tastes great too! Well done."

"You have a great tasting product. This is proper innovation." Gerard O'Sullivan, Culinary Director for the Olympic Games (Aramark)

"Eat Balanced Pizzas are truly innovative and have the scope to make a huge impact
on how consumers eat." Jack Halliday, Show Manager, Food & Drink Expo

Eat Balanced is based within the sensational business accelerator, Entrepreneurial Spark (http://www.entrepreneurial-spark.com/), which has made a huge difference to Eat Balanced's chances of success.  Jim Duffy founder of Entrepreneurial Spark in Glasgow has been so impressed by the potential of Eat Balanced and the way they have approached the creation of the business that he identified Donnie a 'mac-billionaire' of the future in a recent Sunday Times 'Rich-List' feature.  Sir Willie Haughey, who backs the Glasgow Entrepreneurial Spark and hosts it within his headquarters also awarded Donnie with "Best Pitch" at one of the
Entrepreneurial Spark's external events.

ENDS