Eat Well Group’s FoodTech Portfolio Company is led by Dr. Gino Bortone, one of the world’s preeminent food scientists and the inventor of Frito-Lay’s Twisted Cheetos

Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (the “Company” or “Eat Well Group”) (CSE:EWG) (US:EWGFF) (FRA:6BC0) is pleased to provide an operational update on Sapientia Technology LLC (“Sapientia” or “Sapientia Technology”), a food technology (“FoodTech”) portfolio holding of the Company, since completing its acquisition of Sapientia on July 30^th, 2021.

Led by Dr. Eugenio Bortone, one of the world’s most preeminent food scientists, extrusion processing experts, and inventor of Frito-Lay’s Twisted Cheetos, Sapientia has created and filed four foundational patents revolving around the “protein curl” and crispy puff style snack. By focusing on the texture and crunch, Sapientia’s disruptive patents solve one of the major problems large-scale snack-food companies have struggled with for years; the utility of the snack; including texture, flavour, and offering a guilt free, not fried, natural and healthy alternative to the majority of snack food products on the market today.

“Innovation to date in the snack food sector has been through products that are essentially less bad for you; however, consumers are about to learn that through proprietary formulations, novel IP and trade secrets, Sapientia is developing products that are in fact healthier, and actually better for you,” commented Dr. Gino Bortone, Founder and CEO of Sapientia. “I am thrilled to disrupt the multi-billion-dollar snack category with products that support the best of health & wellness.”

Innovation:

Sapientia is focused on disrupting the entire snack food market that is estimated to reach $736 billion by 2026.

The company has developed a breakthrough in fried vs. baked extrusion technology processing, creating a proprietary trade secret. Sapientia has created a unique process that produces the textural attributes of a fried product that is instead baked, with an ample nutritional value as a “better for you” source of protein and fiber, with reduced-fat.

Dr. Bortone and his team of culinary chefs who work in partnership with seasoning houses, have developed natural 100% plant-based seasonings that are completely vegan. Intellectual property that centers around process and formula that uniquely creates plant-based food snacks with very high nutritional value, palatability, and a crispy eating experience.

Sapientia owns a significant portfolio of process trade secrets and patents, most notably a transformational path of a puffy snack into a crunchy crisp; something that has presented a tremendous challenge to leading international CPG players over the past 30 years. The goal is to include increased nutritional credentials to a product that has historically been considered to be full of empty calories, fat, and carbs, and that is exactly what Sapientia has been able to achieve.

Current Operations:

Sapientia is focused on product development in several areas of the snack food market and with years of R&D behind the company, Sapientia is pleased to announce it will be commercializing its products in the coming months, including a wide array of new protein products targeting people and pets.

“There is an incredible amount of demand for these products already in the marketplace as more and more consumers are turning to healthier alternatives to traditional snack foods,” commented Dr. Gino Bortone, “And with the launch of our P Curls expected in December to nearly 350 stores across western Canada, we couldn’t be more thrilled to have an immediate path to market.”

Future Developments:

In addition to the existing patents, Sapientia is pleased to announce it has formed a strategic plant-based Eat Well phytoIP platform. This new strategic initiative will research high moisture meat analogue (“HMMA”) alternatives, fermentation processes, plant-based protein cultivation, and phytonutrient-forward formulae to deploy across foods and beverages. Led by Dr. Bortone and his team and leveraging Dr. Bortone’s extensive network and global reach in the plant-based food industry, Sapientia is in active discussions with several marquis players in bioinformatics, biomimicry, and extrusion technology to develop the next generation of plant-based foods.

Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre

Through its portfolio companies, Eat Well Group continues to collaborate with the Saskatchewan Food Industry Develop Centre Inc. (“Food Centre”) to commercialize and expand the product offerings of its investee companies, Dan Prefontaine, President of the Food Centre and strategic advisor to Eat Well Group has been an important liaison between the two organizations to help drive continued innovation in plant-based food products. Dan Prefontaine has assisted over 400 companies develop over 900 CPG products in his 30+ year career to date.

To learn more, join Eat Well Group’s mailing list for important updates.

ABOUT EAT WELL GROUP

Eat Well Group is a publicly-traded investment Company primarily focused on high-growth companies in the agribusiness, food tech, plant-based and ESG (environmental, social and governance) sectors. Eat Well Group’s management team has an extensive record of sourcing, financing and building successful companies across a broad range of industries and maintains a current investment mandate on the health/wellness industry. The team has financed and invested in early-stage venture companies for greater than 25 years, resulting in unparalleled access to deal flow and the ability to construct a portfolio of opportunistic investments intended to generate superior risk-adjusted returns.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the information contained herein and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

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