Keeto Life, the ketogenic bakery specialist behind the Seriously Low Carb brand, has been approved to be a national NHS supplier.
With its range, logistics and pricing approved, Keeto Life said it will now be at the ‘top of the pile’ when it comes to tendering for and supplying the whole of NHS UK, including Scotland, with low carb products.
Its range currently includes bread, rolls, wraps, pizza, jam, and condiments, as well as more recent additions such as pasta and ready meals.
The stated aim of Keeto Life is to launch a low-carb version of every higher carb category that is not compromised in terms of taste or texture. Its Seriously loaves, for example, are said to contain around 6% carbs, compared to 45% in typical bread.
The company noted that the original plan had been just to provide low carb goods for NHS patient meals. However, its pizzas and seeded loaf had “stormed in staff and visitor canteens” so it would now look to supply all three channels.
According to Keeto Life, the ’extensive cupboard of low-carb goodies’ in its Seriously Low Carb range offers ’one-stop shops that make perfect sense for a fantastic service looking to maximise limited budgets’. It revealed that the NHS central team had approached it after learning of supply deals brokered with both the Birmingham and Manchester Hospital Trusts last year.
These deals had followed a 2020 alignment of the brand with epilepsy charity The Daisy Garland. A ketogenic diet is known to be one way of treating patients with unmanaged epilepsy, who are resistant to over-the-counter medication.
Keeto Life called its latest NHS agreement a pivotal sea-change moment. “Securing NHS validation was a long, often frustrating process, but at the end of the day my young business’ proudest moment,” said founder and CEO Andy Welch.
“This is an organisation that is slowly embracing ketogenic teachings (with over 40 inhouse ketogenic clinicians), so to collaborate with such a respected, like-minded nationwide entity is a real ‘we’re on the right path’ moment.”
In April, Keeto Life secured £500k in funding from the East of England Regional Loan Scheme to support growth, including ongoing product development, marketing initiatives, packaging innovation, and recruitment.
While 80% of its 200,000+ customer base first came to the Seriously Low Carb range to tackle underlying obesity issues, admitted Welsh, an “over-arching 50%” are now also embracing its products to help reverse Type 2 diabetes.
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