Angus Brown: Co-Founder of Arepa aims to conquer tough market with unique brain drink formula

This time last year Arepa found themselves in hot water after the government officials decided that made unsubstantial health claims of cognitive and physical boosting abilities, they are forced to amend these claims and now back launching a new brain drink – Uplift.

Co-Founder of Arepa, Angus Brown told Heather Du Plessis – Allan that this time round he's proud to call the "brain drink” because of the fact him and his team committed a lot of time and effort towards conducting human clinical research and have that peer reviewed and published.

Brown says that its a really tough market but they're on the journey.

He says that they are certainly making some strides towards it and are still the one and only drink that anybody could pick up in the supermarketthat's got clinical research behind it.

“Learning this toughness in New Zealand is teaching us about how we can become fitter for entering bigger markets like the US”

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now do you remember the artepp of brain drink saga, Well,
these guys are taking another crack at this. About this
time last year, ARDEPA found themselves in hot water when
the government officials decided that made some unsubstantiated health claims
of cognitive and physical physical boosting abilities and stuff, and
they were forced to amend these claims. They are now
back launching a new brain drink plus. It's called Uplift
and Angus Brown is a co founder of ARDEPA.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hay Angus half known Heather Hi.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm very well, thank you. So is this actually you
can say a brain drink this time? You're not going
to get in trouble.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yes, no, we can definitively say a brain drink, and
we're very proud to say a brain drink.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Why is it a brain drink?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, it's a brain drink because we've committed a lot
of time and effort towards conducting human clinical research and
having that per review published and at showing some some
really interesting things.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
What are the interesting things?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, unfortunately, due to the food code here in New Zealand,
we're unable to say the outcomes of our research until
we've put that through a self substantiated dossier, and so
we have already submitted our first self substantiated dossia with
regards to one of our ingredients called our then and

(01:16):
then we're just waiting for more of our published research
to come through before we submit something entirely on our formula.
But we know that there's definitely something in the drink
that works, and we're really excited to slowly show the
world about it.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Are you as frustrated at redtape in this country as
I am?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, it is quite tough. It's tough being a food product.
If we're a dietary supplement, we would be able to
talk about our published research more and link it even
on our website. So it's really really it is a
really tough market. But we kind of I kind of
respect that in a way and since that you really
have to hold yourself to the highest standard to be
able to claim something in a food which is you know,

(02:00):
the biggest goal. And so we're on that journey and
we're certainly making some strides towards it, and we're still
one of the only drinks that you can pick up
in the supermarket that's got clinical research behind it and
then this learning and this toughness in New Zealand is
teaching us about how we can become fitter for entering
into bigger markets like the US. So it's a blessing

(02:21):
and a curse.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Hey, so where are you at with RDP? But did
you manage to get this turned around by MPI? You're
still fighting them?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
No, so empires a bit of phoebe there. So MPI
have given us the all clear for all of our
labeling and website, which is great. We've been working with
them very closely on that. And then we've just submitted
our first round of health claims that they are currently reviewing,
so we're really looking forward to and we're working closely

(02:50):
with them on those health claims to ensure that they
comply with the schedule sex and one point two point
seven of Hey you go about doing these, it's a
very hard feat. There are not many companies in New
Zealand that have been able to get health claims signed
off by MPI. So we're enjoying the process and we're
on really good terms with them.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh that's I'm pleased to hear it. I'm just loving
all that red tape you got to get through Angus.
That's Angus Brown, the RTFER co founder.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio