Files Patent Infringement Case

PureCircle Files Patent Infringement Case

in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

September 18, 2018, Chicago, IL - Yesterday, September 17, 2018, Chicago-based PureCircle, the leading global innovator and supplier of stevia-based sweeteners and flavor enhancers, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against SweeGen, Inc. and Photo Tech Corp. d/b/a Blue California, both of Rancho Santa Margherita, California. PureCircle claims that SweeGen's and Blue California's "Bestevia" products are infringing PureCircle's patent -- U.S. Patent No. 9,243,273, "Method for Making Rebaudioside X." Rebaudioside X (also known as Rebaudioside M and Reb M) is a sweetener derived from the stevia plant.

PureCircle has a broad and strong global array of patents that are the result of its advanced innovation, research and development work with stevia and its investment therein. As the result of that ongoing innovation, research and development, PureCircle has been granted more than 100 stevia-related patents. These patents - plus more than 250 patents pending and other valuable intellectual property - are directed to a wide range of stevia-related products and processes.

PureCircle sells a broad line of great-tasting, plant-based, zero-calorie stevia sweeteners and other stevia ingredients. PureCircle is playing a key supply role for beverage and food companies, as they seek to offer their consumers more low- and zero-calorie products. Today, third and fourth generations of stevia sweeteners, such as Reb M, offer superb taste profiles and flexibility in use. That will help unlock the demand for stevia sweeteners enabling beverage and food companies to launch zero- and low-calorie products sweetened only with stevia. Reb M is playing, and is expected to play, an important part of PureCircle's growth strategy.

18 September 2018

Enquiries:

Investors/Analysts

Magomet Malsagov, CEO

Email: [email protected] 

Rakesh Sinha, CFO

Email: [email protected]

Media

Carolyn Clark, Director of Global Marketing

Email: [email protected] Phone: 1 (630) 517 0812

Emma Kane (Redleaf), Media Relations

Email: [email protected] Phone: +44 (0)20 3757 6860

Notes to Editors

About PureCircle

§ PureCircle is the only company that combines advanced R&D with full vertical integration from farm to high-quality, great-tasting innovative stevia sweeteners.

§ The Company collaborates with farmers who grow the stevia plants and with food and beverage companies which seek to improve their low- and no-calorie formulations using a sweetener from plants.

§ PureCircle will continue to: lead in research, development and innovation; produce a growing supply of multiple varieties of stevia sweeteners with sugar-like taste, using all necessary and appropriate methods of production; and be a resource and innovation partner for food and beverage companies.

§ PureCircle stevia flavor modifiers work in synergy with sweeteners to improve the taste, mouthfeel and calorie profile, and enhance the cost effectiveness, of beverage and food products.

§ Founded in 2002, PureCircle is continually investing in breakthrough research and development and it currently has 72 stevia-related approved patents and 200 pending.

§ PureCircle has offices around the world with the global headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.

§ To meet growing demand for stevia sweeteners, PureCircle is rapidly ramping up its supply capability. It completed expansion of its Malaysian stevia extract facility in March 2017, increasing its capacity to rapidly supply the newer and great-tasting specialty stevia sweeteners and helping provide ever-increasing value to its customers.

§ PureCircle's shares are listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

§ For more information, visit: www.purecircle.com

About stevia

§ Given the growing global concerns about obesity and diabetes, beverage and food companies are working responsibly to reduce sugar and calories in their products, responding to both consumers and health and wellness advocates. Sweeteners from the stevia plant offer sugar-like taste and are becoming an increasingly important tool for these companies.

§ Like sugar, stevia sweeteners are from plants. But unlike sugar, they enable low-calorie and zero-calorie formulations of beverages and foods.

§ Stevia leaf extract is a natural-based, zero calorie, high-intensity sweetener, used by global food and beverage companies as a great-tasting zero-calorie alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners.

§ Stevia is a naturally sweet plant native to South America; today, it is grown around the world, notably in Kenya, China and the US.

§ The sweet-tasting parts of the stevia leaf are up to 400 times sweeter than sugar: stevia's high-intensity sweetness means it requires far less water and land than sugar.

§ Research has shown that the molecules of the stevia leaf are present and unchanged in the dried stevia leaf, through the commercial extraction and purification process, and in the final stevia leaf extract product. All major global regulatory organisations, across 65 countries, have approved the use of high-purity stevia leaf extracts in food and beverages.

§ For more information on the science of stevia, please visit https://www.purecirclesteviainstitute.com/