A TEACHER and entrepreneur who has created a range of reduced sugar jams is set to appear on Dragon’s Den this week – after many delays.

Rachel Kettlewell, from near Hawes in Wensleydale, developed and launched the jams while on maternity leave from teaching with her two daughters Fearne and Rosie.

She created the range as she felt that there was too much sugar in standard jams and wanted to create a healthier alternative.

On July 1, Rachel will appear on BBC TV show Dragon’s Den to present the next steps in her business, named Fearne and Rosie, and bid for investment from the five multimillionaire "dragons".

Originally Rachel’s episode was supposed to start filming in April 2020 but was postponed due to Covid-19.

Instead filming took place in September and the episode was set to air as a Christmas special, however, due to production issues as a result of Covid-19, the episode was postponed again.

With the new date set for next Thursday, Rachel said she is feeling “scared and excited” at the prospect, but can’t share much more about the episode until after it has aired.

The Northern Echo:

“We're the penultimate episode of the new season which is great, but it’s been a long time coming," she said.

“I think because you’re not allowed to say anything it makes it worse because it’s a really long time to not say anything about it."

Rachel said menu choices at school breakfast clubs initially sparked her interest in reduced sugar jams.

“There’s quite a bit of legislation around what should happen at school lunch times," she said. “But breakfast clubs and after school clubs aren’t covered by that, so actually what that means, is when children go into school and into breakfast club there aren’t any rules around what children should be eating.

The Northern Echo:

“There’s quite a lot of sugar loading that happens in quite a lot of breakfast clubs, and not just in one school, this is a nation-wide issue.

“Schools are really busy, they’re really overworked, they’re really underfunded, so there’s just not that support there for them."

Rachel said her Fearne and Rosie jams are about creating healthier, and "happier" food.

“Most jams are nearly all sugar and a tiny bit of fruit, whereas Fearne and Rosie is 71 per cent strawberries, so we have a much smaller sugar content," she said.

“It’s a massive sugar cube saving – about 230 sugar cube saving over a year for children.

“Children are only supposed to eat 16 grams of sugar a day and if they were to eat a standard jam, it’s about two sugar cubes, so it’s nearly seven grams of sugar in one serving, whereas Fearne and Rosie is about three grams.

“It’s an easy, healthy switch you can make and obviously it has more fruit in it so we feel it is tastier.

“We are trying to be healthier, tastier, happier food – happier being that we will make ethical choices with our supply chain.

“We are always trying to make sure the consumer is getting the best product.”

Dragon’s Den airs on BBC 1 at 9pm on Thursday, July 1.

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