Who founded SugarWise and what are their professional backgrounds?

1. Founder and CEO — Rend Platings

Rend Platings is repeatedly named as the founder of Sugarwise and is stated to be the organisation’s chief executive in Sugarwise’s team pages and in press interviews with marketing publications ^{[4] [1]}. External profiles and conference materials likewise list Platings as the founder and describe her as the public face of the Sugarwise marque ^{[5] [2]}. Reporting attributes the founding of Sugarwise to Platings’ personal concerns about the effects of excess sugar on her own child, noting that those worries were a motivating factor behind launching the certification scheme ^[5].

2. What Sugarwise does — the technical and institutional context

Sugarwise positions itself as an international certification authority for sugar claims, certifying food and drink that meet its free‑sugar thresholds and allowing use of the Sugarwise logo on qualifying products; the organisation’s public description explains its mark applies to products with restricted levels of free sugars and highlights that the Sugarwise test differentiates free from intrinsic sugars — work credited to Cambridge University scientists ^{[3] [1]}. Sugarwise’s standards are framed to align with World Health Organization guidance on limiting free sugars, and the brand has been active in campaigning and industry engagement around low‑sugar options ^{[1] [3]}.

3. Scientific backing and institutional allies

The technical claim most commonly reported about Sugarwise is that the Sugarwise test — the tool used to distinguish free sugars from intrinsic sugars — was developed with Cambridge University scientists, a point repeated in Sugarwise press material and in third‑party reporting ^{[3] [1]}. The organisation also has public supporters: for example, its Wikipedia entry names Lord Clive Brooke, Baron Brooke of Alverthorpe, as a patron, signaling a degree of establishment engagement alongside its industry campaigning ^[3].

4. Public profile and certification footprint

Public-facing descriptions of Sugarwise state the marque has audited and certified products and menus (including primary school catering standards) and that the initiative has engaged retailers and caterers; Marketing and Sugarwise’s own news pages document these outreach and certification activities, with Platings positioned as the founder speaking about those efforts ^{[1] [6]}. Commercial and advocacy activity is thus part of the founder’s remit, but detailed independent verification of the organisation’s reach or Platings’ prior professional résumé beyond her role at Sugarwise is not provided in the supplied sources ^{[4] [2]}.

5. Potential for brand confusion — different “Sugar” businesses

Reporting and source material reveal a common point of confusion that merits explicit clarification: Sugarwise, the UK‑based sugar‑claims certification body founded by Rend Platings, is distinct from commercial brands that use the word “Sugar” (for example, SUGAR Cosmetics, co‑founded by Vineeta Singh in India). Several supplied sources document Vineeta Singh and SUGAR Cosmetics in a separate context, underscoring the need to avoid conflating those founders, sectors, and biographies ^{[7] [8]}.

Exact details about Rend Platings’ earlier career outside Sugarwise are not available in the provided reporting; the sources consistently identify her as founder and CEO and describe her motivations and public role, but do not supply a full résumé or prior professional posts beyond her leadership of the Sugarwise initiative ^{[4] [5] [2]}.