Beet It: Award winning sports drinks from the heart of Suffolk

Head out into the Suffolk Countryside and you’ll find Whites Fruit Farm – the home of one of the UK’s major fruit and vegetable juice pressers, packers and bottlers.

This is the home of James White Drinks, producer of organic beetroot juice and other beverages. In 2008 the company was approached by a team of scientists investigating whether the nitrates in beetroot juice could convert into nitric oxide in the body.

The significance of nitric oxide in the cardiovascular system had already been recognised with the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Research results were remarkable, demonstrating clear benefits for cardiovascular health (such as reducing high blood pressure) and enhancing endurance sports performance.

The challenge

Athletes faced two major difficulties accessing these benefits. Firstly, the natural nitrate levels in beetroot juice were highly inconsistent, making intake unpredictable, and consuming large volumes of juice before competition was unappealing. To make this more palatable, the team worked to create a concentrated, standardised 70ml shot containing 400mg of nitrate – the amount shown in studies to deliver benefits.

The science

Traditionally, nitrate supplementation has focused solely on pre-exercise intake. However, a breakthrough 2018 study revealed that combining supplementation both before and during exercise produced even greater performance benefits. This insight sparked the idea to create a completely new kind of product: a nitrate energy gel.

The innovation developed by James White Drinks was to merge the proven advantages of a standard energy gel — 30g of carbohydrates with a fast-absorbing 2:1 Glucose-to-Fructose ratio — with an additional 100mg of nitrate to maintain optimal supplementation levels during activity. At the time, nothing like this existed on the market, making the project both pioneering and high-risk. Recognising their limited expertise in gel production, the company partnered with a specialist manufacturer in Lancashire to help turn the concept into reality.

Launching Beet It Sport

In 2010, the Beet It Sport brand was launched to help get this innovative product into the hands of the people who could benefit from it. Since then, Beet It Sport has become a cornerstone of research in this field, supporting hundreds of studies worldwide and working with elite sports organisations, including Premier League clubs, NFL and NBA teams, professional cycling, running, and Olympic athletes across numerous disciplines.

Working with Suffolk Economy

To help them on their journey, James White Drinks have had support through Suffolk Economy and partners including the New Anglia Growth Hub, helping the business access funding and expertise to drive innovation and growth.

For Beet It, the company received funding from Innovate UK through the Launchpad for Agri-Tech and Food Technology in Eastern England — a cluster programme designed to accelerate innovation across the region’s fast-growing agri-food sector. This initiative is helping pioneering local companies like James White Drinks to bring new, high-impact products to market and strengthen Suffolk’s reputation as a hub for food and agri-tech innovation.

What’s next for Beet It Sports?

Right now, their primary focus is on expanding the reach of our Nitrate Top Up 100 Gel. Since its debut at the London Marathon Expo in April 2025, the product has rolled out across roughly 20 markets — most recently in the US, where we’ll be showcasing it at the Chicago Marathon Expo in October. Looking ahead, they’ll be exploring new concepts inspired by this innovation, including the potential development of a chewable format or a caffeinated energy gel.