KALAMAZOO, MICH. — Willow Biosciences Inc. and Kalsec are advancing their functional ingredient development program for a large volume of savory foods opportunity.

The companies partnered together in a phase one program, which used Willow’s BioOXi platform. With phase one complete, Kalsec has agreed to continue full development toward commercialization that includes additional R&D and scale-up work, according to the company.

“We appreciate the trust Kalsec has in Willow to help with their innovation pathway and are delighted to partner with them on this next step in our engagement on ingredient development,” said Chris Savile, PhD, president and chief executive officer, Willow. “Looking forward, we are excited by the opportunity to engage with Kalsec’s extraordinary team in bringing to market what could potentially be a number of sustainably sourced innovative ingredients that favorably enhance customers’ products and the consumer experience.”

Roger Nahas, PhD, executive vice president of global R&D and chief innovation officer at Kalsec, added, “Willow has proven its capabilities repeatedly during our engagement over the last few months and we anticipate a long partnership as the result of our success working together. Toward that end, our team has identified a number of savory food and beverage ingredient targets where we can potentially engage with Willow to help bring the best products possible to Kalsec’s customers with a keen focus on market-leading innovation and sustainability.”

Kalsec provides taste and sensory, natural food protection, natural colors and advanced hops to the food and beverage industries.