For four years, Savor has been proving a simple idea: the food industry doesn't have to depend on conventional agriculture for the fats and oils that are foundational to nearly everything it makes. Now we're putting that idea into practice at scale, alongside AAK, one of the world's leading specialty fats and oils companies.

AAK has spent a century-and-a-half building the formulation expertise and commercial relationships that make it one of the most trusted names in the sector, operating 19 production facilities and 16 customer innovation centers, with thousands of employees working alongside food manufacturers around the world. That's exactly the kind of infrastructure our Carbon Crafted™ fats need to reach the scale we've always intended.

Our relationship is kicking off by jointly developing and commercializing dairy alternative and bakery applications for customers across the U.S. and Europe. As part of the agreement, AAK has also made an equity investment in our company, underscoring just how seriously one of the sector's most recognized players is taking this collaboration with a startup seeking to diversify and future-proof this indispensable industry.

Dairy alternatives and bakery aren't arbitrary starting points. Both categories are under real pressure to deliver functional performance, from texture to melt to mouthfeel, at a moment when manufacturers are also being asked to mix up where their ingredients come from. A fat that can be made anywhere, without fertile land or fresh water, and tuned to a customer's exact specification, is a meaningful answer to both problems at once.

"Beyond supply chain resilience and sustainability, we will create applications with great taste and texture for our customers within two very important segments," said Ronald van der Knaap, AAK's Global Head of Dairy, Early Life Nutrition and Savory. "In this way, we're ticking all the boxes and improving the overall consumer experience."

“Savor’s technology platform opens a new source of saturated fats, decoupled from agriculture and traditional supply chains, with a strong sustainability profile. In addition, these fats can be designed together with AAK’s plant-based oils for a vast array of functionality and solutions,” said Kim Olofsson, Global Head of R&D at AAK.

That work is already underway inside both companies' R&D teams, as they begin to identify where Savor fats can slot into AAK's existing formulations, and where something entirely new might be possible. It's still early, but the shape of what's possible is already clear: dairy and bakery applications that taste and perform like the originals, built on a supply chain that doesn't depend on a single harvest, a single region, or a single point of failure.

We started Savor with milkfat because it's one of the most complex fats in existence and something that fills important gaps in the market. This partnership is how we bring that capability to the next level: proving that our fats can move at the speed and scale the global food system demands. AAK is the right partner to help us get there.

Read more about our partnership here.