We have a contract with AHP, under which we will be the commercial supplier of one particular breast milk oligosaccharide that we expect to add to infant formula within about two years. Carbohydrate bulking agents are used in almost every prepared food. We re making bulking agents for those purposes. We are investigating the manufacture of bulking agents that have never been made before because, enzymatically, we can make even novel compounds extremely efficiently. We feel strongly that we can make the conventional compounds enzymatically less-expensively than they can be obtained from plants.
Bulking agents do lots of different things.
In the case of a sweetener, for example, the ideal bulking agent would be a healthful, soluble, heat-stable fiber with no calories. Ideally, again, the sweetener bulking agent would be a low-calorie, white powder that is soluble like sucrose, looks like sucrose, bakes like sucrose, does everything like sucrose, but is relatively inert. For example, polydextrose right now is a bulking agent that is widely used to take the place of sugar in low-calorie or dietetic ice creams and cakes. Most bulking agents are not sweet, but are used for physical properties. They organize water and hold it.