Nutrition and health solutions firm Royal DSM entered into an agreement to purchase dairy-based savory flavorings manufacturer First Choice Ingredients, a recent company release announced. The Wisconsin-based company has an enterprise value of $453 million.

The acquisition will include three manufacturing sites located near First Choice’s headquarters in Germantown, WI. First Choice ferments and blends natural dairy products with enzymes and cultures to produce clean label solutions that offer sensory and functional benefits. The company works with food producers, flavor houses, and food service suppliers across a wide range of applications, including soups, snacks, sauces, sweet baking, plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, and salad dressings.

“We are very pleased with the addition of First Choice and its skilled workforce to our business,” said Patrick Niels, president of DSM Food Specialties, in a statement. “It will enable us to extend our integrated solutions offering in food and beverage, and provide our customers with innovative taste solutions for the new and improved end products today’s discerning consumers continually demand.”

About 100 workers employed with First Choice will join the company. Following the transaction, DSM said it will expand distribution of the savory flavors to countries outside of the US and support the business with its extensive resources in biotechnology and specialty ingredients.

“This will enable us to accelerate our growth by adding our taste solutions to DSM’s broad portfolio of global products and integrated offerings to meet the needs of our customers and create new opportunities,” said First Choice Executive Vice President Jim Pekar in the release. “This combination will allow access to DSM’s powerful toolbox of fermentation technology.”

DSM expects the sale to close in the fourth quarter of this year pending regulatory approval.