A Fork in the Road Podcast: ILA Nutrition: Adaptogens, Energy Bars, and Food Innovation in Georgia

Credit: ila-life.com

For Amy Saleh and Eileen Brantley, the idea behind ILA began with a shared interest in herbalism and nutrition. As herbalists and nutritional practitioners, they wanted to make herbs more approachable by incorporating them into familiar foods. Their formulations center on adaptogens, which they describe as herbs that can support the body’s response to stress. After first developing Rally, an herbal blend designed to be mixed into coffee, they turned their attention to one of the most crowded sections of the food market: the energy bar.

Their path toward commercialization gained momentum through the University of Georgia’s FABricate entrepreneurship competition, where they connected with Keith Kelly of Kelly Products. That relationship eventually brought the project to UGA FoodPIC in Griffin. There, the team worked through the practical challenges of turning a recipe into a product that could be mixed, formed, baked, packaged, and eventually produced on a much larger scale. The process required attention to food safety, moisture, shelf life, texture, and flavor while preserving the herbal formulas that were central to the founders’ vision.

You join the team during a sample production run as dry ingredients, coconut butter, date paste, and herbal blends become a finished dough. Food scientist Emma Moore explains the formulation work, while FoodPIC director James Gratzek walks through the equipment used to simulate commercial production. By the end of the visit, the bars move through the extruder, oven, and finally into the hands of the people who spent years developing them. The first taste marks more than a recipe milestone. It captures what can happen when entrepreneurs, food scientists, and Georgia institutions work together to move an idea from concept toward the marketplace.