Specialty Food Producers Take Home the Gold
By Lorrie Baumann
La Pasta’s Radicchio, Parsnip & Apricot Ravioli has won the 2016 sofi Award for Best New Product. Radicchio is sauteed with a little bit of balsamic vinegar to bring out the sweetness of the vegetables and then folded into ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella cheese together with roasted parsnips and dried apricots. The filling is then enclosed in La Pasta’s signature pasta with black pepper pasta stripes.
“We got lucky. It happens,” said Alexis Konownitzine, President of La Pasta, “Our chef Kristen made the product and will be at the Fancy Food Show.”
La Pasta already had several sofi Awards for products including its Marinara Sauce and Beet, Butternut Squash & Goat Cheese Ravioli. This year’s winner was selected from among 23 finalists in the Best New Product category by the sofi judging panel of culinary experts in a blind tasting. Overall, 28 products were named winners and 100 named finalists from among 3,200 entries this year.
This year’s judging diverged from the methodology used for the past couple of years, in that the judging was completed before the Summer Fancy Food Show and winners were named at the same time as finalists. This process was designed to make the judging more fair and transparent, according to the Specialty Food Association, which owns the sofi Awards program. The products were judged by criteria that awarded 70 percent of the product’s score for taste, which included flavor, appearance, texture and aroma and 30 percent for ingredient quality, which included a consideration of whether any of the product’s ingredients were artificial and whether they were combined in a creative or unexpected way. One winner was chosen in each of the 28 judging categories, and the top 4 percent of the entries in each category were named finalists. No awards were presented this year in classic, foodservice or product line categories, which were part of last year’s contest.
Finalists for the Best New Product award included Dalmatia Sour Cherry Spread from Atalanta Corporation, Jansal Valley Boneless Prosciutto Toscano D.O.P. from Sid Wainer and Son Specialty Produce and Specialty Food, Organic Stoneground Flakes Cereal — Purple Corn from Back to the Roots and Sliced Prosciutto (Domestic) from Creminelli Fine Meats. “Prosciutto is everywhere in the U.S., but we do it differently, using whole-muscle Duroc pork that’s 100 percent vegetarian-fed with no antibiotics ever. We layer it in the tray by hand instead of by machine,” said Kyle Svete, Creminelli Fine Meats’ Director of Sales for National Accounts. “We invest in people, not machines. It’s part of who we are – people, animal, craft…. We have machines to help us do our job, but it’s really about the people. The recyclable tray and the elegant look of it elevates the product and the category.”
“We’re proud of it. We put the ingredients right on the front of the label,” he added. “That’s all there is to it – time, love, pork and sea salt.”
Chocolate-covered Cocomels – 5 Salts from JJ’s Sweets, Gourmet Honey Spread: Salted Honey from Cloister Honey LLC, Wild Boar Salted Star Anise Single Origin Organic Dark Chocolate Bar from Hagensborg Chocolate Ltd., Original Tangerine Sriracha from Just Jan’s Inc., Mr. Hot Stuff Pepper Spread from Steppin’ Out LLC, Clementine Crush Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Enzo Olive Oil Company/P-R Farms, Inc. and Deschutes Brewery® Black Butte Porter Truffle from Moonstruck Chocolate, Co. were also among the finalists for the Best New Product Award.
Other finalists were Pineapple Habanero Caramel from JulieAnn Caramels, Frozen Passion Chia Lassi from Monsieur Singh LLC, Chicken Fat (Schmaltz) Premium Cooking Oil from Fatworks LLC, Avocado Oil Mayo and Licorice Mint Tea from Chosen Foods, Inc., Chili Crunch Bar from Vivra Chocolate, Vegan Stone Ground Hazelnut Butter from Karmalize LLC, Raspberry Amaretto Preserves from Robert Rothschild Farm, Orange Artisan Fruit Cracker from Simple & Crisp, Gluten-Free Coffee Brownie from Savvy Girl Baking Company and Dark Moon from Marin French Cheese Company.
In the remaining categories, Brussizzle Sprouts from Pacific Pickle Works, Inc. was named the best appetizer. The Spice Hunter, Inc.‘s Coriander Lime Global Fusion Rub was named best baking ingredient, baking mix or flavor enhancer, Ginger Hemp Granola from Michele’s Granola LLC was the best in the category for breads, muffins, granola or cereal, and Vermont Creamery‘s Bijou was judged the best cheese. Vermont Creamery’s Bonne Bouche was a finalist for the award both this year and last year.
Money on Honey by Droga Chocolates won the sofi in the chocolate category, and Bittermilk LLC‘s No. 3 Smoked Honey Whiskey Sour won the award in the cold beverage category. Bittermilk was a sofi finalist last year with the same product. Non-GMO Salted Caramelized Fig Spread from King’s Cupboard was named the best condiment, and Sea Salt & Vanilla Farmstead Goat Milk Caramels from Big Picture Farm LLC received the award for the best confection. Big Picture Farm won sofi Awards last year for best new product with its Raspberry Rhubarb Goat Milk Caramels and for best confection with its Goat Milk Chai Caramels. Moon Dance Baking‘s Holly Baking Cookie Brittle Cinnamon & Spice was named in the category for cookies, brownies, cakes or pie.
Barnier Pimento Sauce with Preserved Lemon from FoodMatch Inc. was named best cooking, dipping or finishing sauce. Cranberry Pistachio “The Original” from Jan’s Farmhouse Crisps was named the best cracker. Epicurean Butter‘s Organic Cocoa Coconut Butter was named in the category for best dairy or dairy alternative product. “The reason this is something really new and innovative is that this is organic pasteurized cream, organic coconut oil, organic honey, organic canola oil, organic cocoa powder and Himalayan pink salt. It’s good on crepes, pancakes French toast. We actually just love it on a baguette,” said Janey Hubschman, who co-founded Epicurean Butter with her husband John, who’s the chef and still does all the formulations for the company’s products. “It’s got a lovely mouth feel with the butter and the coconut oil and then the finish of the salt.” The Organic Cocoa Coconut Butter is part of a product line that includes 13 finishing butters, of which two are organic. The company has just installed new equipment in its plant that allows Epicurean Butter to produce single-serve squeeze packs. Each of those has 190 calories for a 1-ounce serving, and Hubschman expects that the single-serve packaging will draw a lot of interest from the producers of home-delivered meal kits.
Bourbon Matured Maple Syrup from BLiS LLC was named the best dessert sauce, topping or syrup. Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate‘s Single Origin Drinking Chocolate 72% Belize, Toledo received the sofi Award for the best hot beverage. Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate was a finalist in the chocolate category last year with its 72% Madagascar, Sambirano bar. The Gelato Fiasco‘s Ripe Mango Sorbetto was named the best ice cream, gelato or frozen treat.
Cioccomiel, a spread made from hazelnuts, cocoa and honey, won the sofi Award for the best jam, preserve, honey or nut butter. It is imported by Marcelli Formaggi LLC.
Fermín Chorizo Ibérico Picante / Fermín Ibérico Pork Dry-Cured Chorizo Sausage Spicy from Fermin USA was named the best meat, pate or seafood.
Stöger Organic Austrian Pumpkin Seed Oil was named the best oil. It is imported by Los Chileros, which won a finalist award last year for the same product.
Gustiamo, Inc.‘s Pianogrillo Sicilian Cherry Tomato Sauce took home the sofi Award for the best pasta sauce, while the best pasta was Pastifico Artigianale Leonardo Carassai, made in Campofilone, Italy, and imported by Bravo International Inc.
Wozz! Kitchen Creations, which won the 2015 sofi Award for best salsa or dip with its Kiwi Lime Salsa Verde takes home the gold in the salad dressing category this year with North African Chermoula Dressing. This year’s award in the salsa or dip category went to American Spoon Foods’ Pumpkin Seed Salsa.
Hickory Smoked Spicy Candied Bacon from Little Red Dot Kitchen LLC won the sofi Award this year in the category for savory snacks. The best sweet snack came from Creative Snacks Co. with its Organic Coconut Bites.
Dinner Tonight Black Bean Tortilla Chili Mix from Backyard Safari Company won the award for best soup, stew, bean or chili. ParmCrisps Mini Aged Parmesan Crisps from Kitchen Table Bakers won the award for the best vegan or gluten-free product. Kitchen Table Bakers was a finalist last year for its Jalapeno Parmesan Crisps. Finally, this year’s best vinegar was Balsamic Nectar from Boulder Flavours.
Beaverton Foods Wins Four Gold Medals at World-Wide Mustard Competition
Oregon’s 87-year-old specialty condiment manufacturer took home a grand total of eight awards; four of them gold medals – at the 21st annual World-Wide Mustard Competition. The event involved more than 100 judges at the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin. The global competition has included entries from as far away as Japan, Greece and Sweden.
Barry Levenson, curator of the National Mustard Museum, noted in an email: “The rest of the world is ‘yellow with envy’ of Beaverton’s long dominance at the World-Wide Mustard Competition.”
Beaverton won gold medals for Inglehoffer Sweet Hot Mustard in the Sweet Hot category, Inglehoffer Ghost Pepper Mustard in the Pepper Hot (Scorching Hot) category, Inglehoffer Hot Horseradish Mustard in the Horseradish/Wasabi category and Beaver Cranberry Mustard in the Fruit category. The company was awarded silver medals for Beaver Brand Dusseldorf Mustard in the Classic Hot category and Inglehoffer Horseradish Wasabi Mustard in the Horseradish/Wasabi category and bronze medals for Inglehoffer Sweet Hot Mustard in the Pepper Hot (Mild to Medium) category and Inglehoffer Creamy Dill in the Herb/Veggie category.
Domonic Biggi, CEO of Beaverton Foods, said the fourth generation family-owned and operated company is proud to be a long-time participant in the renowned international mustard competition. “It’s humbling to say we have won more than 150 medals at this annual competition,” he said. “We are especially pleased that our new Inglehoffer Ghost Pepper Mustard was selected for a gold medal. Additionally, we’re grateful that culinary experts around the world like our products.”
The annual competition is open to all commercial mustard producers and agents worldwide. There are 16 flavor categories of which there are gold, silver and bronze awards given to the contestants. Since 1995, judges consisting of chefs, food writers and mustard aficionados have blind tasted the mustards in the competition.
Victoria Fine Foods Sauces at Sur La Table
Victoria Fine Foods and Sur La Table are launching a new line of artisanal pasta sauces created exclusively for the Sur La Table customer.The line consists of the following five varieties:
- Organic Pomodoro Sauce
- Fra Diavolo Sauce
- Roasted Garlic Sauce
- Vodka Sauce
- Chianti Marinara Sauce
All sauces come in 24-ounce jars and are available in Sur La Table stories nationwide, as well as on the Sur La Table website and catalog. The suggested retail price is $12-$13. All sauces, except the Vodka variety, are Non-GMO Project verified.
Just like Victoria’s premium and Organic sauce lines, the Sur La Table artisanal sauces are made with just a handful of ingredients which are featured prominently on the front of the label: ripe plum tomatoes, fresh onions, fresh garlic, fresh basil, olive oil and salt. No artificial flavors or colors are ever added.
The Sur La Table artisanal pasta sauces owe their rich flavor to the superb quality of the tomatoes and a slow kettle-cooking process. The San Marzano-style plum whole tomatoes are grown in the volcanic soil of coastal Italy, long considered the source of the world’s finest tomatoes, and slow cooked them in small batches with fresh, hand picked basil, fresh garlic, and fresh onions.
“This is Victoria Fine Foods’ first co-branded partnership, and we are thrilled to be launching this venture with Sur La Table,” says Tim Shanley, CEO, Victoria Fine Foods. “Our brands and mission are very similar, with a focus on the highest quality, best-tasting ingredients and the desire to help consumers achieve kitchen victories every day.”
Consumers Seeking Healthy Condiments
By Greg Gonzales
Not all condiments were created equal. Consumers increasingly seek alternatives to condiment cornerstones high in sodium or high-fructose corn syrup, or that fail to meet their specific health and diet needs. Producers have responded directly by releasing products that meet individual consumer needs, and some naturally healthy condiments need no alteration.
Of course, a healthy condiment isn’t necessarily the same item for everyone. “It’s more complex than most people think,” said Chrissy Weiss, a nutrition expert who serves as Director of Marketing and Communications at Culinary Collective. “We all are following different diets. Some have health issues, some are athletes, so it depends on someone’s needs individually. … Make sure the product falls in line with your own health goals.” Those goals might include non-GMO products, gluten-free, no high-fructose corn syrup, low sugar, low sodium or vegan.
There’s a condiment for every consumer need. Annie’s, Portland and Sir Kensington’s ketchups do away with fillers like corn syrup and artificial colors, and the organic tomatoes they use contain more nutrients and antioxidants than their non-organic counterparts. The Not Ketchup brand adds a paleo-friendly option to the mix with its fruit ketchups, available in specialty flavors like Blueberry White Pepper and Tangerine Hatch Chile. The winner of the free-from badge contest might have to go to Primal Kitchen for its take on mayonnaise, made with avocado oil. This gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, canola-free, non-GMO spread made with cage-free eggs is packed with healthy fats and is paleo-friendly. Hampton Creek’s spread, Just Mayo, is also Non-GMO Project Verified, but brings mayo back to the vegan crowd by taking the eggs out entirely — in four specialty flavors, too. And consumers who want flavorful ribs without the sugar rush might try Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Sensuous Slathering Sauce. It’s a gluten-free and all-natural take on the tangy-sweet stuff, with only 154mg of sodium and 5 grams of sugar per serving. It’s not alone on the shelf, either. Tessemae’s All Natural BBQ Sauce contains only 2 grams of sugar and 125mg of sodium. It’s also gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan and paleo-friendly.
“People are reading more ingredient labels these days to see if it’s just simple,” said Weiss. “Used to be a long time ago, we wanted everything fat free.” But these days, consumers know good fats are essential to a healthy diet, and can even lower cholesterol. Culinary Collective’s gluten-free Matiz Catalan All I Oli Garlic Spread, made from sunflower oil, garlic, lemon juice and salt, is high in good fats but dairy-free, low in sodium and sugar. Salsas, guacamole, hot sauces and low-sugar chutneys also make nutritious additions to healthy meals.
“A lot of people believe traditional foods made from scratch, made from high-quality ingredients, can be helpful,” said Weiss, adding that this attitude has been a given in the specialty food industry from the get-go. “We’ll be part of the solution, not the problem.… There’s a lot of products out there that are, honestly, just junk. They don’t add anything to consumers’ diets, and producers are starting to wake up to that. We’ll definitely see this continue.”
Red Duck Foods Flies East
Red Duck Foods has just launched its cocktail sauce at all East Coast Wegmans. The cocktail sauce stays true to its roots with an epicurean edge and the recipe honors the purity of the bounty of the ocean. Crafted with fresh horseradish and a unique spice blend, the cocktail sauce is balanced with a splash of lemon juice that brings out the best flavors in your favorite seafood.
Oregon condiment maker Red Duck Foods was founded in Eugene, Oregon, though now located in Portland, Oregon, by three University of Oregon students on the belief that regular condiments didn’t cut the mustard. Red Duck Ketchup, the company’s first product line, dares to elevate the popular condiment by using high-quality, organic ingredients. With five inventive flavors including, Original, Smoky, Spicy, Curry and a rotating seasonal flavor, Red Duck Ketchup complements dishes from burgers and fries to grilled lamb and baked oysters. In 2015, Red Duck expanded its product list and introduced cocktail sauce to the condiments line. Red Duck’s products focus on using honest ingredients while providing a unique twist on familiar flavors.
From Farm to Flavor with Tres Hermanas
In the sunburned heart of southern New Mexico, the Tres Hermanas Mountains rise from the horizon. Nearby, in the town of Deming, family homes, local business, and acres and acres of pepper farms sprawl out in their protective shadow. It is from these mountains that Tres Hermanas takes its name. It is from this community where Tres Hermanas is inspired.
Tres Hermanas believes that great flavor comes from great farms. This is why the company works diligently alongside farmers that have grown peppers for generations. Together, Tres Hermanas and its farmers cultivate the very best seeds and ideal growing conditions to raise delicious, uniquely New Mexican peppers. All jalapenos, green chiles and tomatillos are grown within a 30-mile radius of the company’s headquarters to ensure maximum farm-to-flavor freshness.
Each fall, these peppers are harvested by hand, with each one carefully considered to ensure that only the best New Mexican peppers make it to your shelves – and your shoppers’ tables. The farmers and their families celebrate this pepper harvest by making a whirlwind of sauces and salsas, bringing age-old family recipes to life with flavorful fresh ingredients.
Tres Hermanas brings these traditional recipes to you with a full line of peppers and sauces. These peppers fill dishes with raw desert spices. Sauces run from sunset red to verdant green. All are imbued with a touch of something special that sparks the senses, something that transports anyone who enjoys their flavor from their dining room to a sun-soaked plain outside Deming, where three gentle peaks rise to kiss the turquoise sky.
Inspired by the vivid flavors this community has enjoyed for generations, these cooking sauces make it easy to create truly authentic Mexican meals in only a few simple steps.
So whether your shoppers enjoy spicy peppers, authentic sauces or both, everyone will love the dips, enchiladas, nachos, tacos, burritos and even pizzas they can make with the bold, farm-raised flavor of Tres Hermanas.
Miso Making Strides in Sauces
By Micah Cheek
Miso, the salty, umami-rich soybean paste, is getting attention as an ingredient in premade sauces. Yurika Masukawa, Vice President of Hikari Miso, suggests that miso sauces are gaining popularity in the American market due to America’s renewed interest in fermented foods. “The American market has had kind of a boom in fermented products,” she adds. Miso, made by inoculating ground soybeans and grains with microbial cultures, can be aged for years before use, yielding a fermented funk and umami meatiness. These flavors make miso a complex addition to sauces. Mary O’Donnell, owner of Terrapin Ridge Farms, who makes Ginger Miso and Honey Dressing, says, “The miso adds a nice richness to the flavor profile. It’s really well balanced.”
In its pure state, miso is a probiotic food, but it should be noted that while premade miso sauces carry the flavor and enzymes of the fermentation process, many are pasteurized for shelf stability and do not contain active cultures. One exception to this is So Good Food’s Miso Mayo, which still contains living cultures. Due to the active fermentation process, Miso Mayo can be left at room temperature for up to a week without spoiling.
The rising attention on miso has been apparent at Hikari Miso, where business has been increasing. Masukawa attributes this to the greater interest in the United States and Europe. This growing enthusiasm has made Ginger Miso and Honey Dressing one of Terrapin Ridge’s best sellers. O’Donnell has seen more miso sauces like hers appearing on store shelves recently as well. Smith has noticed that her Miso Mayo has better sales in stores where miso products are already sold. “If you’re someone who regularly eats natural food, or you’re a gourmand, you already know what miso is.” Smith adds that customer awareness is still an issue when selling miso products. “I’d say only right now the public is catching up with it.”
Many miso sauces come with long lists of suggested uses. ”You can dip it, toss it, drizzle it, anything you might use a spread, dip or marinade for. This is a great flavor enhancer,” says Janet Smith, founder of So Good Foods, about Miso Mayo. Meat marinades are a commonly suggested use. The salty and savory elements of miso sauces give a boost of flavor to chicken and fish, and vegetables can be tossed in it to create a light glaze. O’Donnell suggests Ginger Miso and Honey Dressing as a finishing sauce for steamed vegetables like green beans. “It also is terrific if you want to do an Asian slaw,” she adds. Miso also mixes well with spicy flavors. The blend of miso with roasted jalapenos and ginger earned So Good Foods’ Spicy Red Pepper Miso Mayo second place in the Hot Pepper Awards’ Mayo category in 2014.
The Italian Sauces for Consumers Who Don’t Trust Processed Foods
By Lorrie Baumann
The federal Food and Drug Administration has announced that it proposes to require that nutrition fact labels on packaged foods include a declaration of added sugars “to provide consumers with information that is necessary to meet the dietary recommendation to reduce caloric intake from solid fats and added sugars,” according to the agency’s announcement published in the Federal Register in March, 2014. If and when that proposal becomes a federal requirement, the labels on Uncle Steve’s Italian sauces will report that the sauces contain the same amount of added sugars they always have – zero.
The recipes for the sauces came from Steve Schirrippa, actor, author and creator of the sauces, who’s better known as his character, Bobby Baccalieri on the hit television show “The Sopranos.” He got the recipe from his mother, who has since passed away, Scarpinito says. “Steve wanted to pay a tribute to his mother. Abundant home cooked Sunday family meals were very important to her. Steve honored her by producing products he got from her recipes to keep the Sunday tradition alive.”
None of the three varieties of Uncle Steve’s sauces: Marinara, Tomato with Basil and Arrabiata, contain any added sugar, a common ingredient in other prepared pasta sauces. They also contain no GMOs or gluten, and they’re organic. That’s at the insistence of Schirripa’s wife Laura, who’s a marathon runner conscious of healthy eating and who told her husband that if he wanted to make and sell tomato sauce, he needed to be sure that it would be good for people as well as enjoyable, says Uncle Steve’s Italian Specialties Chief Operating Officer Joseph Scarpinito, Jr.:“If you were to line up all of the popular tomato sauces and then remove the ones with pesticides, tomato paste, puree, and added sweetener, you’d be left with only one—Uncle Steve’s.”
“Uncle Steve’s is simmered on our stove for six hours. The only sugar in our sauce comes from organic tomatoes imported from Italy and organic onions. Quality is of the utmost important to us,” he added.
The sauces were launched just last year on the company’s website and quickly picked up by Whole Foods Northeast. Other markets along the East Coast followed.
This year, Scarpinito is concentrating on expanding distribution of the sauces to the Southeast, Southwest and West Coast. “That expansion has already started – the sauce has been picked up by the Albertson’s Boise division and by Gelson’s in Los Angeles,” he said. “The sauce is also available from several distributors servicing large independent retailers.”
New products are also under development, including olive oil, pasta and other flavored pasta sauces. Scarpinito is naturally a little coy about pinning them down with any more detail than that, but he did offer a hint: we can expect to see an Uncle Steve’s vodka sauce early next year.
Once the FDA’s proposal is finalized, the FDA wants to give the food industry two years to switch to the new labels. In addition to requiring a declaration for added sugars, the FDA is also proposing a new format for the label that would make calories, serving sizes, and percent daily value figures more prominent. Serving sizes would be changed to reflect the amounts reasonably consumed in one eating occasion. “People are generally eating more today than 20 years ago, so some of the current serving sizes, and the amount of calories and nutrients that go with them, are out of date,” according to the FDA.
This story was originally published in the August 2015 issue of Gourmet News, a publication of Oser Communications Group.
The Italian Sauces for Consumers Who Don’t Trust Processed Foods
By Lorrie Baumann
The federal Food and Drug Administration has announced that it proposes to require that nutrition fact labels on packaged foods include a declaration of added sugars “to provide consumers with information that is necessary to meet the dietary recommendation to reduce caloric intake from solid fats and added sugars,” according to the agency’s announcement published in the Federal Register in March, 2014. If and when that proposal becomes a federal requirement, the labels on Uncle Steve’s Italian sauces will report that the sauces contain the same amount of added sugars they always have – zero.
The recipes for the sauces came from Steve Schirrippa, actor, author and creator of the sauces, who’s better known as his character, Bobby Baccalieri on the hit television show “The Sopranos.” He got the recipe from his mother, who has since passed away, Scarpinito says. “Steve wanted to pay a tribute to his mother. Abundant home cooked Sunday family meals were very important to her. Steve honored her by producing products he got from her recipes to keep the Sunday tradition alive.”
None of the three varieties of Uncle Steve’s sauces: Marinara, Tomato with Basil and Arrabiata, contain any added sugar, a common ingredient in other prepared pasta sauces. They also contain no GMOs or gluten, and they’re organic. That’s at the insistence of Schirripa’s wife Laura, who’s a marathon runner conscious of healthy eating and who told her husband that if he wanted to make and sell tomato sauce, he needed to be sure that it would be good for people as well as enjoyable, says Uncle Steve’s Italian Specialties Chief Operating Officer Joseph Scarpinito, Jr.:“If you were to line up all of the popular tomato sauces and then remove the ones with pesticides, tomato paste, puree, and added sweetener, you’d be left with only one—Uncle Steve’s.”
“Uncle Steve’s is simmered on our stove for six hours. The only sugar in our sauce comes from organic tomatoes imported from Italy and organic onions. Quality is of the utmost important to us,” he added.
The sauces were launched just last year on the company’s website and quickly picked up by Whole Foods Northeast. Other markets along the East Coast followed.
This year, Scarpinito is concentrating on expanding distribution of the sauces to the Southeast, Southwest and West Coast. “That expansion has already started – the sauce has been picked up by the Albertson’s Boise division and by Gelson’s in Los Angeles,” he said. “The sauce is also available from several distributors servicing large independent retailers.”
New products are also under development, including olive oil, pasta and other flavored pasta sauces. Scarpinito is naturally a little coy about pinning them down with any more detail than that, but he did offer a hint: we can expect to see an Uncle Steve’s vodka sauce early next year.
Once the FDA’s proposal is finalized, the FDA wants to give the food industry two years to switch to the new labels. In addition to requiring a declaration for added sugars, the FDA is also proposing a new format for the label that would make calories, serving sizes, and percent daily value figures more prominent. Serving sizes would be changed to reflect the amounts reasonably consumed in one eating occasion. “People are generally eating more today than 20 years ago, so some of the current serving sizes, and the amount of calories and nutrients that go with them, are out of date,” according to the FDA.
A Sauce Republicans and Democrats Can Agree On
Sapore Oil and Vinegar, LLC. Co-Founders Renee and John Farr launch Bipartisan Barbecue Sauce into the Washington, DC Political arena.
After years of enduring bickering and disagreements, the Washington, DC market needed something that both parties — Republicans and Democrats — could agree upon: a great-tasting barbecue sauce made with fresh ingredients, with a little spice and a lot of humor. So says Renee Farr, Co-founder of Sapore Oil and Vinegar on Capitol Hill and creator of their new product, Bipartisan Barbecue Sauce. The former catering sales manager first used her ingenuity to spice up Capitol Hill with a line of spices and gourmet foods sold exclusively at her retail store.
“We wanted a sauce that was a little different, but that still met our high standards of flavor. So we went big – big on flavor and big on political satire,” Farr said. The bottle label suggests you use the sauce “liberally or conservatively,” but diplomatically adds, “Independents will like it too!”
“Not only does it take a light hearted poke at Capitol Hill, but it’s addictively delicious. Bipartisan Barbecue Sauce is a tomato/molasses-based sauce with a kick of ancho chiles and chipotle. It’s especially good on pork and beef, and takes grilled chicken and shrimp to whole new level.”
“My husband, [Co-founder] John Farr and I sourced an amazing product and designed the branding. We’re initiating a homegrown campaign to market this product in the Washington D.C. area. Thanks to that effort, you will find Bipartisan Barbecue Sauce in other local stores beside Sapore this summer,” Farr said.
The sauce is available in one variety: Original Bipartisan Barbecue Sauce, 16 ounces, retailing for $9.95
