Sault prepares to bottle its very own hot sauce

A new local company will soon be serving up a unique Sault Ste. Marie hot sauce to global food markets, SooToday has learned.

Fiery as a woman scorned, the new condiment will be manufactured and bottled by a company owned initially by the Rural Agri-Innovation Network (RAIN), a division of Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre that works with farmers and communities to enhance Algoma's agriculture and food sector.

Peter Bruijns, the Innovation Centre's executive director, slipped a brief mention of the start-up into a synopsis of his latest strategic plan delivered at last week's SSMARt Awards ceremony.

“Another exciting venture that RAIN is taking on is to build a food-processing enterprise we call Up North Foods here in Sault Ste. Marie," Bruijns announced.

“The market is large and there is no reason Sault Ste. Marie cannot build a competitive capability in a new market vertical and compete globally.”

Bruijns gave few specifics on the new company, but in a SooToday interview over the weekend, he disclosed that the company will initially be operated by RAIN in hopes private capital can be raised to spin off the venture.

The first product will be a local hot sauce but many other products are planned, he said. 

"We believe economic diversification is necessary in our city, so we are going to seed and lead a start-up food company focussed on products using plant-based inputs only.”

“We absolutely know that there is a market for this and even bigger opportunities for sustainable food packaging and regional supply chains to reduce logistics costs."

“We will issue occasional press releases as the project unfolds to keep you updated,” Bruijns said.

The new hot sauce so far has no name, but SooToday offers a few suggestions in the poll below.

We know our readers can do better and encourage you to post your own family-appropriate product names in the comments section.