Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Introducing the World’s First Sustainable Sauce Company, AWSM Sauce

Matthew Denis
By

Humans use about 1.2 million plastic bottles per minute, according to the Earth Day nonprofit. Approximately 91% of that plastic is not recycled. AWSM Sauce co-founders Paul Lehmann and Carl Starkey are aiming to change that, one powdered sauce packet at a time.

Their solution was a line of powder-based sauces and condiments with tasty ingredient mixes that can be mixed in reusable and compostable bottles. Right now, the AWSM sauce line features ketchup, honey hickory BBQ, and Chesapeake fire sauce.

Related Videos
A man's arm dips a chicken tender into AWSM ketchup.
AWSM Sauce.

AWSM is not only an acronym for the new powdered condiment company, it stands as a pillar of its conception — Avoid Waste, Season Meaningfully. Claiming to be the world’s first guilt-free sauce brand, AWSM delivers sweet and savory condiment ingredients to consumer doors for convenient and eco-conscious access to condiments. Instead of adding to the world’s waste, AWSM sauces come with reusable glass jars in which to mix premixed powder packets and water to deliver well-received condiments. The entrepreneurs are hoping to hit a home run while changing wasteful consumption patterns at the same time. As thousands of Minnesota fans who have already enjoyed AWSM Sauce at Target Field, their flavors rival traditional competitors.

Related

Research estimates that between 30 and 50 percent of the total amount of food thrown away comes from home kitchens. When AWSM founders realized this, they also saw the stark reality of their own impact by simply observing their kitchen cabinets and refrigerators. Surrounded by single-use plastic bottles, the two dads did what great innovators do when faced with a problem: turn it into an opportunity.

With two decades of grilling under their belts, Starkey and Lehmann went about revolutionizing the way condiments are packaged. After countless hours of commiserating at all hours of the night and months of trying out recipes in the test kitchen, the duo was able to develop a patent-pending “powder-to-pour” technology. Then, they went about selling it.

AWSM Sauce powder packets.
AWSM Sauce.

One of their first and most significant wins was being selected by the Twins/Techstars accelerator in 2020. As one of 10 companies funded to work at the intersection of technology, sports, and entertainment, the AWSM sauce startup received three months of mentorship and workshops in addition to investment dollars.

These AWSM Sauce founders are aiming to split sales between the direct-to-consumer and business-to-business sides, aiming to work with restaurants, stadiums, and venues to not only reduce the cost of shipping but cut back on the amount of plastic they use in packaging.

AWSM home purchasers, however, shouldn’t feel any guilt about getting the condiments delivered to their door. By purchasing sauce powder packets and replacing single-use plastics, people can reduce the amount of plastic used per sauce bottle by 95%. This is not only a helpful step, it’s a critical step in looking at the dire amount of non-biodegradable waste people put in the environment every year. The amount of annual plastic produced is roughly the same as the entire weight of humanity. Roughly half of that global plastic production is destined to be a single-use product.

AWSM Sauce also cuts out the massive amount of water needed to produce ‘wet’ condiments. Powder packets only require water when they’re ready to be made.

Lehmann and Starkey are so confident about their product that they’re willing to send out free samples to taste before shoppers take the full dive into AWSM Sauce. It’s an easy step to make: fill out a form and take a single, significant step towards shaping a more sustainable consumer world.

Shop Now

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
12 delicious foods high in vitamin E for skin, hair, and heart health
Vitamin E is crucial for good health: These are great ways to get your daily dose
bottle of Olive oil.

Vitamin E may sound like something big brands just add to your skin products, but it’s actually an essential nutrient that does more than nourish your skin and hair. Vitamin E refers to a group of powerful antioxidants that provide a variety of anti-inflammatory functions and destroy free radicals to protect your cells from oxidative damage. Moreover, since vitamin E also plays several roles in supporting the immune system and protecting against diseases such as heart disease and cancer, deficiencies can make you more prone to illnesses, infections, and inflammatory diseases, as well as eyesight impairments and muscle weakness.
Since vitamin E is a fat-soluble nutrient, absorption is increased in the presence of dietary fat. Therefore, when eating any food high in vitamin E that isn’t oil or fat itself, it’s best to pair the vitamin E food with another food that contains fat. Fortunately, there are quite a few foods that contain at least some vitamin E, though the best dietary sources of vitamin E are high in alpha-tocopherol, the most bioactive form of the nutrient. To ensure you have the shiniest, full head of hair, supple and soft skin, and formidable immune system, keep reading for a list of the foods highest in vitamin E.

How much Vitamin E do you need?
The recommended daily value (RDA) of vitamin E for individuals 14 years of age and older is 15mg. You can generally get your daily dose of vitamin E through a balanced diet.

Read more
These 10 foods high in probiotics can help stomach issues
Promote gut health with these delicious foods
Foods high in probiotics.

As more and more research begins to surface about the importance of a healthy gut microbiome, there is one type of food that can vastly affect this in a positive way. One of the best ways to do so is to improve digestion through diet.
If you’re looking for one of the most effective ways to improve your digestion while simultaneously improving nearly every other aspect of your health—from the appearance of your skin to your anxiety levels, ability to sleep, and strength of your immune system—you can’t go wrong by delving into the world of probiotics. Probiotics are functional microorganisms, such as beneficial bacteria and fungi, that confer various health benefits to your body by supporting the helpful microbes residing in your gut.
Probiotics can be ingested in the form of supplements, but an even better way to obtain them is by consuming foods that naturally contain probiotics. Fermented foods, such as yogurt and sauerkraut, are high in probiotics. Foods high in probiotics contain the beneficial strains of healthy bacteria that can improve gut health and immune function, and reduce inflammation, thus improving your overall gut microbiome. Next time you're making your grocery run, make sure to grab these probiotic-rich foods below to add to your diet that may be the easiest “big” thing you can do to improve your health.

Yogurt
Yogurt may be one of the more approachable fermented foods and a favorite breakfast, lunch, or smoothie add-in for many guys. When topped with healthy cereal, nuts, seeds, or fruit, yogurt can be a filling, well-rounded meal or snack. Although not every type of yogurt on the shelves contains active or live cultures, there are many probiotic-rich yogurts, thanks to the fermenting process where good bacteria like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species turn milk into yogurt. Yogurt and dairy foods are also good sources of protein, calcium, as well as tryptophan and melatonin, which can help you fall asleep at night. When selecting yogurt, look for organic dairy options to avoid hormones and chemicals, and avoid ones with added sugars.

Read more
Study: Most grocery shoppers don’t know what makes food products sustainable
Do you know what makes food sustainable?
Fresh baby carrots with dirt.

It's hard to walk into a grocery store and not be bombarded by brands competing for the most environmentally friendly product. The problem is, as consumers, for the most part, we don't actually understand what that entails. Sure, we know enough to understand that global warming is a real and present danger, and that our carbon footprint must change or serious consequences will continue to arise. We're even taking small, individual steps in our personal lives to do better for our planet.
But as the crisis continues, we've started to realize that, while admirable, things like growing our own home gardens just won't cut it when it comes to making any real impact on environmental health overall. We want to be optimistic, cheerfully saying things like, "every little bit helps!", and while that's true to an extent, it's just not enough. So we've started to look to bigger companies, holding them accountable for their growing practices, because theirs are the footprints with real impact. But what exactly are we asking of them? Do we even know?

A recent study conducted by Morning Consult shows that sadly, we're quite a bit more ignorant as consumers than we should be. It shouldn't come as a surprise that one of the study's biggest finds revealed that knowledge of sustainability doesn't often equate to understanding. This appears to be a theme in important issues for Americans, doesn't it? We'll go round and round all day debating, fighting, tearing each other to shreds about topics that matter immensely, when at the end of the day, most have no idea what the hell we're talking about.
Morning Consult found that people love to toss around terms like "sustainable food," "energy conservation," "renewable resources," and "greenwashing," but can't define what they mean in terms of what we're putting in our grocery carts. We need to do better in terms of mending that disconnect.
There is hope, though. Even with the overall lack of understanding, the study revealed that consumers are truly concerned about environmental impact, even if it isn't fully understood. And of the industries inquired about, people ranked food and beverage companies as the most important in terms of sustainability practices. Food waste created by restaurants, grocery stores, and manufacturers was among the top list of concerns. 64% of those polled had concerns about food manufacturing impact, and almost 70% expressed concern about industrial food waste.
Morning Consult paints a silver lining by concluding that the gap between awareness and knowledge of these issues will shrink as climate change and its impact continues to draw much-needed attention. While the progress is slow, it is happening, and at least that's something to be glad of. They anticipate that brands with transparency and true effort behind their sustainability plans — including the reduction of their carbon footprint, energy consumption, waste practices, etc. — will thrive and stand head and shoulders above those brands that do not.
In the meantime, we should take this study as a wake-up call and check in with ourselves on our own knowledge of what we're tossing into our grocery baskets. What is the company advertising, apart from a delicious product? Are they sourcing their ingredients and materials ethically? Check the packaging: is it recyclable? Do a quick google search on how they divert landfill waste, and what their alternative practices are.

Read more