California-based Alive Ferments’ origin story is that brothers Niccolo and Sasha Fraschetti started making salsa that tasted the way they remembered it in the U.S. when they returned to their native Italy. What they came up with was tasty, but would spoil before they could eat it all. So they added starter culture to preserve it and were on their way. All of their sauces contain less than 10 ingredients, are naturally fermented in small batches, are preservative-free (must be stored in the fridge), sugar-free, gluten-free, and vegan. They come in four flavors and sell for $14 for an 8-ounce bottle.

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Fermented hot sauce is made by—you guessed it—fermenting hot chili peppers. While many hot sauces are made by combining chil peppers with vinegar, salt, and sometimes additional spices, the probiotic kinds are made by mixing peppers with salt and water and storing in a sealed jar, resulting in lacto-fermentation. Check the label to make sure the sauce contains live active cultures, like the ones from Alive Ferments.

Fermented foods are well known for their health benefits, boosting beneficial bacteria in the gut and increasing microbiome diversity to improve digestion and immunity. But fermenting is also an excellent way to increase food longevity, and that was one of the driving forces behind the new family-owned and-operated Alive Ferments, which offers the health benefits of fermentation and probiotics through sauces that you can add to other foods and use as a condiment or for dipping.

Founded by brothers Niccolo and Sasha Fraschetti, Alive Ferments is a family-owned and operated company that brings the art of fermentation to life. With their extensive culinary backgrounds and a shared passion for fermented foods, Niccolo and Sasha launched Alive Ferments in March 2022, introducing their first line of fermented products.

We may love fair food (I say this after eating an elephant ear or two at the Berrien County Youth Fair this year), but according to a survey by L.E.K. Consulting, a strategy consultancy headquartered in Chicago, 93 percent of consumers want to eat healthy at least some of the time, with 63 percent trying to eat healthy most or all of the time.