Last fall, the Center for Innovative Food Technology invited Northeast Ohioans to prove their business skills are as sharp as their knives. The Toledo-based business incubator focusing on Ohio food products asked competitors for a fresh idea that would also do well on grocery store shelves. The winners, chosen by seven local chefs and economic growth experts, get to train in CIFT’s industrial kitchen as they bring their concept to market.

The Product
The Details	Ben Metzler’s sauerkraut crackers sprinkled with pork cracklings go great with cheese and sausage.	It’s a spicy, versatile topping for a range of foods from steak to pizzas to crackers.	With cranberries, oats, almonds, pecans and Ohio maple syrup, this snack is loaded with protein, calcium and vitamins.
Reminds You Of …	… the flavors of your New Year’s Day meal rolled into what resembles a pita chip.	… what you’d pick up at an Italian imports shop but packed in oil and seasoned with spices that offer a homegrown bite.	… your standard trail mix, but the maple syrup makes it all the sweeter (in a good way).
How It Started	After seeing an advertisement for the contest, Metzler adapted his mom’s generations-old Bohemian recipe.	Retired trucking company analyst Ed Arnold used his wife’s recipe at an annual pepper party in Copley. A neighbor hounded him to enter the contest.	Former insurance salesman Rich Berg has more than 300 working taps on his family’s 132-acre sugar maple farm. The granola is his way of branching out.
Price	Meltzer wants to be competitive with Pepperidge Farms’ prices.	$5 for a 12-ounce jar (wholesale)	$7-$8 for a 13-ounce bag, $2.99 for a 5-ounce bag
Market Appeal	Because of sauerkraut’s polarizing nature, Metzler will focus on ethnic markets. Ohio’s Fremont Co., a leader in fermenting cabbage into kraut, may become a partner.	“It really fits a niche,” says Singer. She says there’s nothing like these peppers available in retail stores.	“The nutritional content is off the hook,” says Berg, who plans on distributing the snack mix to health food stores. The different-sized bags will attract athletes in training or office workers on the go.
What the Judges Said	“The judges had a lot of mixed reactions, but most were pleasantly surprised,” says Rebecca Singer, CIFT vice president and director of agriculture. CIFT’s food scientists will have to help him with the crackers’ consistency.	They loved the spicy kick and that Arnold gets all his Hungarian hot peppers from local farmers markets.	The maple gives the nutty, tart blend a naturally sweet kiss, making it stand out against other granola. “They were all inclined to go back for more,” Singer recalls.

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