Michael Lloyd, a Ph.D. student in the food science department at NC State, is the creator of Num Num Sauce: a vegan, healthful alternative to everyday condiments. The tasty sauce is sold in local Whole Foods Markets and Fresh Markets alike.
The Num Num Sauce story originates with Lloyd’s great-grandfather, who used to make a barbecue sauce in a now old-fashioned porcelain washing machine. He recalls how his mom and aunt would tell stories about how they used to work an assembly line for their grandfather, jarring and labeling the barbecue sauce.
“Growing up, my grandfather’s food would taste better than everyone else’s food,” Lloyd said. “I didn’t know why, I just knew that grandpa’s stuff was unique. Come to find out, he was using his dad’s barbeque sauce on his ribs.”
It was while Lloyd was in graduate school earning a master’s degree in biomedical sciences from North Carolina Central University that his grandfather sat him down and explained to him the technology behind the family sauce recipe. Lloyd’s grandfather trained him on some of the processes of making sauce, teaching him the techniques his great-grandfather used.
Lloyd then utilized the information his grandfather had passed on to him along with his science-based background to create a new type of sauce that he thought represented some of what his grandfather taught him.
Lloyd then graduated from NCCU and was hired at a job working in pharmaceuticals. While working in pharmaceuticals, Lloyd was also building a business and considering more schooling.
“Once it had been about a year of having a couple products on the market in grocery stores, then I said, ‘well I don’t know enough, I need to learn a little more’ and that’s when I entered into the Ph.D. program in food nutrition sciences,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd said he would work at his job during the day time, make the products at night, sell them on the weekends and in-between his career ventures take two courses a semester through distance education learning at NC State.
Because Lloyd was taking these food nutrition science distance education classes, he was able to learn more about food chemistry, food microbiology and sensory science. By taking classes while still growing his business and funding it through his pharmaceutical work, Lloyd was able to make substantial advancements in the technology beyond the prototypes that his great-grandfather put together.
Things took a turn in January 2008, when Lloyd was laid off from his job at the pharmaceutical company he had been working for.
“Before I got laid off I was already sitting on the products I had put together when I was in graduate school [at NCCU] still, but I was just sitting on them,” Lloyd said. “Once I got laid off I was like ‘I’m going to do the sauce thing.’”
Two months after he got laid off, Lloyd had the opportunity to introduce his products to Whole Foods Market at The Goodness Grows in North Carolina marketing program. The program collaborated with Whole Foods Market to allow vendors to gather at the NC State Fairgrounds and present their products to the southern region’s Whole Foods Market buyers.
“I had a propane grill with some beef short ribs and I had little honey bee jars at the time,” Lloyd said. “So, I put a little garlic powder, a little sea salt on, grilled them up, put the sauce on the top and they were loving it.”
Six months later, Num Num Sauce was on the shelves at Whole Foods Market.
Over the span of about six years, Lloyd devised the technology to activate flavor profiles in food products, enabling him to make his sauces healthier, being both low in sodium and low in fat, while retaining the rich flavors that sodium and fat produce.
“Since I was taking those [food science] classes while growing the business, I was able to understand more about what consumers want and what they don’t want,” Lloyd said. “That’s what graduate school does. It gives you a chance to learn what’s happened in the past, what’s happening now, and where the future’s headed, in your discipline.”
Lloyd also hosts an entrepreneurship intern training program, where he trains interested students in entrepreneurship. Students in the program learn about what’s going on in today’s market, and about things that relate to their own particular business interests. Interns participate in the tasks that Lloyd and his team carry out in order to grow their small brand into a bigger one.
“Michael is a great guy — he’s super hard-working,” said Jonathan Strum, an intern with Lloyd’s entrepreneurship program. “He’s faithful to you if you’re faithful to him.”
Strum said he holds the self-proclaimed title of “Raleigh Area Representative” at Num Num Sauce, and that his tasks include mainly going to local stores and selling Num Num Sauce through demos. He cooks in front of buyers from these stores using the sauces and gives them samples to see if they’re interested in the product.
Though Lloyd’s great-grandfather made a barbecue sauce, Lloyd said he doesn’t consider his sauces to be barbecue, though some people tend to think of them that way.
“Some people call it [barbecue] but it’s really not,” Lloyd said. “Because it’s vegan and it’s good on veggies and salad and stuff. People may call it barbecue sauce because they don’t have anything to compare it to. What we’ve done is create a whole new class of condiment.”
Currently, Lloyd has four flavors of Num Num Sauce out, which are in stock at Whole Foods and Fresh Markets throughout the southeast region of the U.S. The sauces are also available for sale online at https://numnumsauce.com/.
Lloyd and his team are hoping to take the step toward national brand recognition in the near future.
