Riba Foods, the Original Master Roasters since 1988

What Is Salsa

Mexican cuisine is known for its medley of fresh ingredients, vibrant colors, powerful spices, deep flavors, and interesting cooking techniques like roasting, grilling, steaming, and frying.  It is one of the most popular ethnic cuisines in America with over $2.5 billion a year in sales for cooking and snacking at home.

The origins of salsa can be traced to Mexico around 1519-1521. The word "salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce, dating back to the ancient Mayan and Aztec cultures where vegetables were “fire-roasted”.  These cultures combined tomatoes with chili peppers, ground squash seeds and spices for use mainly as a condiment served on turkey, venison, lobster, and fish.

Riba Foods uses this traditional and authentic Mexican fire-roasting process to make its Arriba!^® Salsas and Dips. The roasting, toasting, and grinding process brings out this unique flavor making it perfect for snacking, dipping, and as a special ingredient in cooking.  

Who We Are

After moving to the United States, a young Miguel Barrios couldn’t find salsa quite as good as he had growing up in Mexico City, the heart of the Aztec-Mayan cultures. So, utilizing his heritage, he created such a salsa for the U.S. by pioneering the process in which he "Fire-Roasted" all the fresh vegetables prevalent in Mexican salsa products. He founded Riba Foods in 1988 and became the original “Master Roasters”, experts in the field and generally regarded as an authority within the industry. More than thirty years later, Riba Foods is still the premier master roaster, utilizing this fire-roasting process to make its Arriba! Salsas and Dips. Riba Foods also manufactures the Texas Pepper Works product line, a variety of products that are like no others in the market today, and includes candied jalapeño peppers, jalapeño mustard and a raspberry chipotle salsa.

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Our Mission

Our mission is to provide the highest-quality "fire-roasted" salsas and dips for use in all cuisines, by offering both branded and co-packing solutions. We pioneered the fire-roasting process – originating from ancient Mayan and Aztec cultures – in order to produce the best tasting, traditional Mexican salsas and dips on the market today.

Made in small artisanal batches to focus on flavor, our Classic Red Salsas, Choice Salsas, Original Dips and Specialty Salsas use fresh ingredients. They do not contain any preservatives or additives, and are also gluten free, fat free and low carb. Consumers know us through our Arriba Salsa and Texas Pepper Works brands. Restaurant chefs will use Arriba! salsas as a backdrop to add a little more depth to their favorite dishes where the chefs would use fresh chopped tomatoes or onions.

Riba Foods, Inc., is still a family-owned Houston-based business and remains one of the premier fire-roasting manufacturers and packers in the U.S. Our 70,000-square-foot state-of-the-art roasting facility operates two shifts a day as we continue to develop and bring to market new products.

If you are craving that authentic salsa taste, look no further. You can use our salsas for dipping, snacking and as a special ingredient in cooking.