Tomorrow's big game in Tampa will determine who dominates the football field, but Super Bowl Sunday is also a playoff among Metro Detroit chips and salsa manufacturers trying to tackle more market share on the biggest snacking day of the year.

From mango peach to black bean and corn -- medium, mild and wild -- salsa varieties overwhelm the supermarket aisles. More than a half-dozen Metro Detroit salsa companies duke it out all year, but January sales soar thanks to the Super Bowl, when more salsa is sold than on the Fourth of July or even the Mexican independence day celebrations of Cinco de Mayo.

"Salsa is the ultimate party food," said Jack Aronson, founder of Garden Fresh salsa in Ferndale, which is sold in 45 states. "The Super Bowl is the ultimate party."

Super Bowl Sunday, which commanded a viewing audience of 97.5 million last year, is one of the highest grossing snack-buying days of the year, with total sales expected to reach $595 million during two weeks surrounding the game, according to The Nielsen Co., a Schaumburg, Ill.-based market research firm.

Chips and salsa, which surpassed ketchup in U.S. dollar-volume sales in 1991, have become a perennial favorite. Salsa saw sales of $931 million in 2008, or just more than 379 million jars, compared to ketchup's $621 million in sales and 685 million units sold, according to Nielsen.

But for the two weeks surrounding last year's Super Bowl, salsa sales soared up to $47.2 million -- a 32 percent gain.

And even though potato chips still claim higher dollar and volume sales in the U.S., tortilla chips -- the preferred salsa delivery device -- are closing in. Potato chip sales for the two-weeks around the last Super Bowl were $147 million, a 1.1 percent decrease, while tortilla chip sales were $125 million, an increase of 19.8 percent, according to Nielsen figures.

Salsa is popular because it is relatively healthy and not particularly complicated to make, said Jim Hiller, CEO and president of Southfield-based Hiller's Markets Inc. Hiller's Market carries more than 25 brands of salsa, including almost a dozen made locally.

"Salsa is now more than a food," Hiller said. "It's a cultural icon."

The market is crowded with competing labels, but a demand for innovation that includes "every imaginable fruit and vegetable" makes salsa a continuing viable market, Hiller said. The marketplace for salsa is robust because it's "subject to enormous creative energy," he said.

Global Warming Salsa, formed in White Lake in 2007, sells 15 different flavors based on its medium salsa recipe. Types include Moroccan, Thai and Japanese -- with a ginger, sesame and wasabi kick.

Salsa is "very versatile," said founder Dan Houston. "It adds flavor and nutrition to anything."

Though new salsa manufacturers routinely spring up in the area, including several in Ohio, and around the country, "there is so much room for expansion," said Gabe Chammas, vice president of sales for Chuck & Dave's Salsa in Roseville.

At Grand Rapids-based Meijer Co., which carries its own brand of Meijer Gold salsa in addition to at least a dozen others, "salsa is a continuing growth category," said spokesman Frank Guglielmi. The week preceding Super Bowl Sunday is Meijer's busiest week for salsa sales, when the company doubles its normal weekly sales, he said.

"Salty snacks are just huge," agreed Kroger Co. spokesman Dale Hollandsworth.

Angela Plachta, who founded Little Diablo Salsa in Northville two years ago, said she sometimes worries that the market is saturated when she is perusing the supermarket aisle but thinks there is always room for new players.

"There are only so many options for snacks," she said.

Salsa owes much of its popularity to aggressive marketing, according to Kenneth Albala, a University of the Pacific history professor.

"There's something very macho about it," Albala said, explaining why salsa and the Super Bowl are nearly synonymous. "Heat itself gives people a cheap thrill that ultimately isn't very dangerous."

You can reach Jaclyn Trop at jtrop@detnews.com.