BOSTON — “Heat is more than just hot sauce for us,” said Brendan M. Foley, president and chief executive officer of McCormick & Co., Inc. “And if I would ask you to take one thing away today, that would probably be it.”

Mr. Foley, who recently stepped into his role, discussed the Hunt Valley, Md.-based company’s strength in spicy flavors at the Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference on Sept. 5 in Boston. He said heat is a growth accelerator across McCormick’s entire portfolio, extending well beyond its hot sauce brands Cholula and Frank’s RedHot.

“Across the store, what you’ll see is that over the last three years, we’ve kind of done a lot of research around this, is that spicy edible units are growing 10 times faster in center-of-store categories than non-spicy,” Mr. Foley said. “So it isn’t just a fad. This thing’s been going on for a while and something that we’ve been focused on for well over a decade.

He noted McCormick has “meaningful expertise” in heat, spanning its global sourcing, supply chain, manufacturing and research and development capabilities. He pointed to the company’s FlavorCell technology, which enables a controlled release of heat and flavor.

“What I would tell you is that when we take a look at that what we’re defining as heat across our portfolio, it’s growing three times faster in those categories or those products that we would call non-heat overall. So you see an accelerated growth rate.

“And the other thing is it’s really stretching across both segments. We’ve estimated around 20% of our total net sales are really derived of something that’s kind of influenced by heat, and only half of that is hot sauce. So it really kind of gives you kind of the breadth of our portfolio that’s really influenced by heat is more than just something that would seem, obviously, incredibly obvious.

“And what we’re also seeing is just even over the last three years, whether it’s in our Consumer segment or in our Flavor Solutions segment, we’ve been driving about a 12% compound annual growth rate just from heat overall. So it has a real, I think, significant impact as we’re looking forward to the future, and it’s a tailwind for us. And this will only continue driving growth because it is really being driven by younger generations.”