So long Sriracha?
I love Sriracha - with almost everything. Apparently it's burning more than just mouths as residents of Irwindale, California — where Huy Fong Foods produces the hot sauce — claim they've been experiencing headaches and burning sensations in their eyes and throats because of the odor emanating from the Sriracha-production plant. The city has now filed suit against Huy Fong Foods, claiming the smell is a public nuisance and requesting that the plant cease production until the issue can be resolved.
“The odors are so strong and offensive as to have caused residents to move outdoor activities indoors and even to vacate their residences temporarily to seek relief from the odors,” according to the suit.
From the Smithsonian:
Living next to a food processing plant is always a scented existence, and Huy Fong Foods has denied there’s a problem. But if the injunction goes through, it could spell bad news for hot sauce lovers everywhere.
The factory in Irwindale where Sriracha is now made opened within the last year. At 650,000 square feet, says Quartz, the company can pump out up to 7,500 bottles of hot sauce each hour. Huy Fong Foods was started 33 years ago by Vietnamese refugee David Tran, and the company, says Quartz, has never raised its wholesale prices. If the Sriracha factory is shuttered, supply and demand may do what Tran never did. Canada might have a strategic maple syrup reserve, but if Sriracha goes out of production, there’s no emergency warehouse waiting to be tapped.
Read more HERE.
