Potentially Bad News for Sriracha Lovers

jaxn slim

Your Worst Nightmare
The factory might be closing. :(

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/10/the-sriracha-factory-could-get-shut-down-panic/

In Irwindale, California, nose-y neighbors, sick of the supposedly strong chili smell emanating from the factory where Sriracha hot sauce is made, want the Huy Fong Foods factory shut down unless the odor can be abated. The city has filed a public nuisance lawsuit, says the Associated Press, “seeking temporary closure of the factory until Huy Fong submits a plan to minimize the smell.” CBS:

“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.

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.

If the price of Sriracha skyrockets, where will the heat-seeking foodie turn? For the New Yorker, Lauren Collins details how chili sauces have grown into a massive industry.

Chilis have become an attractive business. According to a report by IBISWorld, a market-research firm, hot-sauce production is one of America’s ten fastest-growing industries, along with solar-panel manufacturing and online eyeglass sales.

Unfortunately, it seems, based on Collins’ account, the so-called “chiliheads” driving the hot sauce boom have been in a bid to best each other on one metric alone, Scoville units, a measure of hotness. With manufacturers racing to abandon taste for sheer burn, we can only hope the city of Irwindale and Huy Fong Foods can work out their differences before our bottle is empty.

More from Smithsonian.com:

How a Vietnamese Refugee Built the Multi-Million Dollar Sriracha Hot Sauce Empire


Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/sma...tory-could-get-shut-down-panic/#ixzz2j9O3rIlv
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If the factory was there when the people moved in, they should shut the fuck up. This is like people who move next to small airports and then try to get the airport shut down due to the noise. What did you expect when you moved in next to an airport?
 
If the factory was there when the people moved in, they should shut the fuck up. This is like people who move next to small airports and then try to get the airport shut down due to the noise. What did you expect when you moved in next to an airport?
I always agree with this sentiment but Sriracha just moved to this new killer facility about a year ago.
 
This is one of the many things wrong with California. He shouldn't even put up a fight. Take all of those tax revenues and jobs to a community and state with half a brain. There are plenty of east coast and Midwestern states that would love to host them.
 
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I would imagine it might indeed suck to live nearby and downwind of that place.

We have a similar "problem" here, in that we regularly get wafts of the cocktail of scents coming from the nearby Nemo's bakery. Those dirty bastards are always filling the sky with the smell of delicious chocolate cakes and other similarly "offensive" tasty treats.

Those sonsabitches!

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This is one of the many things wrong with California. He shouldn't even put up a fight. Take all of those tax revenues and jobs to a community and state with half a brain. There are plenty of east coast and Midwestern states that would love to host them.
Sadly thats what happens most of the time. Most folks I've talked to have relocated to Texas, Nevada or just put their manufacturing in Asia somewhere.
 
This is one of the many things wrong with California. He shouldn't even put up a fight. Take all of those tax revenues and jobs to a community and state with half a brain. There are plenty of east coast and Midwestern states that would love to host them.

Why, cause it would cover the smell of cow shit?

Lay off the state hate.

All they need is a simple wet scrubber for their exhaust system. If the semiconductor industry can scrub germaine, hydrogen chloride and phosphine, I think they can cut the chili stench.

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This is one of the many things wrong with California. He shouldn't even put up a fight. Take all of those tax revenues and jobs to a community and state with half a brain. There are plenty of east coast and Midwestern states that would love to host them.

I'd imagine that Californias proximity to the sources of Sriracha ingredients make it an attractive location. Most commercial garlic is grown in Cali, and you're not far from the Arizona/New Mexico "Chili belt."

I also agree that it won't be a hard problem to solve - there are tons of ways to address this. Steam/air/water strippers. Activated charcoal.

But I may go and get myself a backup bottle this evening just in case production goes offline for a while.
 
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