The Glade 4.0

I'm happpppy!

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

LOS ANGELES — The maker of Sriracha hot sauce is under fire for allegedly fouling the air around its Southern California factory.

The city of Irwindale filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court Monday asking a judge to stop production at the Huy Fong Foods factory, claiming the chili odor emanating from the plant is a public nuisance.

City officials say residents have been complaining of burning eyes, irritated throats and headaches and that some people have had to leave their house to escape the smell.

One family was forced to move a birthday party indoors after the strong smell overwhelmed the festivity, Irwindale City Attorney Fred Galante told the Los Angeles Times.

Huy Fong initially cooperated with the city, but talks broke down last week after company representatives denied there was an odor problem, saying their employees worked in similar olfactory settings without complaint, Galante said.

The city, which is about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, is seeking temporary closure of the factory until Huy Fong submits a plan to minimize the smell.

"If they fix it and the odor problems stop, we don't need this order; but so far the odor complaints continue," Galante said.

An after-hours call to the company was not immediately returned.

Huy Fong's green-capped chili bottles are hugely popular and are a fixture at restaurants around the world. The first Sriracha Festival held in downtown Los Angeles over the weekend drew hundreds of fans. The condiment's creator, David Tran, was there sporting a T-shirt that said "I put Sriracha on my Sriracha."

The company had operated out of two buildings in nearby Rosemead since the late 1980s until it opened large factory in Irwindale this year.

All of the chili needed for producing the year's sauce is processed and stored between September and December.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2013/10/28/2755196/city-odor-from-sriracha-chili.html

Hot sauce lovers rejoice!

A Southern California town failed Thursday in its bid to shut down production of the popular Sriracha chili sauce because of the odor the factory gives off.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied the city of Irwindale's request to cease operations at the Huy Fong Foods factory until the company can reduce the pungent smell of pepper and garlic fumes emanating from the plant.

The fumes are sent through a carbon-based filtration system that dissipates them before they leave the building, but not nearly enough, said residents of the city 20 miles east of Los Angeles.

They complained the odor gives them headaches, burns their throat and makes their eyes water. City officials said they met twice with company executives and cited the firm for violating public nuisance ordinances.

The sprawling 650,000-square-foot factory processes some 100 million pounds of peppers a year into Sriracha and two other popular Asian food sauces. Sriracha's little plastic squeeze bottles with their distinctive green caps and rooster logo are ubiquitous in restaurants and homes around the world.

The peppers get washed, mixed with garlic and a few other ingredients and roasted during this time of the year, when jalapeno peppers are harvested in central California and trucked to the 2-year-old plant.

This Oct. 29, 2013 photo shows the Huy Fong Foods factory that makes Sriracha sauce in Irwindale, Calif.

Huy Fong executives said they were cooperating with the city to reduce the smell, but balked at the city's suggestion of putting in a new, $600,000 filtration system that may not be necessary.

Company founder David Tran said his privately held business took in about $85 million last year.

Tran told local public radio station KPCC this week that he has installed filters on rooftop vents at the factory that he says absorb about 90 percent of the chili and garlic odors from the processing exhaust.

"To filter 100 percent, I haven't found any engineer (that) can do it," Tran said.

Tran, an ethnic Chinese immigrant from Vietnam, founded his company in Los Angeles in 1980 and opened a plant in the neighboring town of Rosemead a few years later. He recently opened the Irwindale facility to expand his capacity.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the company produces up to 200,000 bottles of hot sauce a day.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

win for everyone, especially me.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

I <3 Sriracha

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

I believe that is not Huy Fong Sriracha but a generic Subway version.

I believe that is not Huy Fong Sriracha but a generic Subway version.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

I was wondering about that myself when I was at Subway today.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin