Sriracha Sauce Maker Huy Fong Foods Considers Moving Factory Away From Irwindale After Public Nuisance Ruling
After months of legal battles between the city of Irwindale, Calif. and Huy Fong Foods regarding the company's Sriracha plant emitting irritating odors, the hot sauce's creator, David Tran, is considering moving locations, despite air quality officials' proposal of implementing smell-mitigation technology.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Tran began exploring alternative locations last week after the Irwindale City Council unanimously designated the Sriracha factory a public nuisance.
Tran had promised he would fix problem and submit an action plan by June 1 but he said he fears the city will just turn down any proposal he has. He said he and the company would constantly be legally battling the city if its residents continue to protest the smell.
City officials "tell you one thing, but think another," Tran said. "I don't want to sit here and wait to die."
The public nuisance designation allows Irwindale's city officials to install smell-mitigation technology in the plant without Tran's approval if he doesn't make the changes himself within approximately 90 days.
On Wednesday, Tran invited several politicians and business leaders from 10 states and other various cities in California to tour the plant, including the city of Irwindale, to judge for themselves if their respective communities would complain about the smell as well.
Tran's plan to move, however, would effect 60 to 200 of the company's employees on top of its business partnership with a pepper grower in Ventura County, according to the Times.
Sriracha only uses the pepper from this farm and both have shaped their operations around each other for years. Sriracha production requires that the peppers must be ground up the same day they are harvested leaving Tran to find another pepper grower if he decides to relocate.
Tran told the Times he believes the company would become financially harmed if the city intervenes, which could delay crucial pepper harvest Sriracha needs for the hot sauce.
Huy Fong Foods is also facing a lawsuit by Irwindale officials through the Los Angeles Superior Court. Trans said the lawsuit could affect a pepper crop worth tens of millions of dollars.
"I have had the bad luck to move into a city with a government that acts like a local king," Tran said.
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