Sriracha Hot Sauce Harmful Smell Lawsuit Update: Irwindale City Council Drops Resident Complaints Against Huy Fong Foods Due to Lack of Evidence
After filing a lawsuit to declare the Sriracha hot sauce factory a public nuisance, the City Council of Irwindale has decided to drop the lawsuit on Wednesday.
The action began last year when residents started to complain of headaches, watery eyes, and even heartburns caused by an unbearable spicy odor in the air. Sriracha lovers, on the other hand, were not pleased to hear the news that their favorite hot sauce could possibly be taken off the market. Good news for them, however, in that the charges against the popular hot sauce brand have been dropped.
According to LA Times, the trial was originally scheduled to begin in November of this year. A declaration of public nuisance would have completely shut down the operations of the 650,000 square foot factory if there had been no other action to fix the situation. However, Huy Fong Foods Inc. finally committed itself to solving the smell issues. The company's lawyer, John Tate, added that no legal settlements took place between attorneys of the company and the council.
Surprisingly, no solid evidence could actually show that there was a harmful smell lingering in the local environment. According to the South Coast Air Quality Management District, they could not find sufficient evidence to justify an issuance of a violation. The officials also added that two-thirds of the complaints were only from four households. Furthermore, the officials conducted a survey on how the residents perceived the situation, forty percent of whom were able to identify the smell and only about sixteen percent who said that it was harmful.
Thankfully, the founder, CEO, and inventor of the hot sauce David Tran was able to meet the demand of installing a new ventilation system that prevents the fumes from going into the air of Irwindale. If that failed, he would have needed to transfer to another city, which would have been logistically difficult and very expensive.
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