Sriracha Factory Irritates Some California Noses, but Entices Politicians
By IAN LOVETT MAY 13, 2014
Politicians Enter Fight Over Hot Sauce
Credit Emily Berl for The New York Times
@UC_Newsroom
IRWINDALE, Calif. — Until a few months ago, Sriracha was a mere hot sauce, offering a spicy kick to eggs, soup, grilled cheese or a Bloody Mary.
But since this small, industrial city east of Los Angeles began taking legal action against the Sriracha factory here — responding to complaints from residents about the strong scent of chiles — this trendy hot sauce has turned from a culinary symbol into a political one for business leaders and Republicans who have long complained that California is hostile to industry.
“Why do you hate me?” David Tran, whose company makes Sriracha, asked at the last City Council meeting here. “Why do you want to shut me down?”
The Irwindale City Council could take a step toward doing just that on Wednesday, when it is scheduled to vote on whether to declare the Huy Fong Foods factory a public nuisance. The move, which would threaten the place where every bottle of Sriracha is made, follows a lawsuit the city filed last fall to try to force Mr. Tran to stop the smell from pervading local neighborhoods. A judge granted a preliminary injunction, but so far Mr. Tran has refused to take any action.
“I work face to the chile for 34 years,” said Mr. Tran, 68, who emigrated from Vietnam in 1979 and started making Sriracha in 1980 in a tiny warehouse in downtown Los Angeles. Born in the year of the rooster in the Chinese zodiac, he stuck the bird on his bottle. “Why am I still here?” he said in an interview. “Maybe I should have died already.”
To local residents, the problem with the Sriracha factory is one of overwhelming odors. When the factory is grinding chiles in the fall, the scent of red jalapeños — so sweet once bottled — blows through town like a malevolent wind. Residents say that the chile-laced air burns their eyes and noses, causes coughing fits, and forces them to take cover indoors.
But the prospect that officials may force the closing of Huy Fong Foods, which produces about 20 million bottles of the sauce each year, has taken people by surprise. The 650,000-square-foot factory employs about 70 full-time workers and around 200 during chile season, when up to 40 truckloads of fresh peppers arrive each day from Ventura County, north of Los Angeles. The chiles are ground that same day, part of a round-the-clock operation.
“We never thought it should get this far, frankly,” said Fred Galante, the Irwindale city attorney. “Since September, they really have not done a thing about it. We just wanted to avoid having the same problem come up again this year when they start grinding chiles again in August.”
But this is an election year, and the matter has escalated, with politicians from other states descending on Irwindale to promise a more welcoming environment to Mr. Tran if he is willing to relocate. Republican candidates in California have also seized on the plight of the popular hot sauce.
“Sriracha is a symbol of a much bigger and very unfortunate trend in California of businesses leaving and political leaders not seeming to care,” said Neel Kashkari, a moderate Republican running for governor this year against the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Jerry Brown. Mr. Kashkari added a button to his website that invites supporters to sign a petition to “Stand With Sriracha” (and to show their love of the sauce by donating $7 to his campaign).
Mr. Tran said he did not plan to move the operation elsewhere, not only because of the cost of building a new factory, but because he would have to find a new supplier of chiles.
“Other cities say, ‘Irwindale is not friendly, come to my city,’ ” he said. “Other states say, ‘California is not friendly, come to my state.’ Other countries say, ‘U.S.A. is not friendly, come back here.’ ”
Mr. Tran sighed, adding, “I’m not sure why the U.S.A. lets local government do stupid things like this.”
Despite the complaints from neighbors, Mr. Tran denied that the smell was a serious problem. He said that the factory was already equipped with air filters, and that he did not plan to make any changes until the city directed him in what to do. Mr. Galante, the city attorney, in turn, said Irwindale was “not in a position to tell them how to fix it.” He suggested that the company hire a consultant.
Instead, Huy Fong Foods has begun offering tours of its $30 million factory, which opened in 2012, in an effort to establish that the fumes are mild and harmless.
One neighbor, Lisa Cordero, 47, was out walking with a friend one night last fall when they both began coughing. Her friend asked if the fumes were toxic. “No, those are chiles,” said Ms. Cordero, who has asthma and recognizes the smell from her mother’s kitchen growing up. The two women cut their walk short.
Ms. Cordero said she kept her French doors shut, even on hot days, for the duration of the grinding season. “If you opened the door, you could smell it,” she said. “I was gagging over here.”
Recent Comments
Flyer
6 days ago
I love this stuff! I hope something happens that will allow the maker of Saricha to continue his operations either in the existing plant or...
Mike H
6 days ago
So GOP shouts on "States Rights!" and "Local Control!" from the rooftops, and then when a city shows a little local discretion in response...
Gio
6 days ago
If (as noted in other comments) the complaints are coming from 4 or 6 households, the State should:- buy the homes- offer them to homeless...
California officials have implored the company to remain here. And The Los Angeles Times ran an editorial last month, with the headline “For California’s sake, Irwindale needs to save its Sriracha plant,” that accused the city of intransigence.
Democrats have defended the state as a good place to do business. Representative Tony Cárdenas, a Democrat from Los Angeles, offered up his own district if Mr. Tran decided to leave Irwindale.
“People criticize Los Angeles and California for being too regulated, but I don’t think this is about regulations pushing Sriracha out,” Mr. Cárdenas said. “The issue is that certain elected officials are not willing to be fair and honest with the business owner.”
Mr. Cárdenas is not the only one who has offered his district as a next destination for Sriracha. A coalition of Texas lawmakers arrived at the factory on Monday to make their case for expanding the business to Texas, if not relocating the entire operation. More Texas lawmakers are set to arrive next week.
“Sriracha may not be welcome in California, but you’d be welcomed with open arms and eager taste buds in Texas,” Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, posted on Twitter (though he was not part of the Texas delegation in Irwindale).
Mr. Tran acknowledges that the city has the power to shut him down, but he has not made any plans for what he might do if that happens.
“He’s very frustrated,” said Donna Lam, the executive operations officer for Huy Fong Foods and Mr. Tran’s sister-in-law. “I think a lot of people just see this as what it is. For him it’s something deeper — in his mind, he believes that they’re not all real problems.”
Mr. Tran seemed not to want to face the possibility of his factory’s closing.
“What can I do?” Mr. Tran asked. “Next season, you can come, and you get an answer about how strong the smell is.”