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Travis McGee 23-08-2014 09:34 PM

Sriracha hot sauce factory holds open house to kick-off chili harvestseason
 
http://www.sgvtribune.com/business/2...harvest-season

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune (http://www.sgvtribune.com)
Sriracha hot sauce factory holds open house to kick-off chili harvest season

By Sarah Favot, Pasadena Star-News

Friday, August 22, 2014

IRWINDALE>> Getting inside the Sriracha hot sauce plant used to be a
challenge.

In the competitive market of spicy condiments, Huy Fong Foods CEO David
Tran kept his hot sauce’s secrets closely guarded and only let a limited
number of people inside to see his customized self-made machinery at work.

But this weekend, close to 3,000 people are expected to tour the hot
sauce plant at 4800 Azusa Canyon Road for the company’s first open house
to celebrate the kick-off of the busy chili harvest season.

Why?

“To prove we make hot sauce, we don’t make tear gas,” Tran said in an
interview.

Just a few months ago, the popular hot sauce was facing an uncertain
future in Irwindale after the city filed a lawsuit. The suit targeted
the factory, which opened last year. Residents in the town of 1,500
complained that harsh chili odors from the plant burned their eyes and
throats and forced them to stay indoors.

The City Council declared Huy Fong a public nuisance.

Tran began offering small tours to the community to let them see the
factory in production. Tourists from Canada, Japan and all over the U.S.
have travelled to Azusa Canyon Road, as well as politicians from Texas
hoping to lure Tran and his estimated $60 million company to the Lone
Star State.

Legal issues with the City Council ended in May after the city and Tran
reached an informal agreement. Tran credited the involvement of
representatives of Gov. Jerry Brown’s office for helping both sides
reach a resolution.

Once Tran modified the factory’s rooftop ventilation system with a
stronger filter, both sides agreed that if the city received any more
complaints, Tran would immediately address the concerns.

Tran said he has received two complaints since truckloads of chilies
began arriving at the factory at the end of July. He said inspectors
from the South Coast Air Quality Management District came to the
factory, but did not detect any odors.

Irwindale City Manager John Davidson said this week the city has not
received any complaints about the smells since the factory started
grinding chilies.

Tran said he has invited city officials to inspect the factory, but the
city has not taken him up on the offer. He decided the best way to be a
good neighbor was to host an open house.

Attendees can take a 20-minute walking tour through the
650,000-square-foot factory, sample Sriracha-flavored ice cream,
Sriracha pop corn and Sriracha chocolate caramels and take photos with
cardboard cut-outs of Tran. The newly opened Sriracha merchandise gift
shop, The Rooster Room, is also open.

The tour begins at the back of the factory where truckloads of chilies,
picked that morning at Craig Underwood’s farms in Kern and Ventura
counties, are dumped into a hopper.

Underwood, who attended the open house Friday, said this year’s harvest
was fruitful. They are delivering 45 truckloads a day of chilies. Each
truck is filled with 22 tons of peppers. The goal for this chili harvest
season is to produce 58,000 tons of peppers.

“It’s more than we’ve ever done,” said Underwood.

If there isn’t a lot of rain in October, the harvest will last through
mid-November, Underwood said.

The chilies are washed three times to remove dirt before the chilies are
ground and mixed with vinegar and salt. At this point in the tour the
chili scent was getting to some visitors who were coughing and sneezing,
but most said the smell was not too bad. Irwindale residents Monica
Lopez and Monica Romero said they came to the open house Friday to see
if the chilies smelled.

“The smell doesn’t even bother us and I live three blocks away,” said
Lopez, 53. “I haven’t even coughed once since I’ve been in here.”

Tran said you can smell the chilies inside the factory, but his workers
have said the smell isn’t bothersome. He compared the smell to
Starbucks, where when you walk in, it smells like coffee.

“It didn’t bother me that much,” said 12-year-old Luke Aubin, who lives
in Connecticut but came to the factory while visiting his grandfather
Tony Encarnacion in San Bernardino.

Encarnacion said he was impressed with the factory and was delighted to
see Tran at the front door greeting guests as they arrived.

“We always see it when we pass by, so it’s interesting to see how they
do it,” said Marlene Garcia, 21, of Irwindale.

Tran said he hopes when people tour the factory they see how clean his
process is and how important it is to him to deliver a safe product.

Tours of the plant will be held every Saturday, except Labor Day
weekend, through the end of the harvest season.

URL:
http://www.sgvtribune.com/business/2...harvest-season


jmcquown[_2_] 23-08-2014 09:40 PM

Sriracha hot sauce factory holds open house to kick-off chiliharvest season
 
On 8/23/2014 4:34 PM, Travis McGee wrote:
> http://www.sgvtribune.com/business/2...harvest-season
>
>
> The San Gabriel Valley Tribune (http://www.sgvtribune.com)
> Sriracha hot sauce factory holds open house to kick-off chili harvest
> season
>

Does anyone really care? Buy sriracha, don't buy sriracha. Tour the
plant, don't tour the plant. Most of us don't live there. It's old
news turned into marketing strategy. SURPRISE!

Jill

sf[_9_] 23-08-2014 10:12 PM

Sriracha hot sauce factory holds open house to kick-off chili harvest season
 
On Sat, 23 Aug 2014 16:34:25 -0400, Travis McGee >
wrote:

> http://www.sgvtribune.com/business/2...harvest-season


<Yawn>

Why Penzey's and Sriracha are such hot topics on rfc is anybody's
guess. They're at the top with Julie Bove. She eclipses them, but
they vie for second and third spots.


--
Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them.

jmcquown[_2_] 24-08-2014 02:08 AM

Sriracha hot sauce factory holds open house to kick-off chiliharvest season
 
On 8/23/2014 5:12 PM, sf wrote:
> On Sat, 23 Aug 2014 16:34:25 -0400, Travis McGee >
> wrote:
>
>> http://www.sgvtribune.com/business/2...harvest-season

>
> <Yawn>
>
> Why Penzey's and Sriracha are such hot topics on rfc is anybody's
> guess. They're at the top with Julie Bove. She eclipses them, but
> they vie for second and third spots.
>
>

I've gotten some nice spices from Penzey's. Penzey's doesn't seem to
top the sriracha factory lately. Julie, well that's pure amusement. ;)

Jill


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