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 Irwindale Mayor Mark Breceda told dozens of Huy Fong Foods workers
wearing "Save Sriracha" shirts, as well as residents and others,
that he "loves the chili sauce" but was asking the company for a few
unspecified "little things."
"It's never been this council's goal to shut this place down,"
Breceda said. "No one wants you here more, Huy Fong Foods, than this
city council. I'm positive we can resolve the issue."
Irwindale filed a lawsuit against Huy Fong last October saying the
smell of peppers being crushed at the plant was causing headaches
and irritating the eyes and throats of nearby residents, forcing
some to remain indoors.
The council on Wednesday decided to push back a vote on whether to
declare the factory a public nuisance until May 14.
Declaring the factory a nuisance could pave the way for the city,
located about 20 miles east of Los Angeles, to act on its own to
remedy the harmful fumes, with the company assuming any abatement
costs, by introducing a lien against the property if necessary.
The red-colored Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, among the top-selling
condiments in the United States, is marketed in clear squeeze
bottles with a green cap and trademark rooster logo. It has been
celebrated as an ingredient of the year by Bon Appetit magazine and
has inspired cookbooks, a food festival and a documentary.
"You say it's toxic. I work for 32 years in this business. I (would)
die already," Huy Fong Foods owner David Tran, an ethnic Chinese
immigrant from Vietnam who founded the company in 1980, told the
council on Wednesday evening.
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The 600,000-square-foot, $50 million factory opened in Irwindale in
2010, according to a Republican congressional candidate in the
district that includes Irwindale.
The company says it has more than two dozen invitations from
officials across the country to relocate its plant.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered the hot sauce maker in
November to curb noxious emissions but stopped short of requiring a
plant shutdown as sought by the city.
(Reporting by Tori Richards in Irwindale, Calif.;
additional
reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Eric M.
Johnson, Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Shumaker)
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