Things are starting to heat up for a small Southern California factory town after the makers of Sriracha hot sauce decided to open a sprawling 650,000-square-foot factory within its border.
The City of Irwindale in California is suing Huy Fong Foods over a chili odor that's permeating the air. They're seeking to shut down the 2-year-old plant until its operators make the smell go away, the Christian Science Monitor reported.
"It's like having a plate of chili peppers shoved right in your face," Ruby Sanchez, who lives almost directly across the street from the shiny, new $40 million plant, told the Christian Science Monitor.
The city filed papers to temporarily close Huy Fong Foods because it said the chili odor emanating from the factory is burning eyes, irritating throats and causing headaches.
Some 100 million pounds of peppers a year are processed into Sriracha and two other popular Asian food sauces.
As many as 40 trucks a day pull up to unload red hot chili peppers by the millions. The pepper then goes inside on a conveyor belt where it's washed, mixed with garlic and a few other ingredients and roasted.
The pungent smell of peppers and garlic fumes is sent through a carbon-based filtration system that dissipates them before they leave the building, but not nearly enough, residents told the Christian Science Monitor.
"Whenever the wind blows that chili and garlic and whatever else is in it, it's very, very, very strong," Sanchez said. "It makes you cough."
According to the Christian Science Monitor, city officials met with Huy Fong Foods company executives earlier this month and, although both sides say the meeting was cordial, the company balked at shelling out what it said would be $600,000 to put in a new filtration system it doesn't believe it needs.
As company officials were looking into other alternatives, director of operations Adam Holliday said the city sued.
The case goes to court on Thursday.
