Irwindale Dismisses Public Nuisance Declaration Against Sriracha

By SHEL SEGAL
The city of Irwindale unanimously voted recently to “dismiss a lawsuit and public nuisance declaration” against Huy Fong Foods, the maker of Sriracha, according to a published report.
Huy Fong Foods caught the attention of city hall back in October when several residents complained that the chiles needed to make Sriracha had a foul odor and irritated their eyes and throats, according to that report.
Those complaints led to a public nuisance declaration and subsequent lawsuit by the Irwindale City Council against Huy Fong Foods and owner David Tran. At times it even looked as if there might be a “global shortage of the popular condiment and its bottle with the tell-tale green cap,” according to that report.
In fact, Tran threatened to move the company out of Irwindale with officials from the state of Texas recently touring the factory in an attempt to lure Tran and Huy Fong Foods to the Lone Star State, according to that report.
But a meeting before the city voted against sanctioning Huy Fong Foods, along with Tran writing a statement of cooperation, edged the council to voting in favor of the company now that its owner will take care of complaints by Irwindale residents, according to that report.
The decision to vote in favor of dismissing the order was music to the ears of Marlene Carney, the president of the Irwindale Chamber of Commerce, who spoke to the council about the chamber starting a marketing campaign “to talk about the positives of doing business” in Irwindale,” according to that report.
Fumes from the factory during chile-grinding season caused many residents to complain to the city, saying their eyes and throats would get burned and that they could not go outdoors, according to that report.
Addressing the residents’ complaints, Tran said the company “recently installed stronger filters on its rooftop air filtration system.” He added the system has been tested “with pepper spray,” according to that report.
However, the company said it does not know if those filters will be enough to squash residents’ complaints until chile-processing season, which should start in August, according to that report.
(Shel Segal can be reached at ssegal@beaconmedianews.com. He can be followed via Twitter @segallanded.)

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