IRWINDALE, Calif. — It looked like things were really starting to heat up for this little Southern California factory town when the maker of the Sriracha chili sauce known worldwide decided to open a sprawling 650,000-square-foot factory within its borders.
Getting the jobs and economic boost was great. Getting a whiff of the sauce being made wasn’t, at least for a few Irwindale residents. So much so that the city is now suing Huy Fong Foods, seeking to shut down production at the 2-year-old plant until its operators make the smell go away.
“It’s like having a plate of chili peppers shoved right in your face,” said Ruby Sanchez, who lives almost directly across the street from the shiny, new $40 million plant where 100 million pounds of peppers a year are processed into Sriracha (pronounced “sree-YAH-chah”) and two other popular Asian food sauces.
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 say residents.
