By Hillary Dixler, Eater
Here’s a look inside the headline-making Huy Fong Foods Sriracha factory in Irwindale, CA. Eater recently took one of the public tours the factory now offers and had a brief chat with founder David Tran about the troubles his company has had with the city council and in court.
Inside the Sriracha factory. [Photos: Hillary Dixler/Eater.com]
The tour itself covered the grounds of the company’s massive Irwindale production facility, much of which was done from the comfort of a Huy Fong Foods-branded golf cart. According to the tour guide, the building is a whopping 650,000 square-feet. 40 customer-routed trucks depart from the factory each day bringing unthinkable amounts of endorphin-creating hot sauces across the country.
The tour followed the production narrative and, as explained by our guide (who was wearing a Sriracha t-shirt), it starts when chilis are picked nearby during the harvest and placed into giant hoppers outside of the building. They’re washed three times, then ground, and then mixed with unspecified preservatives. They are never cooked. This “mash” is stored in blue drums until it’s time to make sauce from it.
Chili grinding season begins in August, and the mash created in that four month period provides the base for all the Huy Fong sauces made year round. This mash is then sent to a second mixing room, where additional ingredients are added based on whichever sauce is being made. Huy Fong produces its own plastic bottles on site, which are silkscreened with their iconic rooster logo, filled, capped, and sealed. Packed into pallets and boxes by a “robot,” the bottles must then be held for 35 days per the DOH. The tour guide said a DOH rep comes and tests samples from the batches every week.
Read the full article by Hillary Dixler from Eater, for more pictures inside the factory.
