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This fiery red sauce, brimming with the scent of jalapenos and garlic, is a little too hot.
With its proud red rooster-labeled bottle and sinus-searing kick, Huy Fong sriracha sauce has become a prized condiment for Asian food aficionados. Its potency has powered the sauce to annual sales of tens of millions in dollars each year.
But at the same time that popularity attracts foodies, it has also lured pirates. Foreign counterfeiters have begun producing nearly perfect duplicates of the sauce’s bottles, though not its distinctive taste.
Huy Fong Foods Inc., the Rosemead-based company that manufactures the sauce, has resorted to unusual lengths to find out who’s behind the dastardly deed.
The saucieres have hired private investigators and filed lawsuits against former customers to find out how they laid hands on the hot hot sauce.
The damage from the bootlegged bottles extends beyond just lost sales, cutting into future revenue and damaging the brand’s image. The fake sauce containers look virtually identical, aside from minor differences on the green cap and a missing ‘Huy Fong USA’ embossed on the bottom. The taste doesn’t measure up; consumers blame the company.
In an ironic way, having the sauce’s brand name ripped off means that Huy Fong has arrived in the food world, according to Sarah Thorn of the Grocery Manufacturers of America.
Counterfeiting raises a more sinister possibility, as well. Since bootleggers only consider looks, not food safety, the fakes could potentially sicken customers who think they’re getting a fully-tested product.
Chilehead Comments:
Posted by: Nick Lindauer - Categories: Hot Sauce Stuff
Permalink: Huy Fong Sriracha Sauce Being Copied
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5 Comments »
kellwych on 1/18/2007 at 10:22 pm said:
huy fong brands is itself a knock off! i don’t see where they get off being pissed off. sriracha is a thai sauce, named after a thai town. not only is huy fongs not made anywhere in asia, the sauce is also completely different.
They get off being pissed because what the folks are doing is *illegal*… at least in this country. I’m not allowed to rip off your hard earned (or other-wise earned) work by putting out a knock-off. That’s exactly what trademark laws are designed for- to prevent someone stealing another persons identity by causing confusion in the consumers name. You can further on this on the ‘Tabasco restaraunt’ thread.
Sriracha is a type of sauce first invented in the town of Sri Racha, Thailand, but it doesn’t have to be made in Thailand. Just like how hamburgers are from Hamburg, Germany, and frankfurters are from Frankfurt, Germany - But not all hamburgers and frankfurters are from Germany. In fact most hamburgers and frankfurters are NOT made in Germany. Also not all Philly Cheesestakes are made in Philadelphia, and the list could go on and on. Not all champagne is made in Champagne, France - in fact champagne from California has been rated by French wine authorities to be superior to even the French variety in a blind taste test.
Huy Fong is a brand of sriracha sauce made in the US, it even proudly says on the bottle, Made in the USA. Huy Fong is a unique take on the sriracha style, and it doesn’t have to be made in Asia to capture a great Asian taste! Huy Fong brand isn’t ripping off anyone.
Thanks Aaron for your true-valued comment. Sometimes people don’t give credit to whomever deserve it becasue they are jealouse or naive. America is all about “making better” of everything. Do your best then collect your reward. This is not just restriced to food. It could be anything, from medicine, art, music, automobile, to nuclei bombs!
To anyone from any country who has better sauce: bring it on! I have 3 bucks ready to spend. Until then, please don’t make it harder for Huy Fong company. They deserve their success and I need their real Rooster brand sauce!
I went to a teriyaki spot the other dayand got an order of teriyaki chicken to go. I loaded up with a red sauce out of the familiar Huy Fong bottle. I was extremely dissapointed with what I tasted. It was definitely not The Rooter. I don’t know if maybe they got their hands on the counterfeit stuff or if someone there was putting a different sauce in the bottle, but I was pissed. I will probably never go there again, cause it was out of the way, but if I do I will try the sauce before putting it on anything and if it is the same crap I will be giving them a piece of my mind.
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huy fong brands is itself a knock off! i don’t see where they get off being pissed off. sriracha is a thai sauce, named after a thai town. not only is huy fongs not made anywhere in asia, the sauce is also completely different.