Tabanero Hot Sauce Debut Delayed Due to Severe Flooding in Mexico

BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ — TransMedia Group, the PR firm for TABANERO(TM) sauce, said today that its scheduled February launch will be delayed to later in 2008 due to the severe flooding in Tabasco state where peppers for the Salsa Picante Mexicana to be marketed under the TABANERO(TM) brand are grown.

According to TransMedia’s Chairman Tom Madden, long-term recovery efforts will likely include agricultural rehabilitation as about 90 percent of Tabasco’s crops were inundated by the floods in what was one of Mexico’s worst recent natural disasters.

Madden said, in addition to immediate aid, part of the proceeds from the sale of Tabanero will go toward aiding victims of the flood which affected nearly half of the state’s two million inhabitants, many of whose homes were destroyed. Voted one of the best-tasting hot sauces ever, Tabanero is sure to score a hit with hot sauce lovers across the U.S., so it should help to not only enliven food, but help Tabasco’s victims as well, Madden said.

The allocated proceeds will be directed to charitable organizations involved in relief efforts, including the American Red Cross and Catholic Relief Services.

A week of heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, drowning at least 80 percent of the Mexican state. “According to our sources, the state capital, Villahermosa, looked like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina,” with water reaching to second-story rooftops and desperate people awaiting rescue, he said.

“The devastation is terrible from rivers overflowing and something like 80% of the state is flooded in one fashion or another. Our people on the ground there said it looks like New Orleans after Katrina” said Madden. “When they learned the scope of the problems caused by the terrible flooding, our client felt they had to do something both now and going forward to help.”

According to reports, at least one death was reported and nearly all services, including drinking water and public transportation, were shut down. The flood affected more than 900,000 people in the state of two million — their homes flooded, damaged or cut off by high water.

“Our thoughts and prayers and those of the entire Tabanero team go out to the people of Tabasco.”

Contact: Kim Morgan 561-750-9800 x233