Texas Pete’s hot sauce isn’t as Texas as a Los Angeles man thought, according to a class-action lawsuit.
Los Angeles resident Philip White filed a lawsuit in September in California District Court against hot sauce producers, North Carolina-based TW Garner Food, alleging false advertising after he thought the brand was a “Texas product,” According to North Carolina news station WGHP-TV.
White bought a bottle of the hot sauce — with a label showing a white star (like a Texas flag) and an all-red cartoon cowboy — and “relyed on the language and images on the front label” before buying it, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit alleges that the man believed the label’s appearance made her look “clearly from Texas.” However, the hot sauce originated at the Winston-Salem Barbecue in 1929.
WGHP-TV reported that the lawsuit wants the hot sauce brand, which has until November 10 to respond to the complaint, “to change its name, brand and payment.”
The complaint claims that “there is nothing surprising for them in Texas.”
Texas Pete’s Hot Sauce, a condiment introduced by Sam Garner, isn’t directly related to the Lone Star State but rather the result of Garner and his sons trying to come up with a name for their sauce at their barbecue restaurant, according to the brand’s website.
A marketing consultant came up with the idea of naming the hot sauce “Mexican Joe” “to refer to the pungent flavor reminiscent of the favorite foods of our southern neighbors,” says the brand’s website.
However, Garner allegedly did not feel the name.
“No, it must have an American name!” The site claims that Garner said.
The name Texas Pete was a combination of the Lone Star State name along with “Pete,” which is the nickname for Garner’s son Harold, according to the site.
The complaint alleges that Texas Pete, a Louisiana-style hot sauce, is the product of ingredients “sourced outside of Texas” and the hot sauce producer admits “that the reputation of Texas is a reputation they were trying to imitate and capitalize on.”
The hot sauce brand did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
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