Texas Pete is facing a saucy lawsuit.
A man in California is suing the popular hot sauce brand after he learned it was manufactured in North Carolina rather than the Lone Star State.
Philip White bought a bottle of Texas Pete at Ralph’s supermarket in September 2021, believing it was made, as its label suggests, in Texas, according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court.
The suit alleges White wouldn’t have purchased the sauce if he knew that it is actually made in North Carolina, where manufacturer TW Garner Food Company has its headquarters in Winston-Salem.
While the manufacturing location is not a secret since it’s printed on the bottle’s back label, the lawsuit alleges that a consumer would likely not notice.
The label’s “distinctly Texan” imagery also contributed to the buyer’s bamboozlement, the suit alleged. The bottle includes the “famed white ‘lone’ star from the Texan flag together with a ‘lassoing’ cowboy,” the complaint states.
The sauce’s parent company TW Garner Food Co. explains on its website that after consulting a marketing adviser, the company’s founder, Sam Garner, landed on Texas Pete because of the state’s “reputation for spicy cuisine” and as a nod to his son’s nickname.
“The current factory, built in 1942 and added onto too many times to count, sits on the original Garner family home site in northwest Winston-Salem,” the website states. “And the legendary Texas Pete, proud of his cowboy heritage but also a proud North Carolinian, continues to thrive.”
However, White’s lawsuit claims “there is surprisingly nothing Texas about them.”
“If a consumer conducted an extremely close review of the Products’ back labels, nothing would overcome the reasonable impression given by the front label that the Products are indeed made in Texas,” the complaint argues.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to make TW Garner Food Co. pay for damages and change its name and branding.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
