The makers of Texas Pete hot sauce are being sued by a man who was left disappointed after purchasing the product only to discover that it is not actually made in Texas.
Los Angeles resident Phillip White filed a lawsuit in September in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against the producers of the hot sauce, North Carolina-based T.W. Garner Food Co.
The lawsuit alleges that the company failed to “act in accordance with a fundamental precept of truth in advertising and fair play in the marketplace” by implying that the product was made in Texas when it is actually manufactured in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
According to the lawsuit, White purchased a bottle of Texas Pete at a Ralph’s supermarket in Los Angeles in September 2021, believing that it was made in Texas. The bottle cost about $3.
“In making his purchase decision, White relied upon the language and images displayed on the front label of the product, and at the time of purchase understood the product to be a Texas product,” the lawsuit states.
White later discovered the hot sauce was not actually made in Texas.
‘Nothing Texas About Them’
“White spent money to purchase a product that was different than that which he expected, and White did not receive the benefit of his bargain,” his lawyers wrote. “White may want to purchase the product again in the future if he could be sure that the product were compliant with California and federal consumer protection and advertising laws.”“By representing that its Texas Pete brand hot sauce products are Texas products, when they are not, Defendant has cheated its way to a market-leading position in the $3 billion-dollar hot-sauce industry at the expense of law-abiding competitors and consumers nationwide who desire authentic Texas hot sauce and reasonably, but incorrectly, believe that is what they are getting when they purchase Texas Pete,” the lawsuit further states.
“Although Defendant brands the products ‘Texas Pete,’ there is surprisingly nothing Texas about them: unknown to consumers, the products are standard Louisiana-style hot sauces, made with ingredients sourced outside the state of Texas, at a factory in North Carolina,” it adds.
The lawsuit also states that the makers of Texas Pete hot sauce use a “deceptive labeling scheme,” adorning the packaging with distinctly Texan imagery: the white “lone star” from the Texas flag and a cowboy using a lasso.
“Defendant designed the misleading name and imagery to comprise the entire front label, repeated the deception on the prominent product seal, and then etched the Texan imagery into the glass on the front of the bottle,” the lawsuit states.
“By way of its false marketing and labeling, Defendant knowingly and intentionally capitalizes on consumers’ desire to partake in the culture and authentic cuisine of one of the most prideful states in America,” lawyers for the plaintiff wrote.
White is also asking the court to force the company to immediately stop selling the “unlawful products in violation of law” and to enjoin the company from continuing to “market, advertise, distribute, and sell the products in the unlawful manner” described in the lawsuit.
It is also seeking punitive damages.
A spokesperson for T.W. Garner Food Co. told the Epoch Times in an emailed statement: “We are aware of the current lawsuit that has been filed against our company regarding the Texas Pete brand name. We are currently investigating these assertions with our legal counsel to find the clearest and most effective way to respond.”
