The peppers are unloaded from a truck into the factory as 300 sriracha fans tour Huy Fong Foods in Irwindale, CA.
Anne Cusack | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
The maker of Sriracha hot sauce lost its legal battle with its former jalapeno supplier after a California jury awarded the pepper grower $23.3 million Wednesday.
For 28 years, Underwood Ranches provided Huy Fong Foods with the ripe red jalapeno peppers that it needed for its Sriracha. But in 2017, that relationship came to an end after the two could not reach an agreement for the harvest that year.
Irwindale, California-based Huy Fong initially filed a lawsuit against its jalapeno supplier in August 2017, accusing Underwood of not returning an overpayment of $1.4 million from the previous season. Underwood responded with a countersuit claiming that Huy Fong breached its contract.
The jury awarded Underwood $10 million in punitive damages and $14.8 million to compensate for the two years of financial losses related to the…
