Pink Sauce goes viral on TikTok: Why has the FDA jumped in?

It's pink and it's a sauce. Enough of a reason to make rounds on the internet.

Pink Sauce, a condiment made by a private chef in Miami, has gone viral on TikTok. It is popular which means it is likely to go under the scanner. And now the sauce caught the attention of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to step in.

So what's the brouhaha about? Why does the Pink Sauce have the FDA seeing red?

Who invented Pink Sauce? 

Behind this viral sensation is a chef, who is also a TikToker, and goes by the name ‘Chef Pii’. The 29-year-old  from Miami had around 800 followers on TikTok. But after she introduced the Pink Sauce, she gained more than 142,000 followers.

According to a Los Angeles Times report, Chef Pii sells the sauce at a price of $20 a bottle. And she has many a taker. Some of whom have concerns about labelling, ingredients, and more.

What’s Pink Sauce made up of?

According to Los Angeles Times, the product’s label has the complete list of ingredients used to make the sauce – water, sunflower seed oil, raw honey, distilled vinegar, garlic, pitaya (dragon fruit), pink salt and less than two per cent dried spices, lemon juice, milk and citric acid.

According to the chef’s website, Pink Sauce is made up of sunflower seed oil, raw honey, distilled vinegar, garlic, dragon fruit, and Himalayan sea salt.

Pii used to end up in the hospital because of panic attacks. In order to avoid medication for her anxiety, she opted for a more “natural option” and started having dragon fruit.

“Dragon fruit is rich in magnesium, which helped me out with my anxiety,” she said on YouTube.

It is what she started using in the sauce, giving it a distinctive colour.

So what went wrong?

Many a thing. Customers have complained that they received damaged bottles of the sauce. Some pointed out that it contains ingredients that need to be refrigerated, which are not printed out on the label.

Others have bigger concerns regarding the sauce. They questioned its taste and what it looks like. Many have also pointed out labelling errors.

Nutritional labels on the packages assert that one bottle has 444 servings. A TikTok user said, “There are so many errors on this nutritional label, saying 444 servings, which is 14.4 grams. Which makes almost 6,300-something grams in the whole bottle, which is inaccurate. And if these small details were overlooked, I’m looking at quality control now. I’m kind of scared.”

However, Pii clarified this was an error made by a graphic designer and will be rectified in the next batch.

Apart from this, the changing hues of pink in the sauce have also raised eyebrows.

What is the FDA saying?

According to a Vice report, the FDA got in touch with Chef Pii to make sure her product was safe to consume. She said, “The F, f*****g, DA came to my business. I am 100 per cent complaint, I’m 100 per cent compliant with FDA.”

However, an FDA spokesperson declined to give any details about making contact with Pii, the report says.

How has Chef Pii responded to the complaints?

Pii sent email blasts to people who ordered her sauce and has either replaced the order or provided a refund. She also posted explanatory videos on YouTube and TikTok where she emphasised that the sauce is manufactured in a facility that has been approved by FDA.

However, she is not bogged down. In fact, she has plans to take her product beyond TikTok.

“We are currently in lab testing. Once we go through lab testing we will be able to pitch to stores,” she said.

With inputs from agencies

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