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Tractor-trailer truck next to a bottle of Frank's RedHot
America’s roads are filled with trucks tasked with carrying materials that have the potential to cause some issues if something goes wrong during the journey. You may not think that includes Frank’s RedHot, but that is apparently the case based on what recently unfolded on a highway in Ohio.
Most people take the supply chain responsible for delivering the products to the stores where we buy them for granted, but it goes without saying that those shelves don’t magically fill themselves.
Your ability to pluck items off of them is the end result of the constantly unfolding logistical ballet that revolves around the many vehicles that are devoted to shipping cargo around the globe, including the tractor-trailers that are primarily responsible for completing the final legs of most of those journeys.
Those trucks are involved in around 500,000 crashes each year on American roads, many of which result in damaged cargo being spilled onto the pavement. However, as one recent incident in Ohio highlighted, there can also be some issues in the absence of a collision.
A truck carrying 40,000 pounds of Frank’s RedHot left a highway in Ohio covered in hot sauce
Frank’s RedHot has a history that stretches back to 1920, and while you can put that…stuff on anything, its place in the hot sauce game is primarily defined by the role it plays in most Buffalo wing recipes.
A factory in Springfield, Missouri pumps out more than 20 million gallons of Frank’s each year, and according to The Columbus Dispatch, a truck carrying 40,000 pounds of it was recently making its way down 1-71 in Ohio when things took an unexpected turn.
Chris Kovach, the chief of a multi-town fire department in Delaware County (located just north of Columbus), told the outlet they received a call concerning a truck that was leaking an orange substance onto the highway on the evening of June 30th, and the responding crews were able to track the trail to a truck stop where it had pulled off.
They quickly determined the substance in question was Frank’s RedHot, and they subsequently contacted the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which undertook a cleanup effort that involved dumping the hot sauce into containment pools over concerns its acidic nature could have an impact on local waterways if it was simply washed away.
At least one person who drove over the sauce also encountered an issue, as they took to Facebook to complain about the residue that remained after spending $30 at a car wash to try to wash it off.