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What is Pink Sauce? The mysterious TikTok condiment raising eyebrows

A TikTok creator’s mysterious pink sauce has taken over the internet, but not for the right reasons

Meredith Clark
New York
Friday 22 July 2022 10:36 BST
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A mysterious condiment has taken over the internet after one TikTok creator began sharing videos of her brightly coloured so-called “sauce,” sparking a flurry of discourse and memes online. Soon enough, the two words “Pink Sauce” began trending on Twitter, leading people to question the safety of the product.

What is Pink Sauce?

Well, the internet is not exactly sure what it is either. A professional chef known on TikTok as Chef Pii is the maker behind Pink Sauce. Back in June, she began posting videos of herself drizzling the pink coloured sauce onto tacos, gyros, and chicken tenders – although, its hue and consistency has gone through many iterations since the videos were first posted.

But how does this Pink Sauce get its mysterious colour? At first, Chef Pii wouldn’t say. Instead, she would describe its taste as “sweet” and “savory” at the same time. As for the different colouring in each video, Chef Pii chalked it up to lighting.

“Girl what’s in the sauce?” one person asked. “You are saying everything but what’s IN it,” said someone else.

It wasn’t until 25 June when Chef Pii put the Pink Sauce up for sale online, at $20 a bottle no less, where she finally revealed the secret ingredients: Dragon fruit, sunflower seed oil, chili, honey, and garlic.

After the pre-sale, customers began receiving orders of the Pink Sauce on 1 July and immediately took to social media to share their candid reviews of the mysterious condiment. While some customers reported the Pink Sauce to both smell and taste like ranch dressing, what seemed to really catch their eyes was its nutritional label.

The problem with the Pink Sauce label and its ingredients

Ingredients like vinegar had been misspelled as “vinger” and it somehow offered 444 servings per bottle. Plus, the nutritional facts displayed ingredients that weren’t previously advertised, including milk. Not only were the bottles mailed to customers unrefrigerated, but some people even reported busted packaging or a “rotten” smell.

Of course, that is usually the result when people order a mysterious (and non FDA-approved) product online that was made in someone’s kitchen. As the reviews poured in for Chef Pii’s Pink Sauce, people couldn’t help but make memes about the mysterious sauce, because the jokes just write themselves.

“People are buying unrefrigerated ‘pink sauce’ with no preservatives from a stranger on TikTok and are shocked when they get sick?” one person tweeted.

“Wait. So y’all paying $30 to have some random woman ship y’all some secret pink sauce she made in her kitchen clear across the country THROUGH USPS in THIS HEAT?” said another surprised user.

“This pink sauce thing is really motivating me to pursue my dreams, because clearly y’all will do and buy anything,” said someone else.

But don’t worry -- Chef Pii has addressed the internet’s health concerns in a TikTok video over the Pink Sauce’s misspelled labeling and the 444 servings size.

“We are currently in lab testing,” Chef Pii said. “We’re growing every single day.”

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