Burger King is running out of zesty sauce because of a global horseradish shortage, and fans are freaking out

Irene Jiang

November 20, 2019 3:37 PM

Burger King is running out of zesty sauce because of a global horseradish shortage, the chain confirmed Wednesday.

burger king

Fans have been expressing their confusion and outrage on Twitter, with many saying that their local Burger King locations are already out of the sauce.
"The global shortage of horseradish has affected some of our supply of zesty sauce. We are working quickly with our suppliers to maintain continuity and keep offering our guests the zesty experience they love," a Burger King spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Business Insider.
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Burger King fans wanting zesty sauce with their meal might be out of luck.

Supplies of the horseradish-based spicy and creamy sauce are running low at Burger King, a spokesperson for the chain confirmed to Business Insider on Wednesday.

And, it turns out a global shortage of horseradish is to blame.

"The global shortage of horseradish has affected some of our supply of zesty sauce. We are working quickly with our suppliers to maintain continuity and keep offering our guests the zesty experience they love," a Burger King spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Business Insider.

Some zesty sauce lovers have taken to Twitter over the last several days to express their confusion and frustration at the sauce outages.

In early November, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the world's largest horseradish producer, Silver Spring Foods, was unable to harvest about half of its crop due to an early snowfall. Silver Spring Foods warned of an impending horseradish shortage that it predicted would hit in early 2020, as other horseradish suppliers have struggled with similar problems.

Burger King's supply-chain manager, Restaurant Services, Inc., released a supply update on October 25.

"Due to a global shortage of horseradish, a key ingredient in the Zesty Onion sauce, Burger King suppliers are experiencing issues with the production of dip cups. As a result, the current stock of Zesty Onion dip cups is expected to dwindle to a potential full outage by early next year," RSI said in the statement.

The next horseradish harvest is in April, RSI said in its statement, adding that it is working with Burger King to find alternative supplies in the meantime.

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