What Is Pink Sauce? Chef Pii Explains

You might be wondering, Is this legal? Per “cottage food” laws in Florida, where Shaw is based, entrepreneurs using unlicensed kitchens can produce foods with a “low risk of foodborne illness” without a permit, as long as their sales do not exceed $250,000 annually.

X content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

In a Twitter thread, a curious spectator tried to recreate The Pink Sauce at home, concluding after several attempts that Shaw had to be using mayonnaise instead of the milk listed on the label. In a TikTok pinned to Shaw’s account, she can be seen using what appears to be mayonnaise as an emulsifier. 

“I’m not gonna address my process, just because of legal purposes with my trademark and stuff like that,” the chef says when Glamour asks about her recipe. “We are looking to go into stores. However, their production of my process is absolutely wrong. I’m being judged from a video that I made before The Pink Sauce was a product. I was on my way out to a pop-up shop and I wanted to put The Pink Sauce on the food that day. And I just created a video.”

Another source of concern is the sauce’s variation in color, sometimes appearing neon pink on camera and other times pastel. According to Shaw, the change in hue was intentional.

“When you put too much dragonfruit inside of the, you know, it makes you poop red,” Shaw says. “It’s like if you eat too much beets. So I didn’t want people like, ‘Oh, my shit is pink.’”

Still, outrage continues to build online. Labeling inaccuracies could pose serious health problems for those with food allergies. 

“We use it, my children use it,” Shaw says. “I’m very aware of that allergy content and the importance of it…. They’re creating an issue because I created something great.”