When I first saw the phrase “TikTok Pink Sauce” (thanks to Desus Nice’s tweet about it being “the new variant”) my mind immediately went to the pink slime panic from 10 years ago. Maybe someone went viral cranking out fleshy processed meat? Or, I thought, perhaps someone finally ate some slime influencer’s ill-begotten products.
Pink Sauce is none of these things. It’s a condiment, made by a TikTok creator who goes by Chef Pii. She officially launched it as a product for sale on her website on July 1, and is selling it by the bottle for $20.
Videos by VICE
What’s in it, and what it tastes like, however, are still mysteries. When asked directly to describe it in TikTok comments, she posted a video of a group of kids tasting it. One says it’s “sweet ranch,” and another says it’s “spicy.”
It has the look and consistency (from what I can tell based on watching dozens of videos of Chef Pii and others drizzling this stuff all over everything) of Pepto Bismol mixed with Thousand Island dressing. I love flavors and textures that many people find too artificial, unnatural, or otherwise disgusting, so I’m not entirely opposed. Maybe it’s good?
The trouble with Pink Sauce is in its controversial labeling, as many people on social media have pointed out.
According to the ingredients label on her website, Pink Sauce contains water, sunflower seed oil, raw honey, distilled vinegar, garlic, pitaya (or dragonfruit), pink himalayan sea salt, and less than two percent dried spices, lemon juice, milk, and citric acid. The label on the site—which still lists the servings incorrectly—claims it contains 60 milligrams of sodium, three grams of carbs, four grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar per tablespoon, and not much of anything else, despite having 90 calories per serving.
One person on Twitter, who tried making the sauce herself, noted that it’s possible Chef Pii copied the ingredients list from a mayonnaise bottle instead of listing mayo as an ingredient.
On TikTok, people are making videos stitched with Chef Pii’s videos, pointing out inconsistencies and errors in the labeling. One creator, @seansvv, said, “When someone gets sick from this, I’m scared for the person who gets sick and the person who owns this business,” before pointing out that “cottage laws” allow home chefs to sell products out of their own kitchens, without licenses, if the foods present a low risk for foodborne illness. These laws vary state to state.
They also point out that the hue of the sauce changes from bottle to bottle in Chef Pii’s videos, and in the early labels, she lists 444 servings per container—obviously an impossibly large number for the small bottles. Some people on Twitter speculated that this was an intentional choice, for “angel number” aesthetics, which would be so hilarious I hope it’s true.
Chef Pii is addressing some of these claims as they arise, on her TikTok. She apologized for the 444 error, saying, “things happen, the grams got mixed up with the serving size,” and that there are 444 grams in the bottle, not servings—which makes slightly more sense.
In that video, Chef Pii says they are following FDA standards, but are currently in “lab testing.” In an earlier video, she addresses the hue question, saying that the color didn’t change, just the lighting.
While she’s testing, Pink Sauce is trending on Twitter, mostly with people posting memes about how they or anyone else will surely perish if they eat the forbidden Barbiecore condiment.
Chef Pii didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s probably not advisable, in health risk terms, to eat homemade sauce of a bizarre hue made by a viral TikTok influencer and shipped around the country under dubious packaging safety practices. Especially when some TikTok stars have stumbled into creating homemade napalm. But to me, Pink Sauce has the same allure as putting Play-Doh or slime or erasers in one’s mouth, just for a little taste: you shouldn’t do it, but aren’t you curious? I definitely, probably would risk it. Like I said, maybe it’s good.
