A former employee has been detained by police on suspicion of disclosing the secret of China's best-known hot sauce Laoganma to another producer in southwestern Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou province.

 

中国著名辣椒酱老干妈的一名前雇员被警方拘留，他涉嫌将老干妈的配方透露给贵阳的另一厂家。

 

The man surnamed Jia was seized after a three month police investigation¹ and now faces criminal charges in a case that involves tens of millions of yuan.

 

Laoganma Special Flavor Foodstuffs² Co in Guiyang's Nanming district produces a variety of popular sauces such as oil chili³, beef soybean and flavored chili chicken.

 

In May 2016, it found another local food processing company made highly similar products. In November, it reported these concerns to police, suspecting its business secrets were being stolen.

 

A subsequent police investigation determined⁴ that Laoganma's unique trade secrets were identified in the products of the competing food company, which had no history of making chili oil sauce.

 

Later, police focused the investigation on Jia, who worked as quality technician and engineer among other posts at Laoganma from 2003 to April 2015. From November 2015, he used another name to work at the food processing company and was responsible for its quality management.

 

A large amount of internal information about Laoganma's trade secrets were found on Jia's external hard-drive and computer.

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