Man claims salsa shenanigans at state fair

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - The rides and fried food may be gone at Expo New Mexico but the State Fair has left a bad taste in a salsa-maker’s mouth.

Matt Erdman of Albuquerque is wondering if a competition he entered was rigged.

After three years of working out the kinks Erdman, on the advice of friends, entered his ‘Blonde Salsa’ recipe into this year’s State Fair.

The contest was under the Home Arts Preserved Foods Division for amateur canners.

“We thought we’d done a real good job of at least meeting their criteria and so we entered it,” Erdman said.

The salsa was judged before the fair opened, Erdman was not able to attend because he was out of town that day.

“We’d gone down on Thursday this last week to see if we did anything we were kind of hoping we had and we hadn’t and we started looking and our jar hadn’t even been opened,” said Erdman.

At that point though he said it was just a hunch because the jar was still on display so he was not able to get an up-close look at it.

However when he went to pick up the salsa Monday he said his hunch was confirmed.

“The first thing I did was pull the ring off and try to pop it and no it was still sealed solid,” Erdman said.

KRQE News 13 tried getting in touch with Expo New Mexico to find out what happened but the office had already closed for the day.

The rules online clearly state that everything would be tasted.

Erdman also tried getting some answers from State Fair officials when he picked up the salsa.