Our Mission:

To provide our customers with delicious flavors from the best ingredients

Our History

Sasaki Shoten storefront, 1922

The history of Otafuku Foods, Inc. goes back to 1922 when Sasaki Shoten opened for business as a sake and soy sauce wholesale/retail store in Hiroshima, Japan.

The rice vinegar brewery started operations in 1938, and the company lost everything when the atomic bomb hit the city of Hiroshima. Vinegar production had to be restarted from scratch after the war.

Oshiba Factory, 1960

During WWII, a savory "pancake" with readily-available ingredients became popular due to a widespread shortage of rice. In 1950, "Otafuku Worcestershire Sauce" was introduced as the dish became even more popular, followed by "Otafuku Okonomi Sauce" in 1952. A lot of arduous research and development went on behind the scenes, but soon Otafuku had one of Japan's best-loved sauces. As Japan's passion for okonomiyaki grew, so did Otafuku Sauce Co., and they quickly expanded their line of sauces to include yakisoba, tonkatsu and takoyaki.

Otafuku's early Research and Development team

In 1998, Otafuku Sauce Co. expanded to the United States and set up their North American branch, Otafuku Foods, in Torrance, CA. The subsidiary operated in South Bay for 15 years before moving to Santa Fe Springs, CA., to establish a location with a factory and a warehouse as well as an office. Today Otafuku Foods, Inc. proudly produces sauces for both national and private brands across the United States.

Today, Otafuku is known as one of Japan's biggest seasoning sauce manufacturers and continues to grow in North America as well. The founder's two-pronged philosophy, "Never compromise the quality of the ingredients" and "Every drop counts," has been successfully carried out by the generations that followed. A strong passion for better products lives on.