2023-04-19 18:08:00
Teenagers don’t burn their wings there, but their tongues. For several months, a food challenge has been running on several social networks, including TikTok. It consists of eating an extremely spicy crisp, sold as “the strongest in the world”.
First known as the “One Chip Challenge” in the United States, it then became the “Hot Chip Challenge” after the launch of the eponymous product in the European Union. On paper, nothing too bad. But the consequences can be much more disastrous.
To realize the strength of this product, it is necessary to refer to the Scoville scale: the gradation which makes it possible to measure the strength of a pepper. By way of comparison, the Espelette pepper generally reaches between 1,000 and 3,000 units, the Tabasco between 2,500 and 5,000, and the bird pepper between 30,000 and 60,000.
In the case of the “Hot Chip Challenge”, the chips are made with two of the hottest peppers in the world: the Carolina Reaper & the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, rated between 1.4 and 2.2 million on the Scoville scale.
Gloves supplied with the product
The challenge of the “Hot Chip Challenge” is therefore to buy a packet of said chips and film yourself eating it. Inside the package, sold for ten euros, a single crisp and a pair of gloves so as not to touch it with bare hands: given the strength of the pepper, skin or eye contact with the product could cause burns or skin reactions.
In the videos, there are no surprises: the person eating the chips quickly turns red, and feels bad about the strength of the product. Even for people accustomed to spicy food and chilli, this one is such that it inevitably becomes unbearable. In its description, the manufacturer of the “Hot Chip Challenge” speaks of a “unique experience that most people remember all their life”, with a “burn” that can last “from 5 to 10 minutes”.
In Moselle, a hypermarket is backtracking
Available for sale on the Internet, this product is however difficult to find in stores. At the beginning of the month, an Auchan hypermarket located in Farébersviller (Moselle) then decided to market it. “A lot of customers asked us for it,” explained to the Lorraine Republican François Rodriguez, director of the establishment.
“After a few days of marketing, we realized that this chip was the subject of games on social networks. (…) The young people put themselves in states that I describe as dangerous. We were completely unaware of the effects that this chip could have, ”he detailed in a published video Tuesday on the Facebook page of the hypermarket. Despite a prevention message displayed in the store at first, this was not enough.
About sixty boxes were sold in ten days, says Le Républicain lorrain. ” It’s too much. However, we had taken many precautions. The product was placed high up to prevent children from taking it, ”said François Rodriguez in the columns of the daily newspaper. Faced with the phenomenon, he made the decision to withdraw the product from sale on Monday.
Health risks
The “Hot Chip Challenge” is legal for sale: it is made in the Czech Republic, according to the brand’s website, and therefore meets European food safety requirements. It is not a product made in the United States and imported for example, where the standards required could be different.
However, the brand appears to largely downplay the risk to consumers. She assures on her site that the product is “safe and has no side effects”, before specifying: “You may have blurred vision, more difficulty breathing and you may be sweaty. » Only children or pregnant women are advised not to consume the chips.
The website even invites customers to order, film themselves and share the video on social networks, to enter a contest and win an iPhone. It is also claimed that “for every 5 products purchased, a tree is planted”.
However, eating this type of product is anything but harmless. It can first of all cause “irritation and an intense burning sensation”, explained in January Magali Labadie, head of the poison control and toxicology center at the Bordeaux University Hospital (Gironde), to France info. According to the doctor, the pain caused can lead to “vagal discomfort” in some subjects, or even “anaphylactic shock”, in an allergic person.
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