Paqui, the maker of extremely spicy tortilla chips marketed as the “One Chip Challenge,” is voluntarily pulling the product from shelves after a woman said her teenage son died of complications from consuming a single chip.

The chips were sold individually, and their seasoning included two of the hottest peppers in the world: the Carolina Reaper and the Naga Viper.

Each chip was packaged in a coffin-shaped container with a skull on the front.

Lois Wolobah told NBC Boston that her 14-year-old son, Harris Wolobah, ate the chip Friday, then went to the school nurse with a stomachache. Wolobah said Harris — a sophomore at Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester, Massachusetts — passed out at home that afternoon. He was pronounced dead at the hospital later that day, she said.

Until sales of the product were suspended, Paqui’s marketing dared people to participate in the challenge by eating a chip, posting pictures of their tongues on social media after the chip turned it blue and then waiting as long as possible to relieve the burn with water or other food.

The challenge has existed in some form since 2016.

  • Lafuma300@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Do you know anything about nightshades? Cause they’ve been killing people for thousands of years.

    • SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org
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      1 year ago

      Confidently incorrect I see. How many people died from tomatoes / peppers since written history began? I’m guessing approximately zero.

      “Theoretically, one could eat enough really hot chiles to kill you,” he says. “A research study in 1980 calculated that three pounds of extreme chilies in powder form — of something like the Bhut Jolokia — eaten all at once could kill a 150-pound person.”

      So yeah probably the same number of people who died of a weed overdose. Another thing that is technically possible.

    • elscallr@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The “nightshades” in this product are most likely tomatoes, not the deadly nightshades you’re thinking of.

        • Classy@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Mostly because anything that actually has a significant amount of solanine in it, like tomato greens, or datura leaves, or bittersweet nightshade berries, tastes like absolute crap and you would have to force yourself to eat it to poisoning.