The tortilla chip firm Paqui is pulling its viral product often known as the “One Chip Problem” off cabinets nationwide in response to new fears about its security following the loss of life of a 14-year-old who handed away after consuming one of many chips earlier this month. Along with eradicating the chip from shops, Paqui is providing refunds to individuals who have already bought it “out of an abundance of warning,” the corporate states on its web site.
The problem, which has been making the rounds since 2016, entails consuming a single very spicy chip and, typically, filming a response video for social media. On TikTok, #onechipchallenge has 2 billion views. Although post-mortem outcomes are nonetheless pending, the household of Harris Wolobah, the teenager who died, wrote on a GoFundMe marketing campaign that they believe his loss of life was brought on by “problems as a result of ‘one chip problem.’” Wolobah’s mom, Lois, informed Boston’s NBC10 that Harris ate the chip and bought a abdomen ache. He briefly started to really feel higher, however then handed out and was taken to a hospital, the place he was pronounced useless.
“In a world stuffed with ‘flamin’ scorching’ choices filled with synthetic elements, Paqui dares to be completely different. We consider that actual warmth comes from actual peppers and shouldn’t be grown in a lab,” the corporate says on its web site. Paqui explains within the One Chip Problem’s FAQ that whereas the chip doesn’t have an “official Scoville ranking,” it’s made with Carolina Reaper (1.7 million Scoville items) and Naga Viper (1.4 million Scoville items) peppers. A habanero pepper, by comparability, is taken into account “further scorching” at 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville items.
Paqui up to date the One Chip Problem web page following the teenager’s loss of life with a big disclaimer that reads the product is “supposed for adults solely, with clear and distinguished labeling highlighting the chip isn’t for kids or anybody delicate to spicy meals or who has meals allergic reactions, is pregnant or has underlying well being situations.” It isn’t the primary time the One Chip Problem has stoked well being fears: College districts in California and Massachusetts issued warnings when the problem went viral final yr.
Whereas it stays unclear if and the way the spicy chip contributed to Wolobah’s loss of life, extraordinarily spicy meals can have damaging well being results like vomiting, diarrhea, complications, and chest ache, particularly for individuals who don’t eat spicy meals typically. “Most individuals aren’t used to that degree of warmth and are going from zero to 100 once they do one thing just like the ‘One Chip Problem,’ the place you eat a particularly spicy tortilla chip,” doctor Allan Capin defined in a March report from the Cleveland Clinic. “It’s like placing a bomb in your abdomen in the event you’re not ready for it.”
Eater has reached out to Paqui for remark.
