Spicy ‘one chip challenge’ sends 3 students at California high school to the hospital

Three California high schoolers were recently hospitalized after participating in a social media challenge involving extremely spicy chips.

The teens are all students at Lodi High School — home of the Flames — and were partaking in the viral “one chip challenge,” Chelsea Vongehr, a spokeswoman for Lodi Unified School District, said in an email.

“We have had a number of our Lodi High students take part in the ‘one chip challenge’ on school campus, which entails eating a chip that has been covered in pepper and hot sauce that causes the individual to react and become ill,” Vongehr said. “We encourage our parents/guardians to speak with their children about the dangers of participating in this and other potentially harmful internet challenges.”

She added that the three students have since returned to school, and that the chips are now banned from campus.

The challenge, popularized by the brand Paqui, asks participants to stomach a lone chip “made with the hottest peppers on the planet” — the Carolina Reaper and the scorpion pepper, according to the company’s website. Then, they wait as long as they can to eat or drink anything, striving to hold off for up to a full hour after consuming the chip, the website said.

“Are you ready to face the Reaper?” the website says, featuring an image that warns that “this chip will destroy you.”

In a Twitter message, Paqui told McClatchy News that it takes safety very seriously and labels all products with allergen and safety warnings.

“The Paqui #OneChipChallenge is notoriously hot, as our branding implies, and the product should be handled with extreme care,” the company said. “Our #OneChipChallenge includes a safety disclaimer that it should not be ingested by individuals who are sensitive to spicy foods, allergic to peppers, nightshades, or capsaicin, or who are minors, pregnant or have medical conditions. If you experience any severe reactions or symptoms, please contact a medical professional immediately.”

Principal Adam Auerbach told CBS Sacramento that at least three students were referred to the emergency room after having intense reactions to the chip, and that nine students became sick in the same week after trying to complete the challenge.

“A lot of kids follow their peers, even if they don’t know what it is,” Elena Holvo, the mother of a student, told KMAX. “They don’t know the consequence.”

Auerbach said in a Jan. 14 phone message to parents that anyone “found in possession of these ‘chips’ from this point will be sent home immediately and will receive progressive consequences,” according to the Lodi News-Sentinel.

Dr. Bret Christiansen, a pediatrician, told KMAX that adverse effects of eating the chip might include feeling burning or pain throughout the digestive tract.

“It can be pretty severe after a short time, similar to a reaction like an asthmatic might have with bronchial spasms, and if they have persistent vomiting, they could need IV hydration or medications to stop the vomiting,” he told the outlet.

Paqui began selling the chips for $6.99 each in 2016 and has brought a version back every year since, encouraging participants to film themselves eating the chip and to post the videos on social media, according to a GoPuff blog post. The chip comes in a coffin-shaped box and is coated with powder made from the two peppers, according to Paqui’s website.

The Carolina Reaper, declared the hottest pepper in the world in 2013 by the Guinness Book of World Records, has an average of 1,569,300 Scoville heat units in each pepper. Meanwhile, the scorpion pepper, or the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T, was previously ranked as the world’s hottest pepper and has an average of over 1,463,700 Scoville heat units per pepper, according to the New Yorker.

The number of Scoville units in a pepper is determined by the amount of capsaicin, a chemical that produces a spicy sensation, the pepper has, according to the Smithsonian Magazine. The two record-breaking peppers are around 400 times hotter than a jalapeño pepper, which has around 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville heat units, according to Masterclass.

Prominent public figures have also participated in the ”one chip challenge,” including congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, basketball players Shaquille O’Neal and Joel Embiid, rapper Lil Yachty and YouTuber Sean Evans.

“We need to watch our kids more,” parent Rebecca Crouson told CBS Sacramento. “It’s kind of dumb because there (are) better ways to entertain themselves.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2022 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Spicy ‘one chip challenge’ sends 3 students at California high school to the hospital."