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Denmark has recalled several spicy ramen noodle products by South Korean company Samyang, claiming that the capsaicin levels in them could poison consumers
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- Title
- Samyang: Denmark recalls Korean ramen for being too spicy
- Word count
- 299 words
That feels like free marketing for the target audience, even if the levels are concerning.
It worked on me. I went out and bought 2 yesterday. I'll eat them tomorrow though since I will go on a bike ride today and don't think this would be a good idea beforehand
Please check back in so we know if you survived
So I am already used to the noodles, but they were still very spicy. I had some plant based milk next to me to cool me down, which made it easy I would say. There’s not much flavor but pain I feel like. The bigger issue was this morning when I went to the toilet haha. It wasn’t the worst burn though.
I've been eating a bunch of the Buldak noodles and there are some pretty good ones: Kimchi, Curry, Jalapeno Lime, Carbonara, and Quattro Cheese. Curry is the mildest of the list, but rhey aren't super punishing.
Spicy tastes better than 2x, and I only want to find single packs of 3x to see how bad it is
The Korean market near me either only stocks the 3x or sells out of all the others before I ever see them.
lol my wife eats these all the time. Luckily we don't live in Denmark. They're seriously spicy, I can't handle even the less spicy flavors from this line, but I don't believe they're spicy to a dangerous degree -- you can certainly buy spicier foods and hot sauces in the US, at least.
Yeah, I have some of them...they certainly made me want to die, but I never really felt like I was actually in any danger. Sounds like just Northern Europeans being scared of anything spicier than beef broth. It really is crazy the levels of spice that I've had European friends tell me were too hot for them. I've honestly been totally unable to taste the spice before when trying their food.
yeah, I'm your standard weak-ass white girl from the Midwest when it comes to spicy food in America, I'm sweating from anything spicier than a medium buffalo wing. But in Germany I look like the guy from Hot Ones. There are outlier spice fiends in northern Europe like my wife, but the basic spice tolerance of the majority of the population is way lower.
I once did a teeny tiny bit of cayenne pepper in some soup that I couldn't taste. It was surreal how my then roommates couldn't eat it anymore.
On the flipside, I've had an Indian cook ask me "are you sure?" And met his challenge with no issue.
Funnily enough, the spiciest thing I've ever had was probably a pizza in Poland. I think they did it out of spite.
I feel like spice is so heavily variable as well. Sometimes I'll eat Jalapeno's that kick my ass and other times I feel like I can pour on the heat in various dishes that not be affected at all; often seems like a guess as to what a given spice level will be.
Generally we eat fairly spicy food in my house though; with my cooking, I've trained my 4 and 6 year old to like it and have a fairly good tolerance, substantially moreso than a friend of ours who thinks black pepper is spicy.
Jalapenos are sneaky! I've had ones that were no spicier than a bell pepper, and others that left me in pain for hours. I've learned to always, always taste them raw before I decide how much I'm actually putting in a dish.
The variance in spice levels can do me dirty occasionally. I live in SE Asia and a lot of places in this country will serve dishes with a side of fresh cut chilis in soy sauce. I've learned to try the tiniest piece first because some days I can munch on them and other days I'll start hiccuping.
My favorite dish over here includes fresh chilis and it's the same thing where I'm gambling when I go to eat there, wether I'm just normal humid sweating or am drenched.
I loved living in Germany for several years but the lack of anything spicier than mashed potatoes was a serious annoyance 😂. Was a great time overall though.
I'm growing my own jalapeños this year just to scratch the itch!
Okay, let's not exaggerate to high heavens here. This ramen is actually spicy. Even the 2x spicy version is the hottest store bought food I've had outside of specialty stores by far, and the 3x spicy version is considerably worse from what I've heard.
Yes, I also think banning it is silly, but this is objectively an actual high level of spiciness.
There's a big difference between saying that it's spicy and saying that it is so spicy that it is poisonous. I'm commenting on the latter. I don't usually buy super spicy things in the grocery store, but to the best of my knowledge you can buy peppers that are just as spicy as the concentrated 3x sauce at almost any grocery store in my area. Once you dilute in the ramen, it's only about as spicy as a jalapeno.
I'm also very curious where you even buy it in Denmark because the only places I've ever seen Buldak in America is at Asian grocery stores.
This comment reminds me of California and it's warnings that basically everything can cause cancer.
Poison is an exaggeration lol.
x3 spicy is definitely too spicy for comfort unless you have a tall glass of milk on hand based on my experience.
I’d recommend trying their ramen at least once, I like their cheese/pink ramen the most, moderately spicy and has some more taste instead of being pure spicy.
x2 spicy is something I have occasionally though.
Also, you don’t have to use all the spice packet. I use half a packet on the pink ramen and I like it. That’s like recalling hot sauce because you can get sick if you chug a full bottle of it.
They all taste really good once you get past the spice level. The cheese one probably has more taste because the fattiness of the cheese in the broth helps wash the spice off your tongue and lets you taste it. You can achieve similar results by sipping on some soju as you eat.
I've got a pack of that stuff. The flavour is underwhelming, but the heat is totally worth it. Banning it seems silly.
Is super spicy food even bad for your health? Unpleasant perhaps, but super spicy food doesn't literally burn a hole in your esophagus.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/teen-died-spicy-chip-paqui-challenge-autopsy-rcna152600
Some additional details: That teenager had a previously undetected heart defect. I would also bet my next paycheck that the people who got "sick" were feeling the endorphin high that capsaicin induces. It feels pretty wild but is just a response to intense stimulus, not the result of an injury or poison.
That kid could have died during an intensive exercising session. It's unfortunate and kids shouldn't have been allowed to buy the chip, but it acted as a trigger and not the cause.
Sure, but I think it's worth noting that few people really expect a chip to cause enough intense stimulus to potentially trigger a heart attack. Honestly, much like Panera's "charged lemonade" it just doesn't make sense to sell something that requires that much of a warning label. Fully agreed on the children, but I just think most adults don't really expect it either, signed releases or otherwise.
I’ve eaten several of these chips — it’s not that extreme. That death was a freak accident, and not something any normal person should be concerned about.
It was a freak accident, and everyone has vastly different capsaicin tolerances. I don't understand chasing the big scoville numbers, and making oneself miserable. So I was never going to touch it.
But, plenty of folks have heart conditions, and if it's that stressful on someone's system, I think it is really reasonable not to sell it at every gas station as a literal "challenge."
Well, I suppose that’s the question — is it actually that stressful on a person’s system? I would subjectively rate the one chip challenge as being maybe a bit more spicy than Buldak 3x, but also a much smaller quantity. The total experience of eating a whole bowl of Buldak 3x is probably overall a harder experience for someone unaccustomed to spice but there’s a country full of people that just consider it food rather than the culinary equivalent of BASE jumping.
The more capsaicin you consume on a regular basis, the less of an effect it has. Someone who rarely eats spicy foods may experience a lot of pain + irritation from Tabasco whereas someone who eats regularly may barely feel anything but vinegar from it. It isn't about pain tolerance as people who are used to eating spicy foods simply do not feel the same pain eating the same thing.
And the pain + irritation can increase heart rate and blood pressure, similar to any other pain + irritation. At certain levels of incredible pain you can be in danger if you also have heart problems.
At least, that's my understanding.
Lots of people will die if they eat a peanut but we still sell them.
To me this is a labeling problem.
People who have peanut allergies generally know not to eat peanuts and we do have labeling laws for that reason. Most adults do not know how much caffeine was in the Charged Lemonade nor how much they can drink before causing medical issues.
The one chip challenge thing was labeled all over. It was still being actively encouraged by the company and didn't only kill one very lucky kid, but made a bunch of kids sick, because it was perfectly legal to sell it to kids, no matter the labeling.
Maybe because my job involves predicting the behavior of and addressing the behavior of groups of people, mostly college students (and their parents) but I'm just not sure why either of these outcomes was surprising. I also don't think more labeling would have done anything.
Someone usually has to eat a peanut before they find out they have a peanut allergy.
Warning labels won't always stop people from doing things they shouldn't, but that doesn't mean they are useless.
If we ban everything that might have the potential to cause harm to the end-user, we will end up banning...everything. It's sad that a kid died from an unknown heart condition triggered by a spicy chip, but how many people eat those chips and have no problems whatsoever? Do people not know how much more risk they put their kids in just by driving them to school on public roads in the morning?
People freak out over stuff like the chip, because it makes headlines and dominates the media for a week. That happens because it's rare and unusual. Lethal car accidents don't make the news because they are routine, despite being far more likely to kill you or your kids.
I see this kind of backwards threat modeling everywhere. My brother-in-law won't let his pre-teen and teenage kids go to the park just down the street because he's paranoid they will get kidnapped by pedophiles. He and his wife don't even sleep in their master bedroom, because it's in the basement and he wants to be sleeping upstairs if deranged murderers break into his house to kill his kids. He keeps a loaded shotgun under his own bed. He significantly degrades the quality of life for his family because the media has scared him into being afraid of things that in all likelihood will never happen. And inadvertently, he's putting his family at a relatively significant risk by keeping a loaded gun in the home.
Any time there is a new risk that pops up, we need to evaluate what the risk actually is, and compare that to risks we are already comfortable with. I'm not saying that we should be selling those spicy chips to kids, but calls to ban them outright seem wildly misplaced to me. I want to know what the actual risk to teenagers is compared to other things we deem acceptable.
I don't think I advocated for banning anything anywhere. The closest I got was saying that if companies aren't reasonable, regulation can be a tool to enforce that. I noted that multiple kids were getting ill from the chip thing and going to the hospital. Adults too. Tbh the entire point of that chip is to make you feel sick. Which seems like a weird thing to put in convenience stores across the country.
I don't really think "companies shouldn't market a challenge that makes people particularly kids sick, while winking at "no kids" and absolutely knowing kids were buying it" or "companies shouldn't sell bottomless refills of unlabeled energy drink because people have little to no concept of how much caffeine they're ingesting how quickly" is equivalent to "lock up the teens so they won't get sex trafficked." Though I'll acknowledge the latter probably comes from a place of trauma.
I think it's a bit more like "probably shouldn't have this rusty broken metal amongst the playground equipment so people don't get hurt. I know there's a sign here but I don't trust people to always follow signs, and it just seems like an obvious hazard and a major legal liability not to fix it. " It's an attractive nuisance IMO. None of it is the biggest deal in the world, but the thread is talking about it so I am. Please make a thread about car accidents if you like.
I'm not Denmark and I am not banning ramen. Maybe that ramen was dangerously hot. Idk. But I don't think my general thoughts about corporate failure to think rationally are comparable to sitting in a deer stand watching my front door with a shotgun in case a stranger shows up.
Worth noting that caffeine is MUCH riskier than capsaicin in terms of risk of cardiac events and death. Caffeine's LD50 is less than half capsaicin's, and lethal dosages have happened much lower for it. Its effects on the human body are much more potent, and there are guidelines about how much you should consume daily. There's a reason there's really only one example people can point to of someone dying from spicy food, while there are a hundred examples of caffeine overdose -- and caffeine overdose is still considered very rare!
Capsaicin's physiological effects -- the fact that it immediately "tastes" spicy -- also mean it's not really possible to consume a lot more than you expected without knowing. The problem with the charged lemonade was that it tasted like normal lemonade, and that combined with the failure to label it properly made it easy for someone with a heart condition who should be avoiding caffeine to accidentally consume enough to cause health problems. People consuming super-spicy food, on the other hand, are pretty much always knowledgeable about it.
I think I was clear in a reply that the two aren't identical, they're just two examples of brands pulling their food products after notable deaths from consuming the product.
I think a brand pulling its own product due to a highly publicized death due to it is something that makes sense even if the death is a freak accident -- for optics reasons as a business if nothing else. I don't think it's sensible for the government to ban every product that someone with a pre-existing condition could be harmed by when those products are labeled sufficiently well.
I never suggested it was. I pretty explicitly said in another comment that I have no idea if the government's ban on this ramen was reasonable or not because there's so much cultural context I lack and I don't know anything about the product, its labeling, etc.
My point was there is probably a line where companies shouldn't have been selling things, at least in that manner, in the first place. Both the paqui "one chip challenge" and Charged Lemonade are examples of that IMO. And that it isn't just kids who need protected from bad product ideas, because most adults don't really think the chip is potentially going to make them feel sick rather than be a funny prank food, or that they should treat the free refills lemonade in a giant cup like straight red bull rather than like a mountain dew.
And I mean if you market something as "just for adults" because it's too intense for kids, but kids can buy it, you have to know they're going to do that.
What exactly is the alternative here though? There are no regulations in the US on selling spicy food to minors, and no producer of spicy food products is able to force stores to card kids for their products. If the product is genuinely intended for adults and not children bc they're not sure if children can handle it, is it better to not label it as for adults only?
I don't know that much about the specifics of the spicy chip challenge and I'm not going to say their marketing was blameless. But I think it's interesting that your two examples here are on opposite ends of the labeling spectrum. Panera's charged lemonade was entirely a problem of insufficient labeling -- the product is just like a normal energy drink otherwise. The chip challenge, on the other hand, is apparently a problem of too much labeling -- they marketed it as a challenge and labeled it as for adults only to amp up the popularity for thrill seekers. Neither product was something that would (or should) be de facto illegal to sell outside of how they're labeled. But surely even proactively labeling the chip challenge as "not safe for those with heart conditions" would have the same effect, publicity-wise, as the existing "adults only" labeling, which you criticize. So what exactly is the solution here in terms of how these things should be labeled?
If you have some manner of restriction to not sell it to kids, sure. If you know kids are going to buy it, and I believe they did (they also made it hotter over time) and it's genuinely not safe for them, you shouldn't be selling it in spaces kids can buy it at the self checkout. Before the death kids were still ending up hospitalized as they felt legitimately ill from the chip.
But also, I am on the record as thinking "eat the spiciest thing you possibly can and make yourself miserable" challenges are stupid regardless of your age, so I cannot express how strongly I don't care if Paqui never sells this chip in the first place.
I linked the Wikipedia link on the one chip challenge for more context.
I chose the two for their similarity in outcome despite the difference. My point was that selling something that needs that level of warning label is the problem. Whoever pitched "we should sell an energy drink lemonade next to our regular lemonades where people will refill them - even if labeled with caffeine content - until they go into cardiac arrest" was in the wrong.
Perhaps with Paqui it's more that they amped it from the Reaper to the Naga Viper pepper and it was fine til then. Idk, I don't have any clue how much of that is marketing vs product. But it did get even hotter.
I think it's ok to just not sell some things. And if there's a persistent problem with companies selling things making people ill, even with warning labels, it is reasonable to restrict those products legally, because that's the job of regulation. But it makes more sense to have someone in the board room saying "maybe the average person will in fact not expect this to be capable of making them ill" and we shouldn't sell it."
I'm advocating for responsible behavior from corporations so I know this is just a pipe dream.
Panera's charged lemonade wasn't even dangerous inherently. The danger is not labeling it or being very upfront and obvious that it's an energy drink. Especially since lemonade is typically thought of as a caffeine-free drink. Therefore, people are primed to drink larger quantities.
Going by ratio, Panera's charged lemonade has less caffeine per ounce (13mg per oz) than: Starbucks coffee(16-22mg per oz), Bang energy (18.8mg per oz), Dunkin Donuts coffee (15mg per oz), and even Panera's own dark roast coffee (16-17mg per oz).
So, someone that has 20oz of Panera coffee is having more caffeine than someone drinking the same size charged lemonade.
Right, most people's frame of reference would have been soda. But I'd also say, as someone that has had enough Starbucks Doubleshots to give me palpations before, perhaps 30oz cups (I mostly see larges bought) of self-refillable energy drink isn't the best idea.
My point was never that it was dangerous for existing, but that selling something in such a way that even the casual adult not paying much attention to media/advertising should probably get a warning label is probably a bad idea.
Yeah, great point about self-refillable too. Already it being 30oz isn't great (as the majority of the other products I mentioned often are smaller sizes, and again, lemonade in particular is kind of drink where a large size normally makes sense, if it's caffeine free) and the relatively high 390mg is nearing the RDA 400mg-per-day recommendation (if you buy one and space it out throughout a few hours you're fine... but nothing about Panera's way of offering it made that plausible)... but something like that IMO is pretty reckless to allow refills at all (that implies that "multiple are safe" IMO) and extremely reckless not to label properly.
Yeah and fundamentally I'm just saying it was a bad idea. I know there's a cap on caffeine added to carbonated beverages but I'm not sure if that would apply to the lemonade or or if it was treated like an energy drink (and thus a dietary supplement) or if it was a weird third category.
But I also recall it having no label, and then at least two different caffeine amounts listed. It's possible that was due to different flavors or because they assumed ice would be present or something.
It just seems like someone should have figured out it was a bad idea before the lawsuits.
I think there's a big difference between the two. The main issue with Panera's IMO is that they didn't even label the caffeine amount, so people just chugged it. Caffeine overdose is a real physiological thing. I don't think anyone thought Buldak 3x Spicy wasn't spicy.
Should governments allow citizens to do things that can stress people's bodies? I think so. Think about skateboarding, or rock climbing. It is ultimately up to the individual to gauge their own capabilities. The average person will have no issue eating very spicy food and not dying. People with weak hearts shouldn't go on rollercoasters either, but that is their prerogative to enforce in the end.
For additional context, the reason why these were notable enough for the Danish government to take action is, like everything else, TikTok. There were many spicy ramen challenges on TikTok that people were emulating.
But that means that not only was it obvious from the packaging that it's spicy, but the people who partook literally just finished watching videos of people acting like they're about to die after eating it. They know what they're getting themselves into.
Seems like the thing to do then is ban TikTok and not the ramen.
I am not saying that everything should be banned, but if you frame it as a challenge and sell it in every gas station and especially not behind the counter, it should probably not be something that could possibly kill the kids who take a challenge personally. Bare minimum they wouldn't be successful at claiming kids didn't have access to it.
I don't really know whether this ramen should have been banned, is it actually reasonably labeled, does it have enough powdered capsaicin to be legally pepper spray? Does Denmark ban other foods? Idk. I would not generally argue to ban food for being spicy but I do see some point in not selling those singular chips.
And I'd agree that Panera's is different in some ways but it's similar in that people don't expect dangerous products to be sold on shelves. Most expect a Bertie Botts/BeanBoozled sort of prank food.
It's not like the manufacturer is the one framing it as a challenge, and it's not like it would kill any kids without pre-existing conditions.
For example, let's say the Skate Board Kick Flip challenge is trending on TikTok. Kids buy skateboards to try it out. One kid with a heart condition does the trick and has a heart attack and dies. Should we ban skateboards?
I mean you can try some for yourself, they're sold in any asian grocery, or you can get them online. I've had it. It's not pepper spray nor is it life threatening. It's just spicy food.
Paqui was marketing the chip as the One Chip Challenge. This link might work to the packaging from Amazon
They were in a custom cardboard pop display that claimed they were for adults only. The box was shaped like a coffin. Tbh I think hot food challenges are dumb. (As are most "bet you can't" things IMO, they're not "better" than a Tiktok challenge just because people don't film themselves. )
One Chip Challenge
So in this case, it was 100% the company's thing. If the skateboard company was marketing a "triple kick flip challenge*" with their skateboard and someone got hurt doing it they might indeed have liability.
I have no real interest in the ramen, I don't enjoy heat for heat's sake. It's why I never considered buying a stupid chip in a coffin for a stupid amount of money. Which does mean I'd be one of the people more adversely affected by it so I'm doubly not interested.
*I barely know skateboard tricks and thus cannot come up with the appropriate equivalent. Something that makes adult reporters vomit on camera, I guess.
I have no interest in that super hot chip. One reason is that I’m a grown adult, but another is that I bought a bag of Paqui ghost pepper chips once and was really disappointed. There was no flavor to speak of; they were just hot. I don’t mean they were so hot I couldn’t taste anything else. I mean they were a surprising combination of hot and bland.
Capsaicin specifically has an LD50 of about .5g per kg of body weight. For context, a ghost pepper has on average 25mg of capsaicin (and it has much higher levels of capsaicin than most peppers). So for the average person, you have to eat a LOT of chilis to have any danger. Someone else has already linked to the story where the teen died eating a super spicy chip, but it's important to know how much of an outlier that is -- that sort of situation is very unlikely in someone without preexisting heart problems.
It's unclear at the moment, but current meta studies show an increased gastric cancer risk for people with a high capsaicin intake. Though it may offer protection if consumed in low dosages.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10177684/
Definitely worth reading on a little further. Right after the quote you provided is the following:
On studies done on mice:
In the 'discussion' section at the end:
From the way it's written, it's not clear if the authors' recommendation of avoiding high doses of capsaicin because it's definitely/probably bad, or simply because it's 'better safe than sorry'. In any case, the literature is confusing/complex, and although the authors do advise against excessive consumption of capsaicin, it's unclear just how strong they feel the link is.
Edit: Also, conflict of interest: I super love these spicy noodles and all spicy food in general (much hotter than 'restuarant doses') so I really would love to think that capsaicin doesn't cause cancer and instead fights it. On the other hand, spicy food is one of the things that makes life pleasurable to me (much like a good wine or a beer), so even if it were proven beyond any doubt to be carsinogenic I probably still wouldn't stop consuming it (much like a good wine or beer).
I’m amused that “restaurant doses” is even a phrase, because there are a handful of genuine traditional Indian restaurants in my city where the “medium” option will still kick your teeth in, and the “hot” option even makes all most heat tolerant friends start to regret their choices...
Edited wording to read better
So for anyone curious like me: I love these noodles (funny enough even though they're chicken flavored they appear to be vegan)
So I was wondering what the spice levels are. Official sources place the 2x on about 10k Scoville if I see that right? However, anyone who likes spicy food and has eaten this can tell you that this does not seem accurate. There's a reddit comment of a guys scientist cousin - the most legitimate source of all placing the sauce at 260k which I think sounds more plausible as well from the spice levels I usually eat.
The 3x is reported to be similar in spice level. I will look and report if I find it somewhere. I had the 2x just last week and definitely did feel a good burn though.
Just like /u/DefinitelyNotAFae said here, this is perfect advertising for people that love spicy food haha
"Banned in at least 1 country for being TOO HOT"
I like spice in general, but I'm not seeking it for fun/pain so this is a warning away for me, but I can see the ads now.
If you want to know more about that flavoring, check out this video by Thought Emporium. I saw it a while ago, so I don't remember all the details, but I think he recreates the artificial chicken flavor using the original (long since expired) patent. Then he taste tests it against some chicken broth with some other youtubers.
The 2x and 3x definitely feel much hotter than peppers or sauces at similar Scoville levels. I have to assume that's because you're eating a massive quantity of it. The whole meal is at that level, rather than a squirt of hot sauce on your eggs.
Samyang noodles are fantastic, by the way. One of my favourite ramen brands.
What? I've been avoiding them because I'm (mostly) vegan. And, I'm danish ...
Yes, check the ingredients. Unless you get one which might have egg noodles it seems to me to be vegan. It’s not listed on the packaging but from what I read online and the ingredient list it seems to be fine. I’ve only been vegan for a few months, and this was one thing I would’ve missed dearly
Better stock up while you can!
At least my impression here was that the ~10k is for the whole meal while the ~260k is for the packet sauce.
For reference 10k is really hot, in a way that an average person will likely go for water right away and refuse to eat anymore of the food while I can definitely imagine 260k causing medical problems in some people. Though apparently there are some that could and would eat the packet by itself, but for a random person it would be at minimum an 11/10 pain.
...maybe if you live in Denmark. 10k is like, a jalapeno. Or a mild serrano.
It completely depends on the person, maybe I am off but most people are not really into spicy food.
It’s really just getting used to it. I wanted to eat spicier food when I was younger and started my way up the spice levels. Nowadays some lower levels of spice are literally imperceptible to me. As in, I genuinely couldn’t tell there was any chili in there. Not in a way of „I don’t think it’s spicy“ but genuinely „this is indistinguishable from paprika“
I work with a lot of international students so I feel like I'm biased in the other direction. They frequently complain that they can't find food hot enough in the states. I feel like most people in my friend and social circles also like heat to their food. Personally I like pretty spicy food and love tossing dried chilli pepper into soups and dishes. A really spicy bowl of ramen is amazing to me. Similar to @ali, I've found the more spicy food I eat the less I'm affected by it and can enjoy even hotter food.
I suspect the change is a mix of psychological and physiological adjustment to consuming the spicy food. I'd be very surprised if something in the body doesn't adapt over time to consuming spicy food causing you to feel less pain eating it. But the brain is pretty weird so who knows, maybe it just doesn't respond to that specific stimulus as much over time because it learns to filter out that stimulus input below the threshold as noise (since it hadnt previously been seriously hurt and we keep comibg back). 🤷 I'm sure there's some genetic piece as well.
Capsaicin directly stimulates the temperature sensing receptors on your tongue that detect when things are hot. It can stimulate them to the point where it triggers your pain receptors as well despite there being no damage being done. As you get used to it, your threshold for when the sense of heat crosses over into pain territory gets higher.
Your tongue actually has two completely independent sensory mechanisms for detecting if things are hot or very cold. Menthol triggers the cold sensing mechanism in the same way capsaicin triggers the heat sensing one, so you can do weird things to yourself by taking both at once.
Then throw in the tongue numbing of spices like Szechuan/Sichuan peppercorns for different experiences when combined with capsaicin.
Chinese cuisine plays with spice in many different ways. E.g Sichuan mala “numbing hot”, Hunan burning heat. Guizhou sour spicy. I’m sure someone more familiar than I can go into greater detail on these and other flavor profiles.
That's rad! Thanks for sharing. Haven't remembered to look it up to figure out how it works.
These noodles are definitely spicier than just munching on a jalapeño, at least from observing my wife.
How high does it need to be considered poisonous in Denmark? Can you get habaneros or ghost peppers in Denmark or are they poisonous too?
Looks like they use Cheongyang chili peppers (10k scoville), except they add chili extract which is basically concentrated capsaicin. So it's more like eating spicy habaneros than mild serranos or hot jalapenos. I'd say it just needs a big red DANGER: TOO HOT FOR DANES sticker.
- The quantity of hot chili is even higher in the investigated noodles than in chili chips, which have previously led to poisoning injuries among children in Germany. That is why it is important that parents are aware of the extreme noodle varieties and avoid them, says Henrik Dammand Nielsen.
Original statement from the Danish Health Ministry/FDA
Oh wow, I have these. I eat one occasionally because even though I love spicy food, these seriously kick my ass. I just thought maybe they were meant to be diluted more than whatever it is I'm doing.
I don't blame them. I love my spice but that 2x Ramen pack is INEDIBLE for me lol
The regular 1x is on the high end of pleasurable for me - I’m curious but not feeling adventurous enough to test out the 2x or 3x.
Welp. I blame TikTok for exposing what's considered "extremely spicy" foods to people who don't regularly eat spicy food and have no business eating something at that level. You gotta build up a tolerance to capsaicin. It's like caffeine. Some people are sensitive and become really affected. Like I wouldn't go and pound a bunch of energy drinks, or even worse let's say RedBull and vodkas, because I obviously know that'd be bad for my health.
Also using the term "poison" seems wild considering all the cuisines out there known for their high spice levels...
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-06-18/business/industry/Samyang-Foods-says-Denmarks-Buldak-recall-based-on-spice-miscalculation/2071272
Given that Samyang Buldak ramen doesn't include either capsaicin content OR Scoville units on their packaging, it seems like the DTU research was based on extrapolating from something that was already a guess (I highly doubt Danish retailers were determining their advertised Scoville units through any sort of rigorous testing). Furthermore, even if the Scoville units for the noodles were accurate, it's not really possible to accurately estimate capsaicin content directly from them. The human perception of spiciness, which is what Scoville units measure, is influenced by a TON of factors other than capsaicin content. For instance, people online will give different Scoville units for the Buldak sauce on its own vs the sauce as part of a whole bowl of ramen, even though they obviously contain the exact same amount of capsaicin, because dilution and the presence of other ingredients are a huge factor in human perception of spiciness.
It’s a fair copenhagen