Spicy Food Challenges – So Macho or a Death Sentence?

In September 2023, fourteen-year-old Harris Wolobah of Massachusetts died after participating in Paqui’s viral One Chip Challenge in an attempt to impress his friends. The teen suffered cardiopulmonary arrest, meaning his heart unexpectedly stopped beating as a result of the amount of spice he ingested. Much like how a bonfire will grow and grow, but can quickly turn from a moment of shared enjoyment between people to a threatening wildfire, so can viral trends. Wolobah’s death highlights the dangers of the never-ending slew of spicy food challenges on the internet, so why do people continue to disregard the risks associated with eating these hot foods for the sake of a trend?

Image of the viral challenge that led to the death of a Massachusetts teen.

The answer is simple: most people are too blinded by the smoke and fun of the bonfire to see the effects extreme levels of spice can have on your health, and the flames start to spread dangerously out of control until it’s too late. Eating spicy foods triggers a defence response to give you more energy by increasing your heart rate and respiratory function. According to psychologist Dr. Paul Rozin, eating spicy foods leads you to experience a similar thrill level to bungee jumping, roller coasters, and horror movies. But the human body has limits, and spice will eventually turn from a fun thrill to extreme discomfort, or worse.

The viral One Chip Challenge had participants filming themselves eating one Carolina Reaper tortilla chip, and then avoiding eating or drinking anything afterwards. Between the years of 2016 and 2023, this challenge’s flames engulfed social media, with influencers and celebrities like Kristen Bell, Shaquille O'Neal, and Sean Evans all adding fuel to the bonfire. The spicy snack was in high demand thanks to the strategic marketing and omissive packaging, leading more and more people to feel the need to boost their ego and prove they can “face the reaper.”

Most of these people, however, were unaware of what they were facing. While Paqui’s packaging stated their product was for adult consumption only and should be avoided if you have any medical conditions, they fail to explicitly outline the potential risks of consuming extreme spice. Food safety policy expert Darin Detwiler warns that extreme spice “could actually put someone in a state similar to a shock, and they can potentially go into cardiac arrest if the stimulus is too severe,” yet this is seen nowhere on Paqui’s packaging. Thus, the once-fun bonfire from this trend started spreading out of control and became a wildfire, putting people’s health at risk in the process.

Viral spice challenge products show no real warning of the risks on their packaging. Pictured: the One Chip Challenge (left), the Lil’ Nitro Spicy Gummy Bear Challenge (middle), and the Solar Flare Sunflower Seed Challenge (right).

For this reason, manufacturers of products used in viral spicy food challenges should have to be transparent of the potential adverse effects in their marketing. By putting in place regulations to enforce providing the information on what consumers are truly getting themselves into, participants will be equipped to make an educated and informed decision on if they still want to attempt the challenge. In fact, a marketing practice is classified as abusive if it takes advantage of a consumer’s lack of understanding of the product or its risks. So much so that countries all over the world have regulations in place to combat this.

Think of the sale of cigarettes in Canada for example. Regulations were put in place with the Tobacco Act after we began to realize the associated risks of smoking. As a result, manufacturers were required to put in-depth health warnings on their packaging, became limited on how they can market cigarettes and were restricted in where they could sell them. Canadian cigarette companies still manage to sell tens of billions of cigarettes annually, but having these regulations in place promoted the transparency so that consumers have all the information they need. So it wouldn’t be so wild after all if – now that we understand the dangers of viral challenges – we expect ethical advertising to also be enforced for companies manufacturing extremely spicy foods.

Image showing that cigarette manufacturers are required to outline the associated health risks of their product on its packaging.

The unfortunate reality is, manufacturers of many viral spicy food challenges do not care enough about their consumers to prioritize outlining the associated health risks, much like cigarette manufacturers didn’t. Regulations governing cigarette packaging and sales resulted in a 60% decrease in smokers between the years of 2000 and 2022, as increasing numbers of Canadians have decided to quit smoking because of the health warnings. But without having stricter regulations in place, change will not happen in the spicy food industry; it’s up to us to express this desire. Sign petitions, involve news outlets and government agencies, and show the world that these marketing tactics are hurting the consumer. This has worked before so we can do it again! We need to persuade regulatory bodies that they should enforce manufacturer transparency on the risks of extreme spice rather than letting it reign on with the status of harmless fun. Perhaps if people were made more aware, they would exercise caution before participating in these challenges and we can help extinguish the “bonfire gone wrong” that has become of spicy food challenges. If just one life could be spared, is it not worthwhile to act? Be the change Harris Wolobah needed last year, and let’s enforce educating consumers so a death like his doesn’t happen again when we all inevitably move on to the next spicy food challenge!