Super spicy chips reportedly land 14 Japanese high school students in hospital

Tokyo — Fourteen Japanese high school students were taken to hospital Tuesday after eating “super spicy” potato chips, local media said. More than 30 pupils at a Tokyo high school were reportedly sharing the crisps during recess when some started complaining of nausea and acute pain around their mouths.

Fourteen of them were rushed to hospital, with all conscious but at least one feeling so ill they had to be transported on a wheelchair, Fuji TV said.

The broadcaster said a male student brought the crisps to the school “just for fun” because he had eaten them before and found them “super spicy.”

The crisps concerned have the brand name “R 18+ Curry Chips”, media outlets including Asahi Shimbun and Fuji TV said.

According to the manufacturer’s website, under-18s are “banned” from eating the crisps, which are “so spicy that they might cause you pain.”

A hefty amount of extremely hot pepper known as ghost pepper is used as ingredients, the firm says on its website. The ghost pepper, or Bhut Jolokia, was the Guinness World record holder for the hottest pepper from 2007 to 2011.

Those with high blood pressure and weak stomachs “are absolutely prohibited” from taking bites, and those who are “timid and have no guts” are also discouraged, the website warns.

Tokyo emergency services, the school and the chip maker were not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP.

Extremely spicy snack foods have become a trend in recent years, often associated with social media “challenges,” and they have landed people in hospitals around the world on occasion, and even been linked to the death last year of a Massachusetts teen.

Denmark recently recalled several kinds of Korean ramen noodles over the level of chili extract in the broth mix, with national regulators noting that it was even more concentrated in the products than in chili chips that caused recent poisonings in Germany.