Fourteen students were rushed to the hospital on Tuesday after experiencing nausea, stomach pain, and mouth pain from consuming extremely spicy potato chips at Rokugo Koka High School, according to Japan Today.
As per the news report, the chips, labelled “18+ Curry Chips,” were brought to school by a student and shared among a group of about 30 classmates. All the affected students are first-year students and are believed to have only minor symptoms.
The chips are manufactured by Isoyama Corporation, a company based in Ibaraki Prefecture. The company advises against people under 18 consuming their product due to its spiciness and warns spice lovers to exercise caution when eating them. The chips reportedly contain ghost peppers, one of the hottest peppers globally.
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According to The Metro, their products are made using the ghost pepper, or bhut jolokia, a chilli pepper recognised as one of the spiciest in the world. It is 170 times hotter than tabasco sauce.
Last year, an American teen died after eating a super-spicy tortilla chip as part of a viral challenge on social media.
Tenth grader Harris Wolobah, 14, died of a cardiopulmonary arrest after participating in the Pacqui ‘One Chip Challenge’, which involved eating ingredients coated in ingredients from the Carolina Reaper and the Naga Viper, two of the hottest peppers in the world.
The product has since been pulled from the shelves.