The Paqui One Chip Challenge is a viral internet challenge that started in 2016. This challenge consists of eating one extremely spicy tortilla chip and then, waiting as long as you can to eat or drink anything to soothe the spiciness. The chip contains seasonings such as the Carolina reaper pepper and the Naga viper pepper, both considered the hottest peppers in the world. It was found that the one chip challenge had many health and safety concerns. Paqui started getting a lot of negative criticism for the risks of partaking in the challenge. For example, the challenge risked mouth and throat pain, possible heart attack, and esophageal damage.
In September 2023, a U.S. teen was reported dead after doing the one chip challenge. This caused the Paqui brand to get pulled from shelves and they stopped advertising their products. The death occurred on September 1, when Harris Wolobah’s mother got a call from her son’s school saying he was sick due to stomach pains. He later got rushed to a hospital and passed away two hours later. Mr. Wolobah was only fourteen years old when he died.
Paqui explained that their products are not meant for children, even though the challenge is played by many teens. Another student that experienced the one chip challenge’s wrath is Joseph Alcon, class of 2024. His experience is as follows: “I ate one corner of the chip. My whole mouth became inflamed with the spice; I started sweating and crying. In an attempt to sooth the spiciness, I chugged milk, but it still didn’t seem to help. Eventually, that ended with me puking out milk while still having that burning feeling in my throat.” This story was surprising as Mr. Alcon only ate one corner of the chip and still had such a strong reaction to it.
In the year 2022, Paqui came out with the Carolina Reaper chip, which was known for turning participants’ tongue blue. Anja Schneider, class of 2023 had the Carolina Reaper when she did the one chip challenge, “It was horrible. I took the chip and almost instantly, my whole tongue was blue and burning. It even made breathing feel like it hurt.” Everyone I have talked to about the one chip challenges hasn’t said anything about a good experience. So, unless you have a high spice tolerance, it is definitely not recommended that you take on the challenge.
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