The maker of an especially spicy tortilla chip bought because the One Chip Challenge and popularized as a dare on social media is pulling the product after the household of a Massachusetts teenager blamed the stunt for his demise.
Since his demise, the Texas-based producer, Paqui, has requested retailers to cease promoting the individually wrapped chips — a step 7-Eleven has already taken.
The One Chip Challenge chip sells for about $10 and comes wrapped in a sealed foil pouch that’s enclosed in a coffin-shaped cardboard field.
The bundle warns that the chip is made for the “vengeful pleasure of intense heat and pain,” is meant for adults and needs to be stored out of attain of youngsters.
Paqui, a subsidiary of The Hershey Company, stated in a press release posted on its web site Thursday that it was “deeply saddened by the death” of Wolobah.
“We have seen an increase in teens and other individuals not heeding these warnings,” the corporate stated.
“As a result, while the product continues to adhere to food safety standards, out of abundance of caution, we are actively working with retailers to remove the product from shelves.”
Authorities in Massachusetts have also responded to the death by warning parents about the challenge, which is is popular on social media sites such as TikTok.
Scores of people, including children, post videos of themselves unwrapping the packaging, eating the spicy chips and then reacting to the heat. Some videos show people gagging, coughing and begging for water.
“We urge parents to discuss this with their children and advise them not to partake in this activity,” Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early stated in a sequence of posts concerning the problem on the social community X, previously often known as Twitter.
“The company warnings state the chips are intended for adult consumption. Other states across the country have seen hospitalizations due to the chip challenge, including teens.”
There have been reports from around the country of people who have gotten sick after taking part in the challenge, including three students from a California high school who were sent to a hospital. And paramedics were called to a Minnesota school last year when seven students fell ill after taking part in the challenge.
“You can have very mild symptoms like burning or tingling of the lips in the mouth, but you can also have more severe symptoms,” said Lauren Rice, the chief of pediatric emergency medicine at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, noting that this is an opportunity for parents, coaches, teachers to learn about the various social media challenges that are out there and could pose dangers.
“This goes back to the ingredients that are used with the tortilla chip,” she continued. “There are some spices like capsaicin, which is a chemical ingredient that we use in things like pepper spray and so they are very strong chemicals and they can be very irritating. Some of the more severe symptoms that we see can be things like significant abdominal pain or nausea and vomiting.”
Dr. Peter Chai, an associate professor of emergency medicine and medical toxicology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said these chips can be dangerous under certain circumstances.
“It’s possible eating these chips with high concentration of capsaicin could cause death,” he stated.
“It would really depend on the amount of capsaicin that an individual was exposed to. At high doses, it can lead to fatal dysrhythmia or irreversible injury to the heart.”
Police in Worcester, which is in central Massachusetts and is the state’s second-largest metropolis, stated in a press release that they have been referred to as to Wolobah’s home Friday afternoon and located him “unresponsive and not breathing.” He was transported to the hospital, the place he was pronounced useless.
Family and pals of Wolobah consider the chips induced his demise, and his household referred to as for the chips to be banned from retailer cabinets.
“The chip is responsible in our eyes for whatever took place because he was a healthy kid,” stated Douglas Hill, who runs the basketball league Wolobah performed in and described him as a quiet teen whose household got here to the U.S. from Liberia.
“The conversation now is about the chip, but there will be other challenges coming and we want to make sure children know they shouldn’t be participating in anything that could put them in harm’s way,” stated Douglas, who organized a basketball occasion Saturday to honor the teenager. A Friday vigil can be deliberate.
There might be little question about why somebody would eat these chips.
In addition to its title, One Chip Challenge, the bundle lays out the “rules for the challenge,” which inspires the client to eat your complete chip, “wait as long as possible before drinking or eating anything,” and put up their response on social media. The packaging additionally asks how lengthy can the person final on a scale from one minute to 1 hour.
The again of the bundle warns patrons to not eat the chip if they’re “sensitive to spicy foods, allergic to peppers, night shades or capsaicin or are pregnant or have any medical conditions.” It additionally stated people ought to wash their palms after touching the chip and “seek medical assistance should you experience difficulty breathing, fainting or extended nausea.”
Source: www.9news.com.au
