Danish authorities have warned that the noodles are so spicy that they “pose a risk of acute poisoning to consumers.”
Can you stand hot food? Apparently the Danes can't. A Korean ramen has been recalled in Denmark for being too spicy.
Samyang Food Company has been serving spicy food since 1961 and its products are exported to chilli lovers around the world, including Australia where it exports its chilli-filled Buldak series. However, despite there being no problem with the quality of the food, Buldak's 3x Spicy & Hot Chicken, 2x Spicy & Hot Chicken and Hot Chicken Stew instant noodles were deemed unsafe for Danish people.
The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration announced the product recall, saying it had “determined that the total amount of capsaicin contained in one packet of all three noodle products was too high, posing a risk to consumers of acute poisoning.”
For those of you who have never seen a food challenge before, capsaicin is the active ingredient in chili peppers that gives them their characteristic “hot” taste. Capsaicin is an irritant and neurotoxin in mammals that causes a burning sensation in any tissue it comes into contact with.
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Danish food, both geographically and climatically, has historically been low on spicy flavours, so it's not a stretch of the imagination to think of these spicy noodles as poisonous, but even chili lovers know that Buldak Ramen is no joke.
A Reddit post on r/KoreanFood described their experience: “I once tried the double spicy packet and added all the spice sauce and it was super hot. [hot] I thought I had to go to the hospital and get a gastric lavage.”
Another simply commented on the spicy snack: “So tasty but at what price?” – the thought alone makes me want to stock up on Gaviscon.
Even an expert on r/Spicy recalled a traumatic buldak experience: “My heart was pounding like crazy while I was eating it and my mouth was numb the entire time. My stomach hurt so badly afterwards that I literally had to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes.”
Although rare, capsaicin poisoning can occur when extremely spicy foods are consumed, damaging the stomach lining and causing temporary blindness, vomiting, and swelling of the throat and airways.
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