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Comment by WorkerBee28474 | Hacker News Reader

A quick internet search suggests that the '2x' one recalled is 8800 Scoville units.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

Someone [0] mentioned that the spice package itself is closer to 250k SHU and only the final dish, noodles and all, is 10k. Since the oil from the spice package will be on the surface it will probably taste way hotter than for example a 10k sauce.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/spicy/comments/8ayf60/finally_tried...

That seems unlikely. It felt waaaay hotter than jalapeño, like many times hotter, not just 1.5x hotter. If true, maybe it’s just the volume of it. Tabasco doesn’t register as hot at all to me, but I don’t make a habit of drinking it by the pint.

Scoville is weird scale as it is about dilution. So the amount really does matter. And I doubt it is often even properly measured and tested.

Logically taking spoon full of raw sauce has one amount of units and then mixing it in food 10 or 100x should have 10th or 100th of Scoville units.

This seems off. It tastes much spicier. I'd guess it's in 20-40k range.

I see a lot people agree with you. I wonder if they lie on the packaging for some reason like import laws. https://www.reddit.com/r/spicy/comments/8ayf60/finally_tried...

But it doesn’t. I try a lot of chilis and hot spices; this is 10k maybe; I find 300k getting warm-ish; I eat that with a beer though.

Absolutely ridiculous, what a joke. That’s comparable to El Yucateco sauce. Tabasco which is barely perceptible as hot is around 5000 scoville. Not to mention, isn’t capsaicin completely harmless and only activates your pain receptors without actually causing any direct damage (there may be damage from the inflammatory response in extreme cases).

I wonder if this is accurate because I love tons of that El Yucateco on my food (and frequently eat other spicy stuff almost daily), but the Buldak ramen I tried was was so spicy that I couldn't take it and didn't get close to finishing my bowl.

It’s accurate

https://www.shopelyucateco.com/pages/faq#:~:text=Green%20Hab....

The primary source[1] says kids in Germany have been hospitalized by weaker chips. Something something tik tok challenge.

It does seems these ramen are hot.

Still weird they take it of the shelves though.

[1] https://foedevarestyrelsen.dk/nyheder/pressemeddelelser/2024...

I don’t think it can cause direct damage in the way lye or a poison would. I could imagine it causing so much pain in someone that it triggered a seizure or something else awful.

Although I think almost anyone not trying out for “Jackass” would stop eating it well before they got to that point.

But you don't eat these sauces on their own.

I do, no problem

Yep, same. It’s nice. I don’t suffer until over 500k Scoville. Youth eating Madame janette was good training.

...why?

Not gp but I like the taste.

Scrolling down that page I see Resiniferatoxin is 1000x hotter than pure capsaicin. Seeing as it's a scale of concentration, I wonder if you can dilute it down to a mild hot sauce.

As a comparison, one habanero (not the crazy ghost/chocolate cultivars, but the plain jane habanero) is 150k Scoville units. Serranos top out at 25k.

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