Canadian man Mike Jack recently set a new world record for eating 50 Carolina Reaper chillies in the fastest time. The Carolina Reaper is known as the spiciest chilli in the world, with an average of 1.64 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU). It is said to be “hundreds of times hotter than a jalapeno pepper.” Jack completed this challenge in just 6 minutes and 49.2 seconds. But he didn’t stop there – after eating the 50 peppers, he went on to consume 85 more.
Jack described his experience, saying that the first pepper was the worst and that the initial spiciness was intense. He explained that each subsequent pepper felt hotter as it touched new areas in his mouth. Not only did the extreme heat affect his mouth, but it also caused discomfort in his stomach. He experienced cramps and described it as feeling like someone was squeezing and twisting his guts. Despite the discomfort, Jack pushed through and convinced himself to keep eating.
According to Guinness World Records (GWR), Jack has been building up a tolerance to spiciness over the past 20 years. This is not the first record he has set related to eating spicy food. In August 2023, he achieved the world record for the fastest time to drink a bottle of hot sauce (8.56 seconds) and the fastest time to drink one liter of tomato sauce (1 minute 5.56 seconds).
In other speed eating news, Leah Shutkever recently became the quickest person to eat a bowl of pasta, setting another impressive record. To watch the video documenting her achievement, click here.
Overall, Jack’s record-breaking feat of eating 50 Carolina Reaper chillies in under 7 minutes is an impressive display of his tolerance to extreme spiciness.