Buldak spicy noodles are back on shelves in Denmark after the food authorities there canceled part of their recall decision concerning the famous Korean instant noodles product, originally issued due to their extreme spiciness and consequent health risks.
The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration announced, Monday (local time), that two of the three products that had been recalled were not harmful to health, based on updated risk assessments.
“Based on the new analysis results and the DTU Food Institute’s updated risk assessment, the administration concludes that two of the products, Samyang Buldak 2x Spicy Hot Chicken and Samyang Buldak Hot Chicken Stew, do not contain capsaicin levels as high as those reported by the distributors in the marketing,” the Danish administration said in a press release.
Scoville units are also not a very good method of measuring spiciness (not that I have a better one). Ime I’ve eaten a variety of things at a variety of Scoville levels and I’ve found some of the lower ones way, way hotter than some of the higher ones. I’ve had many, many, many high/extra/killmepls strength hot sauces but still believe a homegrown ghost pepper to be the hottest thing I’ve ever eaten.
Idk if mine is better but my method is to pay attention to the peppers used (and avoid anything with that fake capsicum bullshit), and just trial and error. After a while you get pretty good at reading it and seeing “oh bhut jolokia, cool. Oooh trinidad brown scorpion, this one will be hot” etc. Tbf though I can eat sauce made with reapers so it’s less of a concern for me, I just can’t do the fake shit, it tastes like garbage and reapers are plenty hot I don’t need the lies.
Fat tends to reduce heat perception (capsaicin is lipophilic), and then there’s stuff like Szechuan pepper which manages to balance out heat by stimulating the movement sensors. A raw ghost pepper certainly doesn’t come with either. Also parts of that thing will be way hotter than others, for the whole thing to have an average of what 1M SCU the pith near the stalk needs to be absolute hellfire. Protip: Always try the very tip first, if it’s making you spit fire you don’t want to eat the rest :)