Paqui's one chip challenge may be tied to teen's death; the company says it's not to blame
By now, shouldn't we realize that anything with the word “challenge” in it is to be avoided, particularly if social media is involved?
Challenges used to reflect athletic pursuits — miles run, mountains climbed, weights lifted. Now, the challenge has come full circle and involves injudicious eating. Not everyone can run a marathon, but everyone can eat. How great is that? We can all aspire to be the ironman of spaghetti.
But eating challenges have evolved too, and it’s no longer “how many” as in hot dogs or pies, it’s "how inedible.” As a matter of corporate profitability, this obviously makes much more sense. Nathan’s Famous certainly takes a loss when it springs for a contest in which entrants are pounding 70 dogs each. What if you could sell just one corn chip and make it so unpalatable that consuming it would be a feat?
Paqui, makers of flavored tortilla chips, must have thought it hit the mother lode by selling a package containing exactly one corn chip under the labeling “one chip challenge.” The idea was that consuming such an intolerably hot chip would prove … I’m not sure what. Your ability to endure pain, I guess. But why pay good money for that? You could simply go on TikTok and chop off your hand for free.
According to Forbes, “This is the challenge where you are supposed to eat one tortilla chip dusted with two of the hottest peppers in the world and then try to go as long as possible without eating or drinking anything to ease the anguish.”
Naturally, this was hot-pepper catnip to teenage boys, who — and I know this because I’ve been there — for some reason think that eating highly spiced food is attractive to teenage girls.
You’d sit there in the wing joint with your friends, loudly ordering your burrito extra hot and then, as the interior cavities in your lemon suffered a nuclear meltdown, you would look around the table in the expectation that you would be regarded as some sort of superhero: the Batman of tacos.
Because we were 16, we didn’t realize that the horrified looks we were getting from the girls at our flushed, sweating faces were not a sign of respect, but just the opposite, and the “Oh my God”-s were in fact references to our eternal stupidity.
So needless to say, the one chip challenge was enthusiastically joined by teenage boys, including a high school student who died this month after ingesting the chip.
It hasn’t been confirmed that the chip was the cause of death, but the timing is certainly suspicious. Paqui, which advertises its chips as “gluten-free, non-GMO” (so there’s that) has gotten all huffy at the implications that its $10-per-chip money grab was in any way harmful.
No, it wasn’t them, it was the fault of the dumb kid for failing to understand that this challenge was for mature audiences only. In a truly tone deaf message on its website, Paqui says that the “one chip challenge is intended for adults only with clear and prominent labeling highlighting the chip is not for children,” adding that “We have seen an increase in teens and other individuals not heeding these warnings.”
“Other individuals?” Never mind, even by corporate-America standards, blaming a kid for his own death, and not only that, but spoiling a good time for everyone else, is truly impressive for its failure to read the room. Paqui, feel free to offer your condolences.
And spare us this “we are shocked and appalled that teens are using this product” garbage. What adult, except maybe that sort that would storm the U.S. Capitol, would be immature enough to buy in?
Still, Paqui is removing the chip from the shelves, just as previous companies — equally shocked that kids were partaking in candy- and snack food-like packaging of marijuana products — previously were forced to do the same.
Snack foods may be unhealthy for kids, but they definitely nourish plenty of lawyers.
More: Weed-based items being sold in candy packaging a sign we need more middle managers
Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: One chip challenge by snack maker Paqui causes hot-pepper dust up
