The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration has issued a recall for three flavors of hot chicken instant ramen due to their extremely high level of capsaicin, a naturally occurring chemical found in chili peppers. The products being recalled are Buldak Hot Chicken Ramen 3x Spicy, Buldak Hot Chicken Ramen 2x Spicy, and Hot Chicken Stew. According to the agency, the spiciness of these products could potentially poison consumers.
South Korean noodle giant Samyang, which developed the recalled ramen, clarified that the products were not being recalled due to quality issues but rather their extreme spiciness. This is the first time these products have been recalled for this reason. The Danish regulator did not specify whether the recall was prompted by a specific incident but advised consumers to either discard the products or return them to the place of purchase.
Instant noodles have become a popular food staple across Asia, with Samyang being one of the leading producers. The company claims to have produced South Korea’s first instant ramen in 1963 and has grown to become the third-largest noodle maker in the country by sales in 2022. The creation of Buldak, meaning “fire chicken” in Korean, was inspired by a spicy stir fry recipe and launched in 2012.
The noodles gained popularity through social media influencers promoting the “Fire Noodles Challenge” and were recently reignited by a TikTok video from rapper Cardi B. Taste testers have reported that some of these new flavors may be even hotter than the original buldak ramen, with some containing two or three times the spiciness level on the Scoville scale.
