The year Wilbur Scoville developed the Scoville scale, which ranks peppers based on amount of capsaicin, a mouth-burning chemical.
Numbers in the News: Spicy Food
It’s winter! Warm yourself up with some facts and stats about spicy food.
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Carolina Reaper: 1.6 million SHUs
1912
2.6 MILLION SCOVILLE HEAT UNITS
The average rating of Pepper X, currently the world’s hottest pepper. That’s about 583 times hotter than a jalapeño.
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11
The number of available flavors of Takis, from “Blue Heat” to “Fuego” (the hottest and most popular flavor).
65%
The percentage of Americans who either love or like spicy food.
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UP TO 3 YEARS
The amount of time Tabasco hot sauce ferments—or gets broken down by microbes—in a wooden barrel before being bottled.
TAKE IT FURTHER: What happens to your body when you eat spicy food? Read “Too Hot to Handle?” from Science World, May 6, 2024, to find out.
SOURCES: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS, DATAESSENTIAL, DAYMON’S MARCH 2024 FLAVOR STUDY, TABASCO, TAKIS
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