Denmark has recalled several spicy ramen noodle products by South Korean company Samyang, claiming that the capsaicin levels in them could poison consumers.
Three fiery flavours of the Samyang instant ramen line are being withdrawn: Buldak 3x Spicy & Hot Chicken, 2x Spicy & Hot Chicken and Hot Chicken Stew.
Denmark’s food agency issued the recall and warning on Tuesday, urging consumers to abandon the product.
But the maker Samyang says there’s no problem with the quality of the food.
“We understand that the Danish food authority recalled the products, not because of a problem in their quality but because they were too spicy,” the firm said in a statement to the BBC.
“The products are being exported globally. But this is the first time they have been recalled for the above reason.”
It’s unknown if any specific incidents in Denmark had prompted authorities there to take action.
The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration said it had assessed the levels of capsaicin in a single packet to be “so high that they pose a risk of the consumer developing acute poisoning”.
“If you have the products, you should discard them or return them to the store where they were purchased,” it said in a statement.
It also emphasised the warning for children, for whom extremely spicy food can cause harm.
The notice has sparked heated discussion online with many amused reactions from lovers of spicy food. Many have made assertions about the Danes’ low tolerance for spice.
“I had a friend from Denmark who thought tasteless breaded shrimp with a little bit of ground pepper on it was too spicy. Not surprised they think this ramen is poison,” read one top-liked comment on the Reddit r/Korea group.
Samyang said it planned to “closely look into the local regulations” in Denmark and respond after that.
The noodles don’t appear to have been recalled before in any other country, nor have there been other safety warnings issued.
Capsaicin is the chemical compound in chilli peppers which creates the burning feeling.
When humans eat peppers, the capsaicin is released into saliva and binds on to receptors in the mouth.
Samyang is a major South Korean food manufacturer which brands itself as the first company in the country to create instant noodles, back in the 1960s.
I will say, the 2x spicy chicken was really fuckin’ hot
I can see it being lethal to people for whom the spiciest ingredient in their cuisine is whitefish
It’s just so weird because there’s a pretty decent culture for eating spicy food here as well. The usual go-to nighttime drunken dish is pita or durum, served with a large bowl of chili on the side so you can slather it yourself.
There’s a large middle eastern population here as well.
It’s so weird. I’m legit pissed, the 2x spicy were perfect for me and now they’re gone because of someone screaming “won’t somebody please think of the children?”
Why not get rid of dairy products? A lactose intolerant child might eat them. What about meat? Eating it raw is bad for you, so that’s a danger as well.
The usual go-to nighttime drunken dish is pita or durum, served with a large bowl of chili on the side so you can slather it yourself. There’s a large middle eastern population here as well.
So is that who the chilis are for? I see this situation in germany and it’s not the white people going for chili, usually
I would assume, but I don’t think ramen is more popular with the middle eastern segment than anyone else. Its at least not a stereotype. This decision is just genuinely baffling. It’s as if someone in the FDA ate the too spicy food, had a reaction and on that basis decided to ban it, instead of just saying “not for me”.
If “too much for some” is a criteria now, then we can’t really sell anything people are allergic to.
When you say Chili I can only think of the stew but I assume that’s not what you mean.
That’s Sweden, you’re thinking of Sweden.
The slander of Smørrebrød I saw in the other thread did get under my nerves though
The store I first encountered these sold the 2x for less than the regular. So that’s how I tried the 2x first lol
Yeah the heat these are packing is legit lol. I enjoy spicy food most of the time, but the one time I had the Hot Chicken Stew I struggled to finish it.
I’ve had samyang ramen before I can confirm it’s really spicy, jokes aside I can see it being too much for people who get bothered by spicy mayo.
yea i don’t think i’d ever try the 2x (or 3x god forbid) because the regular one (or the other flavors like quattro cheese or carbonara) are spicy af i wouldn’t be surprised if ‘experts’ told me i shold wear special gloves when preparing the 3x one because i could blind myself if i rubbed my eye wrong
When I lived in Denmark “Red bell pepper” was unironically the spiciest Doritos flavor they sell
lol, the Wikipedia says Denmark’s national specialty “dish” (smørrebrød) is a piece of bread with cold cuts on it.
that’s what people “make” when they are too tired to figure anything out. like exhausted single parent or low-tier conference fare.
for real. I thought it had to be a distortion. the wiki on danish cuisine is brutal though:
Historian Søren Mørch has characterized the Danish cuisine as a “garbage kitchen” of insipid, sweet and unspiced “baby food” where the tastes of milk and sweetness form the key elements. He believes that it arose because the export policy of the Danish food sector was to use the Danish home market as a “gutter” for left-over products, after high-quality bacon and butter had been sold abroad. Skimmed milk, meat scraps only suitable for chopping up, and the replacement product margarine are all products which Søren Mørch describes as residue products.
Cold cut on bread is literally the type of food Chinese people were dunking on a few months ago.
Smørrebrød isn’t just cold cuts on bread. It really is a whole dish and it is really quite good. It saddens me when people meme it to be “lmao bread lol”. I also think it’s sad that we don’t give baking the credit it deserves. Danish bread is fantastic, it’s some of the best in the world. Is it a hot meal? Kind of, you can put warm stuff on top, but no it is not a large stew. It’s supposed to be a really nice lunch, and lunch in Denmark is generally cold.
"I had a friend from Denmark who thought tasteless breaded shrimp with a little bit of ground pepper on it was too spicy.
Oh white people
Ground pepper spicy? I get that we all have different level of tolerance for spicy food but this is genuinely the first time ive heard of ground pepper being spicy for others.
I have a friend who considers Tomatoes spicy. YMMV on whether she has a mild allergy or something but y’know
Allergy is possible, esp if your friend has similar reactions to other nightshades like eggplant. Speaking for myself, I notice a reaction when I eat smaller tomatoes that have more peel to flesh, like roma or cherry. Not spicy but more like itchy/prickly. Still eat them tho
Black pepper is spicy. However, I only realized this like 15 or so years into my life when I made a Norwegian dish that called for copious amounts of whole peppercorns. In 99.9% of meals, you’re not using enough to make it spicy.
Interestingly piperine actually does have a sensation of heat similar to capcaisin, and it works on a different enough pathway that a capcaisin tolerance doesn’t impact it. It’s much, much milder, but it is there.
So with my level of capcaisin tolerance something like a habenero pepper is roughly as mild as a whole peppercorn, and I’ll toss a half dozen or so whole peppercorns into my ramen that’s also spiced with red pepper and then mixed with ghost pepper in the bowl, because the peppercorns provide their own little distinct bursts of bitterness and heat when one crunches on one, which stands out from the background warmth of the soup.
That guy must have been over exaggerating, people here put too much pepper on their food. My grandmom serves plates that are completely black. On the other hand I do have a friend who can taste if chili flakes have been near the plate…
I mean that one anecdotal guy may exist without contradicting your anecdotes.
Apparently the 3x is only around 13 000 Scoville units, but the high volume of chili and the mixture of the sauce with the noodles makes it taste much, much hotter than that. At least that’s what friend who tried some told me.
