Asia-Pacific News

Taiwan man claims to have grown world's hottest chilli

Jun 7, 2011, 3:40 GMT

Taipei - A Taiwan farmer on Tuesday claimed to have grown the world's hottest chilli, unseating an Australian who said two months ago that his chilli was the most fiery.

Yeh Wu-shun said his red pepper scores about 1.5 million Scoville heat units, hotter than the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T, unveiled by Australian Marcel de Wit. It scored 1.46 million Scoville heat units.

Yeh's laboratory determined the heat unit of his chilli and he said he would send it to the New Mexico State University laboratory for certification in autumn. In the meantime, he planned to debut his chilli Sunday at a chilli-eating contest in Taipei.

'The person who will eat the most of this hot chilli will win my antique Jaguar,' he said by phone from his farm in Ilan county in north-eastern Taiwan.

To be eligible for the car, participants must sign a statement declaring they are responsible for the consequences of eating the chilli.

De Wit had said in April that cooking with his chilli required protective clothing, including a face mask. 'If you don't wear gloves, your hands will be pumping heat for two days,' he said.

Yeh, 46, grows 150 varieties of chillis. He makes chilli sauce and pickled chillies and exports chilli seeds and plants.