Carolina Reaper: How hot is the latest chilli to go on sale?

The Carolina Reaper chilli goes on sale in UK supermarkets today. It's being touted as not only the world's hottest chilli pepper – approved by the Guinness World Records committee – but also as a delicious addition to a curry. So how hot is it and could eating it be dangerous?

Where does the Carolina Reaper come from?

Although the chilli is named after the US state of South Carolina, where it was originally bred, the specimens you're likely to see on supermarket shelves were grown in the UK.

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It was created by crossbreeding a ghost pepper, itself a former world record-holder for the hottest chilli, and a red habanero.

How hot is hot?

How about, too hot to touch with bare hands? Customers are warned to don gloves before handling the Carolina Reaper. The Guinness World Records committee rated the Reaper at 1.5 million Scoville units – the official measure of chilli strength. To put that in context, it is 428 times hotter than the humble jalapeno, which scores only 3,500 units.

However, the Reaper isn't just a challenge for spicy food addicts looking for a chance to show off. "Despite it being astonishingly hot, it also has a wonderful fruity taste," said Tesco chilli buyer Phoebe Burgess. "Only a sliver is needed to add exciting flavour to your favourite curry."

Is it dangerous to eat?

"Theoretically, one could eat enough really hot chillies to kill you," horticulture professor Paul Bosland told Live Science. "However, one's body would react sooner and not allow it to happen."

Tissue inflammation caused by capsaicin, the active ingredient in chillies, will cut short any chilli-eating binge before it proves fatal – although it could damage the stomach and intestines.

Even chillies that don't hold the world record for heat can pose a health risk, with sweating, vomiting and fainting all possibilities. Two contestants in a chilli-eating challenge at an Edinburgh curry house had to be taken to A&E in 2011, earning the restaurant owner a ticking off from the Scottish Ambulance Service.