World’s hottest chilli grown in UK can leave one ’shaking uncontrollably’

LONDON - The record for the world’s hottest chilli has been broken by one grown in a greenhouse in UK, and it is so potent that it can reduce grown men to tears and leave one “shaking uncontrollably”.

The Infinity chilli, which has just been officially recognised as the hottest in the world by the Guinness World Records, has been named so because of its “never-ending” burn.

The chilli, which looks like a strawberry that’s shrivelled in the sun, is grown in a Lincolnshire garden by former security guard, Nick Woods, 38, who is running a thriving online business for spicy food.

Tests by Warwick University rated Woods’s Infinity chilli at 1,067,286 on the Scoville Scale, which is used to measure the heat of peppers.

Woods, who runs his online Fire Foods company with wife Zoe, 33, said the chilli left those brave enough to sample it “unable to speak”, with those unaccustomed to eating chilli at risk of blisters and burns to the mouth.

“The Americans have now started to try to breed a new, hotter chilli - it’s turning into a sort of global arms race with peppers,” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

Woods grew his first Infinity chilli by accident, when two varieties crossbred in his greenhouse.

“When I tried it, the effect was delayed. Then it hit me. I began to shake uncontrollably, I had to sit down, I felt physically sick,” he revealed.

The previous record-holder, the Bhut Jolokia chilli, is so potent the Indian army uses it in smoke grenades to immobilise suspects. (ANI)