Man Breaks Guinness Record After Casually Eating World's Hottest Peppers

A man recently broke a Guinness World Record in California after casually scarfing down three of the hottest peppers in the world.

Gregory Foster was at the Seaport Shopping Center in San Diego in December 2021 when he successfully set a new Guinness World Record for eating three Carolina Reaper chili peppers in 8.72 seconds, the organization recently announced. The record was filmed and verified by independent witnesses who stopped by to see the attempt.

Foster shared a video of the heat feat on Instagram for his Inferno Farms hot sauce company, showing that he really did eat three of the spiciest peppers in the world faster than anyone else, beating the previous record of 9.72 seconds held by Canada's Mike Jack.

"I guess I should share now the cat is outta the bag," the caption reads. "New Guinness World Record."

Amazingly, it wasn't even the first time that day that he attempted to break the record; rather it was his second go at the title that ended up beating the winning time. The first attempt didn't count as the third pepper had not been swallowed in time to beat the record. This means he ate a total of six Carolina Reaper peppers in a very short amount of time. In fact, before he even started his second try at the record, he was "already feeling the effects of the first round of peppers consumed," he said.

A single Carolina Reaper pepper measures around 1.6 million on the Scoville Heat Units scale, according to Guinness. For reference, a jalapeño pepper measures between 2,500-8,000.