A tortilla chip deemed too spicy to eat has been withdrawn for sale across the EU, including in Malta.

The chip, known as the Hot Chip Challenge, is a corn tortilla featuring Carolina Reaper - the hottest chilli pepper in the world - and Trinidad Moruga Scorpion chilli pepper. 

It comes packaged in a coffin-shaped box and packed with a pair of disposable gloves to handle it. A warning notes that it is only for adult consumption and should not be eaten by children, pregnant women or anyone with allergies to spicy foods. 

But that did not stop teenagers from challenging each other to eat one and recording their reactions on social media.

Those videos went viral, receiving hundreds of millions of views. But problems arose when a 14-year-old boy in the US died hours after taking the challenge and other children, who ignored the warning and ate the chip, were hospitalised.

Various German states then banned the chip, as food health authorities in Germany, Switzerland, Czechia and Italy pushed for a broader ban. 

The European Union has now done just that, detaining consignments of the chip because it believes they have too much capsaicin in them.

Capsaicin is the active component in chilli peppers and is responsible for people's burning sensation when they eat spicy food.

While the EU bans the use of capsaicin as a food additive, this is believed to be the first time that food health authorities have deemed a food with naturally occurring capsaicin to be too dangerous to eat. 

In Malta, the Hot Chip Challenge was sold by Beer Head, a shop selling craft beers and chilli-based products in Naxxar.

The ban also impacts Malta sales of the product. Photo: Facebook

The shop has now withdrawn the product from its shelves after being notified about the EU-wide order, it said in a social media post on Tuesday.

“The manufacturer has informed us that they have always followed all EU regulations in producing the chip, and is very disappointed by this decision,” Beer Head said in a post on social media.

The chip's manufacturer insists the product is made using natural chilli peppers approved for consumption by the European Food Safety Authority.

However, its website now alerts consumers that the product "has been evaluated as an unsafe food based on laboratory results and a subsequent consumer health risk assessment due to its high capsaicin content" and is now being recalled.