Someone [0] mentioned that the spice package itself is closer to 250k SHU and only the final dish, noodles and all, is 10k. Since the oil from the spice package will be on the surface it will probably taste way hotter than for example a 10k sauce.
That seems unlikely. It felt waaaay hotter than jalapeño, like many times hotter, not just 1.5x hotter. If true, maybe it’s just the volume of it. Tabasco doesn’t register as hot at all to me, but I don’t make a habit of drinking it by the pint.
Absolutely ridiculous, what a joke. That’s comparable to El Yucateco sauce. Tabasco which is barely perceptible as hot is around 5000 scoville. Not to mention, isn’t capsaicin completely harmless and only activates your pain receptors without actually causing any direct damage (there may be damage from the inflammatory response in extreme cases).
I wonder if this is accurate because I love tons of that El Yucateco on my food (and frequently eat other spicy stuff almost daily), but the Buldak ramen I tried was was so spicy that I couldn't take it and didn't get close to finishing my bowl.
I don’t think it can cause direct damage in the way lye or a poison would. I could imagine it causing so much pain in someone that it triggered a seizure or something else awful.
Although I think almost anyone not trying out for “Jackass” would stop eating it well before they got to that point.
Scrolling down that page I see Resiniferatoxin is 1000x hotter than pure capsaicin. Seeing as it's a scale of concentration, I wonder if you can dilute it down to a mild hot sauce.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale