A woman has become a viral sensation and earned the title of UK's 'Chilli Queen' as she spends her days eating the world's hottest peppers. Shahina Waseem, from Uxbridge, west London, is the World Chilli Eating Champion. She has won 97 competitions and starred in Hulu's show Superhot: The Spicy World of Pepper People.
It all began when Shahina would go out to eat with her friends, but found her food didn't quite have the spicy kick she wanted. She would carry fresh chillies and hot sauce in her handbag to accompany her meals. On her website , Shahina said: "It became somewhat of an in-joke within my circle of friends.
So when my friend Steph heard of a chilli-eating competition being held in Kingston-Upon-Thames in August 2012, she entered me as a contestant. At that time I had no idea what to expect as I had never even seen a chilli-eating competition online or in real life, let alone take part in one." Shahina, who often conducts taste tests of the hottest chillies on her TikTok page @ukchilliqueen , stunned people when she tried the former hottest pepper in the world - the Carolina Reaper.
The pepper has a Scoville heat rating of 1.64million, according to Guinness World Records. Anything between 100,000 to 500,000 is considered extra hot.
Shahina explained: "So this is a killer pepper. You've got the Pepper X now but it is not readily available. We can't as general public buy it, so no one can actually physically eat it.
So we've just got the Carolina Reaper which was the .
