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The internet has spawned some impressively stupid trends over the decades, and now, people in South Korea are being warned about the potential dangers of eating deep-fried toothpicks (which isn’t as strange as you may think).
If you’ve spent enough time on the internet, you’re probably very aware there are plenty of people out there who’ve thrown caution and common sense to the wind by ingesting items that aren’t really intended for human consumption.
The most obvious example is the “Tide Pod Challenge” that forced the company that produces them to mount a nationwide public service campaign to remind members of the public that swallowing laundry detergent is a bad idea.
I don’t know if anyone actually ended up eating chicken that was cooked in Nyquil, but that was nonetheless A Thing in 2022—a couple of years after health experts had to sound the alarm about the potentially fatal dangers of eating nutmeg to try to get high.
Now, officials in South Korea are raising some red flags concerning a trend that seems relatively harmless in comparison courtesy of social media videos that involve frying up and eating toothpicks.
I’m assuming the vast majority of people reading this know toothpicks as the tiny wooden skewers that are frequently harnessed to stab cubes of cheese and cocktail wieners, but in South Korea, they’re typically made out of hardened sweet potato or cornstarch (which are usually mixed with green food coloring) for environmental reasons.
According to CNN, some people in the country have recently realized toothpicks are technically edible thanks to the substances harnessed in their production, which has resulted in a new trend that involves cooking them in the hot oil that makes them puff up before covering them in powdered cheese for a fairly unconventional snack.
@nbcnews South Korea is urging people not to eat fried toothpicks made of starch in a shape resembling curly fries, after videos of the practice were widely shared on social media.
The outlet reports South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has warned people against engaging in the practice because the materials used to make the toothpicks aren’t necessarily certified as food-safe.
It’s probably better for you than eating Tide Pods, but it never hurts to err on the side of caution.