Scoville scale

The Scoville scale indicates how hot a chili or a preparation made from it is, measured in Scoville heat units, or SHU for short.

The Scoville scale indicates how spicy a chili or a preparation made from it is, measured in Scoville heat units, or SHU for short.

Capsaicinoids, above all capsaicin, are what provide the heat. They are produced by pepper species, which include chilies, and their purpose is to deter herbivores from eating the fruits. The plant is defending itself, and humans have turned this defense into a pleasure. The scale indicates how much of this is in a pod or a sauce, and therefore how cautious the first spoonful should be.

How much water is needed to neutralize 1 Scoville?

This question turns the scale on its head, and that is precisely where its core lies. The pharmacist Wilbur Scoville developed his method in 1912: a specific amount of a preparation is dissolved in alcohol and then diluted with sugar water. Five people taste it, and the degree of dilution at which no one can taste any heat is recorded; three of them must be in agreement. The spicier the chili, the more it must be diluted and the higher it ranks on the scale. A Scoville is therefore not an amount that one neutralizes, but a measure of how much sugar water makes the heat disappear.

Because tongues differ, this test only serves as a rough estimate. Today, the content of capsaicinoids is usually determined in a laboratory and then converted: according to a convention, 16 SHU corresponds to about 1 mg of capsaicin per kilogram. The old scale has remained; only the tongue has disappeared from the measurement process.

And the glass of water next to the plate? Capsaicin is lipophilic; its irritation threshold is many times higher in oil than in water. For this reason, many reach for high-fat milk after a spicy bite. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) describes this, but considers a general rule that fatty foods reduce heat to be untenable: too many factors play a role, such as starch, sugar, and fat throughout the entire dish.

Is 100,000 Scoville spicy?

Yes, significantly so. The statement by the BfR mentions comparative values compiled by the inspection office in Karlsruhe: peperoni are at 100 to 500 SHU, sambal oelek at 1,000 to 10,000 SHU, a jalapeño and a chili sauce of the Tabasco variety at 2,500 to 8,000 SHU. One hundred thousand is therefore twelve to forty times that of a jalapeño. If you calculate using the convention, one kilogram of such a product contains about 6,250 mg of capsaicinoids, a good 6 grams.

Among spicy chilies, that is still the midfield. Erich Stekovics, who grows chili plants in Frauenkirchen in Burgenland and has published an entire atlas of exquisite chilies and peppers, describes his Habanero Gambia Orange as bright orange and almost square, and counts it among the moderately spicy habaneros at 300,000 Scoville. According to the BfR, chili sauces reach up to 865,000 SHU. Anyone encountering an unknown sauce should therefore start small: a drop on the tip of a knife, wait a moment, then decide.

What is the highest Scoville in the world?

The spiciest chili in the world is called Pepper X. Guinness World Records reported it on October 16, 2023, with an average of 2,693,000 SHU. It was bred by Ed Currie, the founder of the PuckerButt Pepper Company in the USA, and measured by Winthrop University in South Carolina. Pepper X replaced the Carolina Reaper, which held the record for ten years and averages 1.64 million SHU.

The scale ends even higher with the pure substance. Pure capsaicin, like the closely related dihydrocapsaicin, is rated at approximately 16,000,000 SHU. Oleoresins, chili extracts used to season foods, reach up to 11,000,000 SHU. These are figures for the laboratory, not for the kitchen.

How many Scoville can a normal person tolerate?

There is no single number that applies to everyone. No maximum levels for capsaicinoids in food are set in the EU or Germany, and how spicy something is perceived to be varies greatly from person to person. When eating normally spiced dishes, such as those from African, Arabic, South American, or Asian cuisine, the BfR does not expect any serious acute effects.

Caution is advised with dares involving extremely spicy products, and especially with children, who are particularly sensitive to spicy chili products. The BfR recommends labeling chili and other hot sauces with more than 100 mg of capsaicin per kilogram and providing them with child-resistant caps. According to the convention, this is about 1,600 SHU. These spicy jars belong on a high shelf, and everyone should season their own food at the table.

This is what it looks like on a Saturday: there is a pot of chili on the stove, seasoned for the most sensitive people at the table. Next to it are a sauce, a small bowl of habanero mix, and a little Piment d'Espelette, and everyone turns up their own heat themselves.

Chilies and sauces, sorted by temperament

Erich Stekovics provides the Stekovics chilies and the Habanero mix, consisting of 80% spicy chili peppers with sea salt and rapeseed oil. Ground options from Altes Gewürzamt include Chili Ancho, ground poblano from Mexico, and Chili Habanero, also from Mexico. In addition, there is Piment d'Espelette from Maison Ederki, which has been a protected designation of origin since 2000. Ready-made heat can be found under chili sauces.

Sources

Last checked on 09/14/2026

By Kerstin Uhlenbusch