World's hottest chilli is 'hot enough to strip paint'

Brit growers continue to hold the record for the world's hottest chilli for the third time in a year.

The new record holder is the Naga Viper chilli from Cumbria's Chilli Pepper Company, reports the Sun.

The variety is a cross between searing Bhut Jolokia, Naga Morich and Trinidad Scorpions chillies.

Tests by Warwick University prove it rates a whopping 1,349,000 on the Scoville scale that measures the heat of a pepper

That's almost 173,000 units hotter than the previous record holder, the Infinity chilli from Fire Foods in Grantham, Lincs.

The fearsome Indian Bhut Jolokia is 1,041,427. Weapons-grade pepper spray is 2,000,000.

The new pepper was bred in rainy Cark-in-Cartmel, Cumbria.

"Brits are super competitive about growing and eating the hottest chillies," said Gerald Fowler, founder of the Chilli Pepper Company.

"The testers said it's hot enough to strip paint," he said.

The firm has approached the Guinness World Records and are sending the seed pods for DNA testing to claim the official record.