Following the "sleepy chicken" TikTok challenge, the Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning advising people not to cook chicken in cough medicine NyQuil, as per Reuters.
According to the agency, cooking chicken in NyQuil can be dangerous as boiling certain medication can cause harm to breathing. Moreover, consuming food cooked in cough and cold medication is unsafe.
TikTok Challenge Posits Dangers to Health, FDA Warns
While cooking chicken in NyQuil syrup used to be a silly social media challenge, it trends when FDA issued the warning, according to CBS News.
The trend on TikTok challenges people to cook chicken in cough and cold medicine NyQuil, according to the FDA.
NyQuil and other over-the-counter cough and cold syrups contain acetaminophen, dextromethorphan, and doxylamine, according to the agency.
With this, the FDA warned of the possible dangers of boiling chicken in the said medicine as boiling certain medications posits harm to breathing.
Cooking chicken in NyQuil is dangerous even if people will not eat the meat as applying heat to the medicine "could cause people to inhale high levels of the drug's vapors."
According to the agency's notice posted on September 15, the cough and cold medicine can become concentrated when boiled. Its properties may also change when heat is applied to it.
In addition, consumption of such food items boiled in NyQuil and other cough and cold medicines can be dangerous to your health.
The video was posted one year ago on TikTok. In the video, a TikTok user fries chicken breasts in the cough and cold medicine. The TikTok user even used a flatiron hair straightener to flip the chicken.
According to NBC News, it is unknown how many people have tried boiling chicken in NyQuil. Moreover, it is surprising that people tried doing it as the TikTok video does not use the word "challenge."
Read Also: TikTok Milk Crate Challenge Ban: Doctors Warn Lifelong Injuries!
FDA Offers Suggestions to Parents
FDA released the warning on its official website on September 15 with the title "A Recipe for Danger: Social Media Challenges Involving Medicines."
In the news release on the agency's website, FDA warned people of a TikTok video that challenges people to cook chicken in NyQuil, saying it's unsafe, as per Buzzfeed News.
As for FDA, this is not the first time that the agency has issued a warning about a social media challenge that utilizes non-prescription medicine.
A related warning was issued by the agency in September 2020, this time because of the "Benadryl Challenge."
The warning was issued after there were reports of teenagers who were admitted to emergency rooms after participating in it.
Meanwhile, FDA offered a number of suggestions to parents on how they could prevent their children from participating in these harmful social media challenges.
One of the FDA's suggestions is to keep over-the-counter and prescription drugs away from their children.
Aside from this, a clear and open conversation with their children should help the parents clarify the things that the children should try and should not try.
The agency said that parents should remind their children that overdoses can happen when OTC and prescription drugs are taken in huge amounts.
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