Meet the “Vegan Vacuum” who loves spicy food and can’t stop breaking records
Eating one Carolina Reaper chilli is enough to make most people reach for a glass of milk. Mike Jack (Canada), however, can eat 25 of them in just three minutes.
In his most recent food feat, Mike broke his own record for fastest time to eat 25 Carolina Reaper chilli peppers in just 3 min 3.53 sec on 30 August.
The Carolina Reaper averages at around 1.6 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU). The jalapeño is roughly 175-880 times milder.
The eating champ, also known as the “King of Spice”, has held 20 records throughout the years, and we recently caught up with him to find out more about his record-breaking career.
So, how did Mike start his fiery career?
He said: “I started eating hot sauce when I started college, and I liked it, so I just started using more and more hot sauce on my food. Eventually, it would look like there was more hot sauce than food on my plate.
“I was using sauces made out of the world’s hottest peppers, and one of my friends told me there were videos of people on YouTube eating hot peppers and that I should give it a try.
“So, I started my YouTube channel, Mike Jack Eats Heat! and I ate my first peppers on YouTube. With each video, I began to eat more peppers, and in one of them, I ate 30 Carolina Reaper peppers, and I couldn’t find a video of anyone eating more than that. People kept asking me, ‘Is that a Guinness World Records title?’ So, I thought I’d give one a try.
“For my official Guinness World Records title attempt, I went with the one which I thought would be the easiest: fastest time to eat three Bhut Jolokia chillies. I set up a charity event, attempted the record and managed to beat it!”
Mike completed the challenge in just 9.75 seconds on 26 January 2020. The record has since been broken by Gregory Foster (USA), who achieved a time of 7.47 seconds on 16 November 2021.
“I love to challenge myself and see how far I can go with things, so one Guinness World Records title didn’t seem like enough. I had broken the ghost pepper title on my first attempt, so I decided I would try to break more.
“After breaking some pepper-eating records, someone at GWR reached out to me and recommended some other eating records I could try, so I did.”
Mike later came to GWR HQ in London, UK, where he went head-to-head with fellow speed-eating legend Leah Shutkever (UK) in a series of eating challenges. Leah went on to beat Mike’s previous record for the fastest time to eat a head of lettuce, which Mike originally completed in 1 minute and 31.053 seconds in 2021. Leah beat this at their showdown with a time of 46.53 seconds.
“I’m vegan, so all of these records I was beating were vegan-friendly, and I also picked up some nicknames along the way, like the ‘Vegan Vacuum’ and the ‘World’s Fastest Vegan’.”
Believe it or not, Mike was never that interested in spicy foods when he was growing up. He said: “I remember my dad joking about it and saying, ‘Why would you want to hurt yourself while you’re eating?’ so I think that’s what turned me off spicy foods.”
Mike’s love of hot sauce has even led him to create his own, which is available to buy at the Mike Jack Eats Heat online shop.
He added: “I think people like to beat records because it gives you a real sense of personal achievement. When I was younger, I used to look at Guinness World Records titles and never thought I could beat any of them at the time, but I always thought it would be awesome to be a part of that community, and part of the book.
You can buy the new Guinness World Records 2027 book here!
“The most difficult title I’ve attempted would have to be the fastest time to eat 100 Carolina Reaper peppers. It was tough because they are probably the hottest pepper you can get your hands on, and eating 100 of them is one thing, but also trying to do it as fast as I can.”
On 9 September 2023, Mike broke the record, finishing in 36 minutes and 38.81 seconds in Warwick, Quebec, Canada.
He also holds the title for the fastest time to eat 50 Carolina Reaper chilli peppers, which he completed in an impressive 6 minutes 49.20 seconds on 5 November 2022.
You can read more Food and Drink records in our designated section here.
Mike continued: “There are a few different ways that I get in the zone when doing my spicy challenges, and it really depends on the length of the challenge and how fast I must go. If it’s something that’s more peppers and will take me a longer time to fight through them, then I’ll usually listen to a Buddhist breathing meditation before. This helps me get into the zone and really put myself into the moment.
“If it’s something where I need to go really fast, if I’m eating like three or 10 peppers, things like that, I’ll do the opposite and try to pump myself up by listening to fast-paced music and jumping a lot. This helps me to just power through.”
Mike has over 15,000 followers on his Instagram page, where he posts eating challenge videos.
So, what’s next for Mike?
He said: “I want to try to beat some more records, maybe retry some of my own, try some new ones. I want to try the Pepper X, which is currently recognized as the world’s hottest chilli pepper, but I haven’t managed to try it yet, as they are so hard to get your hands on. But when I get some, I’d love to try to break some records with those.”
With so many Guinness World Records titles to his name, Mike is certainly on fire, and we can’t wait to see what spicy stunt he pulls off next!