Did the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ban a TikTok challenge that includes cooking chicken in NyQuil, an over-the-counter cough and cold medicine? No, that's not true: The FDA warned the dangers of the social media challenge but did not ban or restrict boiling NyQuil.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published by @eatthiskkk on TikTok in July 2023 with the caption: "미국에서 유행중인 파란 닭고기의 정체ㄷㄷ" or "The identity of the blue chicken popular in the U.S.," as translated by Lead Stories staff.
It opened, as translated by Lead Stories staff:
The U.S. has been in a state of shock since the identity of the blue sauce in the video was revealed.
Here is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok.com screenshot taken on Tue Aug 8 23:16:27 2023 UTC)
After identifying the blue liquid as NyQuil, an over-the-counter cough and cold medicine, the video said at the 0:24 timestamp:
The FDA banned it, but due to rumors that chicken marinated in NyQuil will treat a cold better than cold medicine, people are ignoring the warning and continuing to eat this.
The video does not specify whether it meant the FDA banned the TikTok challenge or the act of cooking chicken in NyQuil itself, but neither claim is true.
The TikTok challenge, dubbed #sleepychicken, first appeared in 2022, as reported by multiple U.S. news outlets.
An FDA warning, current on the site as of September 15, 2022, says:
A recent social media video challenge encourages people to cook chicken in NyQuil (acetaminophen, dextromethorphan, and doxylamine) or another similar OTC cough and cold medication, presumably to eat.
The challenge sounds silly and unappetizing -- and it is. But it could also be very unsafe. Boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways. Even if you don't eat the chicken, inhaling the medication's vapors while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body. It could also hurt your lungs. Put simply: Someone could take a dangerously high amount of the cough and cold medicine without even realizing it.
The FDA had previously addressed the dangers of another TikTok challenge in October 2020, dubbed the "Benadryl challenge," encouraging users online to ingest harmful doses of the allergy medicine.
The FDA warning on the Benadryl challenge said:
We are aware of news reports of teenagers ending up in emergency rooms or dying after participating in the "Benadryl Challenge" encouraged in videos posted on the social media application TikTok.
News reports at the time attribute hospitalizations and deaths of teenagers to the challenge.
The FDA did not respond to a request for comment.
