Cooking chicken in NyQuil is dangerous, FDA says, citing video on TikTok

The Food and Drug Administration has issued an update advising consumers that cooking chicken in NyQuil is dangerous and potentially harmful.

The warning, part of a broader FDA update published Thursday about “social media challenges,” references a video that a TikTok user posted at least a year ago that shows him frying two chicken breasts in the cold and flu medicine. In the video, which went viral but appears to have been taken down, the user flips the meat with a flat iron hair straightener.

“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,” the FDA said.

The TikTok video does not use the word “challenge,” and it is unclear whether many people ever attempted to cook chicken in NyQuil.

The FDA statement caused NyQuil to trend on Twitter Tuesday.

The FDA said that even if a person does not eat the chicken, cooking it in the over-the-counter medicine could cause them to inhale high levels of the drug’s vapors.

“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 said.

TikTok and Procter & Gamble, the maker of NyQuil, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

The tag “#nyquilchicken” appears to be blocked on TikTok, and searching for it on the platform prompts a warning that “some online challenges can be dangerous, disturbing, or even fabricated.”

In its update, the FDA urged parents to keep over-the-counter drugs away from children and to discuss with them the dangers of participating in social media trends involving medication.

The update also referenced an earlier TikTok trend involving taking large doses of the allergy medicine diphenhydramine, used in Benadryl. In 2020, the FDA issued a warning that exceeding the recommended dosage could lead to heart problems, seizures, or death.

In 2018, similarly, consumer advocates expressed concern after young people were seen in videos eating laundry detergent pods as part of the so-called “Tide pod challenge.” The Consumer Product Safety Commission said at the time that at least 10 people died from eating the pods.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com