'Hot Ones' Hot Sauce Recalled as 50,000 Bottles Affected

The hit YouTube show Hot Ones has its own brand of hot sauce, some of which has been recalled over "possible foreign object contamination (plastic)," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on March 19.

The FDA labeled the recall "Class II," which its website states is "a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote."

The Karma Sauce Company LLC initially issued the recall on February 14. The only hot sauces impacted are the Verde and Rojo Hot Ones Los Calientes sauces by Heatonist.

The affected products included over 50,000 bottes in various sizes: five-ounce, one-gallon and five-gallon. They were distributed to locations in North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

A spokesperson for Heatonist told Newsweek: "We have notified those retail partners and instructed them to check the lot codes and dispose of any impacted shipments. This is a class II recall meaning the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.

"Our manufacturing partner has identified the source of the plastic material. We are confident that this was an isolated issue that has been addressed at the manufacturing kitchen. We take food quality and safety very seriously, and thank our community and partners for their support during this process."

"We caught nearly all of the affected bottles before they left our warehouse," the spokesperson added. "At this point, the unaccounted for recalled product is isolated to a small number of bottles that potentially made it to a handful of retail partners."

They said that "none of the hot sauce bottles used to film the show were part of the batches subject to the recall."

Specific details about the recalled hot sauces are below:

'Hot Ones' Los Calientes Verde Hot Sauce: Five-Gallon Bucket

• UPC: 8-51444-00803-5
• Best By Date: Feb. 7, 2028

'Hot Ones' Los Calientes Verde Hot Sauce: One-Gallon Jug

• UPC: 8-51444-00803-5
• Best By Dates: Feb. 3, 2028; Feb. 4, 2028; and Feb. 7, 2028

'Hot Ones' Los Calientes Verde Hot Sauce: Five-Ounce Bottles

• UPC: 8-51444-00803-5
• Best By Dates: Dec. 18, 2027; Dec. 19, 2027; Feb. 3, 2028; Feb. 4, 2028; Feb. 5, 2028; Feb. 6, 2028; Feb. 7, 2028; Feb. 11, 2028; Feb. 12, 2028; and Feb. 13, 2028

'Hot Ones' Los Calientes Rojo Hot Sauce: One-Gallon Jug

• UPC: 8-51444-00810-03
• Best By Date: Feb. 7, 2028

'Hot Ones' Los Calientes Rojo Hot Sauce: Five-Ounce Bottles

• UPC: 8-51444-00810-03
• Best By Date: Feb. 10, 2028

Hot Ones is an award-winning YouTube series that debuted in 2015. Host Sean Evans brings on celebrity guests and asks them questions while they eat spicy chicken wings. As the interview progresses, the sauces get hotter. To date, Hot Ones has chatted to Sabrina Carpenter, Will Smith, Maya Rudolph, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Garner, Paris Hilton, Matt Damon, Jimmy Kimmel and countless others, and the clips rack up millions of views each.

Most recently, the show featured Selena Gomez and her fiancé, Benny Blanco. The couple appeared on Thursday's episode, and in the introduction, the "Calm Down" singer asked: "Why do people do this?"

In an interview with TODAY in 2023, Evans spoke out about the program's popularity.

"Celebrity is this thing that by definition in unattainable, right? It's on such a pedestal. But hot sauce knocks everyone down. You know what I mean?" he said. "We all know what that's like to go through that."

The YouTuber added: "It's the dumbest idea, but sometimes those are the ones that work. There is no artifice once you're blasted in the face with scorching hot chicken wings."

"I truly think that I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing with my life," Evans concluded.

The show's popularity has allowed for the brand to expand beyond video making. According to Heatonist's website, in fall 2015, the Hot Ones team asked Heatonist "to help curate hot sauces for the show's wing lineup, and the rest is history! Soon after, HEATONIST x Hot Ones partner to create new Hot Ones sauces like The Last Dab & Los Calientes."

Correction, 3/22/25, 6:15 a.m. ET: The headline on this article was updated to reflect that most of the affected products did not reach stores. The article was also updated with a response from a Heatonist spokesperson.