Chilli that's too hot to handle

Notorious British-grown hot chilli pepper, the Carolina Reaper, is set to be up to 20 per cent more potent this year because of the extra sunshine.

They are exclusively grown by Blunham farmer Salvatore Genovese, who is the UK’s largest chilli pepper grower.

Salvatore said: “I’ve found that chilli peppers become more potent the hotter the weather.

“Basically if the plant gets stressed because of extra sunshine and hotter temperatures or through drought then it will bear hotter fruit.”

Salvatore started growing chilli peppers after he took over his parents’ cucumber business and now grows around one million each week for the UK market. The chilli - the world’s hottest commercially grown pepper - is on sale from this week exclusively at Tesco.