---
title: "The \"Convenience Hotpot\" That Many People Love Was Sent to the Fire Department..."
description: "Do you love hotpot? Nine out of ten people would say yes, and hotpot holds an unshakable place in foodies' hearts. A thoughtful inventor designed this \"convenience hotpot\" that requires no fire or electricity—just one person and a cup of cold water to enjoy hotpot. However, a young man in Chengdu who loves hotpot had his glass table shatter because of this self-heating \"convenience hotpot,\" and recently, Xinhua News Agency's official WeChat account also reported on the dangers of this product."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2017-11-24"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oayDjRkrq3QAYVkjoRjICQ"
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---

# The "Convenience Hotpot" That Many People Love Was Sent to the Fire Department...

> Do you love hotpot? Nine out of ten people would say yes, and hotpot holds an unshakable place in foodies' hearts. A thoughtful inventor designed this "convenience hotpot" that requires no fire or electricity—just one person and a cup of cold water to enjoy hotpot. However, a young man in Chengdu who loves hotpot had his glass table shatter because of this self-heating "convenience hotpot," and recently, Xinhua News Agency's official WeChat account also reported on the dangers of this product.

Do you love hotpot?
Nine out of ten people would say yes.
Hotpot's place in foodies' hearts
is unshakable!
A thoughtful inventor
has designed this "convenience hotpot" for foodies,
No fire, no electricity,
Just one person and a cup of cold water,
And you can enjoy hotpot!
But previously, a young man in Chengdu who loves hotpot
had his glass table shatter because of this self-heating "convenience hotpot,"
**It shattered!**
▼
▲Image from Chengdu Business Daily
And a couple of days ago, Xinhua News Agency's official WeChat account also posted a message about "convenience hotpot," sparking heated discussion online.
On the 16th local time, alarms blared at St. Andrew's School, a boarding school in Rhode Island, USA. Carbon monoxide detectors were triggered for unknown reasons, causing panic among all teachers and students, who quickly evacuated.
Firefighters detected carbon monoxide levels at 80 parts per million in the dormitory (normal safe levels are within 24 parts per million), but when the detector approached a certain food item placed in the dorm, the levels soared to 150 parts per million.
Local media described this "strange food" as: a packet of white packaging placed under beef ingredients. This white packet rapidly heated up when exposed to water, causing the carbon monoxide levels in the room to spike.
This immediately raised suspicions among the firefighters: What on earth is this? How can it have such power?
At that moment, a Chinese student stepped forward, looking bewildered: Oh, this is a hometown delicacy brought from China by my parents—the well-known convenience hotpot...
> Netizen comments
> @Future: I wanted to quietly enjoy Chinese cuisine, but now the whole school knows...
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> @Maple Words: You can't blame Americans for making a fuss; it shows they have good safety awareness, and it also shows they've never had good food.
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> @Famine: Many self-heating hotpots use quicklime... I'm just curious how this thing was shipped over.
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> @****☀: This is also the mysterious power of the East...
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> @Haotian: I can confirm this. I've used convenience hotpot twice, and the home alarm went off both times. The second time, I even took it to the bathroom farthest from the kitchen alarm, and it still went off...
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> @Spark of Fire: I have the same worry when I eat self-heating rice on the train!
**This popular internet-famous food**
**is actually very dangerous!**
On Taobao, self-heating hotpot, self-heating instant noodles, and other foods have daily sales reaching tens of thousands of units!
So, behind such massive sales, do these self-heating foods have safety hazards? What materials are their heat sources made of? What is their maximum temperature? Are there any safety risks? The Zhenhai Fire Brigade in Ningbo used experimental data to verify and answer these questions.
In the experiment, the brigade's personnel first prepared two types of self-heating foods—self-heating rice and self-heating hotpot—as experimental materials and numbered them accordingly. They also prepared toxic gas detectors and infrared thermometers!
The experiment began:
Experiment 1: Firefighters added water to the heating packs of the self-heating foods separately. Within just a few seconds, the heating pack temperature rose to 75.8 degrees Celsius, and the toxic gas detector alarm sounded, detecting carbon monoxide in the surroundings. Even in an open, ventilated indoor area, **the carbon monoxide concentration reached 20.8 mg per cubic meter**, close to the standard value of 24 mg per cubic meter.
Experiment 2: Firefighters placed the heating pack inside the self-heating food packaging box and sealed the vent. Half a minute later, the box quickly bulged, and a large amount of steam burst through the sealed areas, accompanied by a "sizzling" sound. Fortunately, the packaging box had poor sealing; otherwise, it would have been extremely dangerous.
Experiment 3: Firefighters placed the heating pack from the self-heating food into a mineral water bottle to simulate whether danger would occur in a sealed container.
When the experimenter slowly poured water into the mineral water bottle and placed it on the ground, after a few seconds, the bottle quickly expanded, and the bottom was scorched and pierced by high temperature and pressure, spraying out high-pressure steam.
Finally, Staff Officer Zhang Ziqiang of the brigade gave a brief introduction to the experiment: "The bottom of 'self-heating food' has a heating pack, mainly composed of: calcined diatomite, iron powder, aluminum powder, coke powder, activated carbon, salt, quicklime, sodium carbonate, etc. When cold water is added, it reacts, **and the temperature can rise to over 150°C**, **with steam temperatures reaching 200°C**, and the longest heat retention time can be up to 3 hours. **If an accident occurs, it can easily cause burns and other harm.** When consuming such self-heating foods, we should note:
> 1. The lid of the convenience hotpot has a vent. If the vent is blocked, it can cause a small explosion or even burn people.
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> 2. Always use the heating pack strictly according to the instructions, and make sure to open the vent during heating to avoid accidental injury.
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> 3. If you have a glass dining table at home, it's best to place a heat-insulating pad under the "self-heating food" to prevent the glass from shattering.
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> 4. "Self-heating food" is classified as aviation dangerous goods. When flying, never carry or check such food. Additionally, keep it out of reach of children to prevent them from using the heating pack blindly and causing danger.
Content compiled from Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu Business Daily, and Jiangsu News
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