MARTIN Wells likes his food hot. He eats quite a lot of Asian food and he’s been growing his own chilies at his home in St Peter’s, Worcester, for about four years.

The IT director bought a chili plant from the supermarket a few years ago and kept the seeds from some of the chilies to plant the next season.

Last year he nurtured 74 plants of 24 different varieties, including the hottest chili in the world – the Carolina Reaper - which Tesco announced earlier this month it had started selling in its stores.

According to Tesco the Carolina Reaper is officially the hottest chilli pepper in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records, measuring an average 1.5 million Scoville units (the scale used for measuring the heat of chilies).

It goes on to say that another independent test is reported to have recorded the heat level of the Carolina Reaper at an incredible, mouth numbing 2.2 million Scovilles - more than 400 times hotter than a jalapeno, the chilli pepper commonly used on spicy take away or supermarket made pizzas.

Martin said he grew it as an experiment to find out exactly what it was like. “I have eaten it raw but I would not recommend it. It has flavour when you first taste it and then the heat builds up and it gets ferocious and it does not stop and there is nothing that will take it away for about 10 minutes.”

In fact Martin admits he ate two raw Carolina Reapers in 20 minutes. “I do not think I would ever entertain doing it again.” He added a warning that when handling chilies like this you have to wear gloves and make sure you don’t rub your eyes.

His experience with the Carolina Reaper has not spoilt his taste for chilies in food. “I am the main cook in the house and I have eaten them for many years - I have a taste for them.”

He pointed out that the extreme heat chilies are all hybrid strains and new ones are being developed all the time. Because they are so overpoweringly hot, he said they main reason people eat them is to indulge in a bit of bravado.

This year Martin is growing 50 plants of about 15 varieties and will be making sauces from them to use himself and give to friends – one of his friends has already put in an order for 12 bottles.