A pizzeria has come up with an incredibly delicious scheme to try and put an end to the so-called Tide Pod Challenge, a dangerous viral trend that involves young people actually ingesting the detergent capsules.
In the hopes of encouraging teens to chew on something other than the poisonous pods, Vinnie’s Pizzeria in Williamsburg, Brooklyn decided to make a pie that looks just like the capsules.
Called Pied Pods, each slice of the pizza looks just like the real thing, thanks to the topping of swirled cheese that has been dyed blue and orange.
Pied Pods: A Brooklyn pizzeria created Pied Pods, a pizza that looks like Tide Pods, in hopes of preventing teenagers from ingesting laundry detergent
Similar: Pied Pods is pizza that looks like the detergent, but is stuffed with mozzarella cheese and pepperoni, baked in the oven, and topped with melted cheese, dyed orange and blue
With kids continuing to ingest poisonous laundry detergent as part of the insane internet craze, Tide Pod Challenge, the pizzeria thought that real food would be a healthier alternative.
Vinnie’s posted a photo of their new offering in a since-deleted Instagram post the other day, stating why they decided to create the new dish.
‘Listen. We’re concerned about the youths. They’re eating laundry detergent pods. We needed to do something.
‘Our Pied Pods have those bright, alluring colors that youths crave but are 100 per cent edible and 100 per cent not poison.
‘Plus they’re delicious. They’re stuffed with mozzarella cheese and pepperoni, baked to perfection and topped with melted, dyed cheese, for that hypnotic pizzazz.
‘We’re hoping that Pied Pods will be a gateway food for kids to get back into actual food. Hope, Not Soap!’
Instagram deleted their original post, so they reposted it again today, and it was deleted again. Apparently, the social media site thinks that a pizza even resembling Tide Pods in any way, is not allowed.
One of the co-owners of Vinnie’s and the creator of Pied Pod, Sean Berthiaume, shared with Vice, how the idea came to him.
Dangerous: Teenagers are taking part in a viral internet craze, the Tide Pod Challenge, where they film themselves eating a detergent capsule, gagging, and then daring their other friends
Vinnie’s: Sean Berthiaume, co-owner of the pizzeria and creator of Pied Pods, said, ‘We’re hoping that Pied Pods will be a gateway food for kids to get back into actual food’
‘It’s pretty boring, actually. It was just me coming into work and figuring out to do it. So I woke up and rushed to work to actually make the Pied Pods. If I’m not at work, I’m usually thinking about work and, I guess, dreaming about it.’
As to why Sean thinks kids were attracted to the laundry pods in the first place, he said, ‘I think what makes the pods so appetizing is the swirling hypnotic colors.’
While the Pied Pod is not currently on the pizzeria’s menu, it is a possibility that Sean isn’t ruling out yet. ‘If people start coming in and asking for them, then I’ll put them on the menu,’ he told Vice.
The Brooklyn pizzeria is known for their creative pies and is possibly most famous for their Mini Vinnie, which was a regular slice covered in little mini slices on top.
They’ve followed suit whenever there was a trend or popular event, like the time same-sex marriage was made legal and they created a rainbow slice and when Prince died, they rolled out a slice with purple-dyed cheese.
The Tide Pod Challenge is a viral internet trend where teenagers film themselves biting and eating actual laundry detergent capsules while gagging and daring other friends to participate.
Since the challenge started to trend, there have been 37 cases of teenagers ingesting Tide Pods reported in 2018 alone, with at least 10 deaths linked to the ingestion of the detergent pods since it’s launch in 2012.