What’s the ‘Glass Fruit’ Trend and Why Can It Be Dangerous for Kids?

Homemade tanghulu recipes are not safe, experts warn.

Fact checked by Sarah ScottFact checked by Sarah Scott

TikTok has been the driving force behind all manner of viral trends. Some of them are funny, some thought-provoking, and some turn out to be dangerous.

Unfortunately, one of the latest trends launched on TikTok—creating a sweet treat known as tanghulu, or candied fruit, or sometimes glass fruit—falls into the latter category.

Shriners Children's Boston has been working to raise awareness about this trend, which can cause serious scald burns and has resulted in children needing emergency room treatment for those burns.

What's more, word of mouth is spreading among health care providers nationally and internationally about the growing number of young patients they are treating who have been impacted by such severe burns after trying the glass fruit and similar recipes popularized by TikTok.

What Is the Homemade Tanghulu Trend?

The glass fruit trend is a homemade take on a popular street food called tanghulu found throughout Asia. Vendors in the region sell skewered fruit that's been dipped into a molten candy coating that cracks when you bite into it.

Over on TikTok, this street treat is currently experiencing massive popularity. Videos explaining how to make tanghulu, which requires liquifying sugar in order to prepare it, have garnered millions of views.

Many of the videos explaining the recipe instruct viewers to mix sugar into a few cups of water and heat it in the microwave to extreme temperatures. Once the sugar is melted using this approach, fruit such as strawberries, cherries, or grapes, can be dipped into the hot liquid in order to give the food a shiny, sweet coating.

The key to making glass fruit however, is that the sugar must be heated to at least 300 degrees Fahrenheit in order to create that so-called shiny glass fruit coating or appearance that cracks when you bite into it (after it has cooled).

In TikTok videos demonstrating the recipe preparation, you can see the hot sugar and water mixture visibly boiling and bubbling in the microwave. All of which means that extremely careful handling is required in order to safely remove the hot liquid from the microwave and use it to coat the fruit.

And that's where the challenges with this recipe emerge.

Homemade Tanghulu Recipe Dangers

As Shriners Children's Boston made clear in its press release, health care providers have been seeing a correlated increase in children needing care for severe burns since the glass fruit trend began spreading on TikTok.

The burns have primarily been from children spilling the hot sugar, Colleen Ryan, MD, says in the press release.

“When sugar is melted in the microwave like this, it has a high heat capacity, meaning it stores the heat energy,” Dr. Ryan says in the press release. “If spilled, it can create a severe scald burn, much like spilling hot soup, but it can cause a much deeper burn because of sugar’s properties."

Dr Ryan continues, "Kids or teens can quickly grab the pot or bowl and the hot fluid splashes, spills, or splatters over them. The result is one or several small but very deep burns, often in critical areas such as the hand or the face.”

Surface burns may not be the only concern about the glass fruit recipe, either.

"Heating sugar to around 300°F significantly exceeds the boiling point of water. This temperature can inflict severe burns upon skin contact or, more alarmingly, if ingested," explains Joel “Gator” Warsh, MD, MSc, a board-certified pediatrician. "Such exposure can harm the mouth, tongue, throat, and even the esophagus, potentially leading to serious injuries necessitating medical intervention."

While the recipe does call for dipping the hot, sugar-coated fruit into an ice-bath after applying the sugar in order to help it cool down, some children could be tempted to take a bite before this step.

Furthermore, even after the sugar coating appears to have hardened, the burning danger may remain, say some health care providers.

"In order to create the 'glass' effect, sugar is being heated to its melting point," says Christina Johns, MD, a pediatrician, pediatric emergency medicine physician and senior medical advisor at PM Pediatric Care. "Sugar melts at very high temperatures, and remains hot even as it hardens, so this can cause significant burns to any body part that comes in contact with it."

Why these burns can be worse than others

As for contact burns from accidentally spilling the hot liquid onto a body part, the sticky and viscous properties of sugar allow it to cling to skin and mucosal surfaces. That stickiness prolongs contact between hot sugar and sensitive tissues, worsening injuries.

"Since sugar is thick and sticky, it doesn’t wipe off easily and stays hot longer than a flash burn, so it has time to do more damage," explains Dr. Johns.

The likelihood of incurring contact burns from spilling the liquid sugar may also be exacerbated by using plastic or glass containers in a microwave to heat the mixture.

Ann Reardon, an Australian dietician, posted a video on YouTube explaining that even plastic that's supposed to be “microwave safe” can collapse or leak at such high temperatures. Additionally, if extremely hot glass containers used to heat the mixture are then transferred from the microwave to a cold kitchen counter, the glass can potentially shatter.

Several commenters on another TikTok video demonstrating the glass fruit recipe confirmed the reality of the types of concerns expressed by Reardon.

"I tried this and the cup exploded," said one viewer, while another wrote, "I tried to do this but the sugar cup thing broke the glass then I didn’t tell my mom." Another viewer shared: "I just made it and now I have 3rd degree burns."

Talking to Kids About the Tanghulu Trend

Experts stress that this is a trend to skip because of the dangers associated with it.

"This recipe method involving the microwave is appealing because it's quick, easy, and good, but it's not worth the risk,” says Laura Purdy, MD, a family practitioner with Swell Medical PC. "Sugar should always be heated over the stove stop when cooking at home and always done in a safe manner. This means having the right tools."

Dr. Warsh concurs, stressing that the likelihood of severe injuries associated with the preparation of glass fruit warrant avoiding this particular trend altogether.

Instead, he suggests communicating with your children about how the high temperatures necessary for creating glass fruit can lead to burns and other injuries. He also says parents can promote safer recipe alternatives that do not involve elevated temperatures.

Some of the safer kid-friendly options include fruit dipped in raw cacao or fruit dipped in honey.

"Parents should recognize that although 'glass fruit' may appear to be an entertaining snack option, the inherent risks far exceed its visual allure," says Dr. Warsh.

What To Do if Your Kid Gets Burned

Even if you try to warn your kid about the dangers, they may still attempt to try the trend at home. If your child is impacted by a burn as a result of making glass fruit, Shriners Children's Boston recommends the following steps:

• Remove the child from the hot liquid immediately

• Remove any clothing at site of injury

• Cool the injury with cool tap water

• Do not put ice on a burn

For more Parents news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Parents.