An aspiring chef has died just hours after challenging his friend to a chilli-eating contest.

British forklift driver Andrew Lee, 33, used a bag of specially grown red chillies to make an extra hot sauce, which he then dared his girlfriend's brother to eat.

Lee, who had recently passed a medical examination at work, then at a whole platefull of the sauce himself. Soon after, he had a heart attack and died.

Mr Lee took a jar of the sauce to his girlfriend's house as part of a pre-planned contest in which he challenged her brother Michael.

His sister Claire Chadbourne told The Daily Mail the sauce was specifically made for the contest using chillies grown by her father.

"They had a contest over who could make the hottest chilli sauce.

"Andrew had used chillies to make Thai dishes before but had never made anything this hot.

"My dad grew the chillies especially for Andrew. The contest was planned and he gave them to him.

"Andrew just ate it with a plate of Dolmio."

However Mr Lee began complaining of itching skin as he went to bed after the contest, she added.

The next morning his girlfriend, mother of four Samantha Bailey, woke to find him unconscious.

She called an ambulance but paramedics were unable to revive him and Mr Lee was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mrs Chadbourne said Mr Lee had no pre-existing heart problems and seems to have died as a direct result of eating the sauce.

"Who would have thought he could have died from eating chilli sauce? We don't know of anything else that could have caused his death.

"He was perfectly healthy and the post-mortem showed no heart problems."

Toxicology tests are underway to determine whether Mr Lee's death was caused by an adverse reaction to the sauce.