Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) figures released under the Official Information Act revealed more Otago people were injuring themselves on hot food, despite a national decline.
In the ''what you were doing'' section of the ACC claim form, 92 Otago people injured themselves with something ''hot'' or ''heated'' last year - a 37% increase from the 67 injured people in 2011.
An ACC spokeswoman said the claims included exterior burns after a diner dropped hot noodles on themselves and interior burns when diners ate hot fish and hot pies.
A Dunedin man (48), who did not want to be named, said he had his injury logged with ACC after he burnt his oesophagus on the filling of a mince and cheese pie.
He had reheated the pie in a 630W microwave at his workplace, as he had many times before.
''When I reheat a pie in the microwave, I put it in the same spot and for the same time - 55 seconds.''
However, the pie had been off-centre in the microwave and he had unknowingly heated it unevenly, he said.
On his second bite, he burnt himself on the ''super-hot'' pie filling.
He had swallowed the second bite at speed, assuming the second mouthful would be the same temperature as the first, he said.
His oesophagus remained sore a week later and his doctor logged his gullet injury with ACC in case surgery was needed, he said.
The injury healed naturally but he could not eat another pie for a month, he said.
Hot food injury rates cooled nationally, with a 2% decrease from 1861 claims in 2011 to 1809 last year.
Southland's statistics simmered, with 22 injuries last year, the same number as in 2013.
A New Zealand police officer gained a global audience after providing pie-eating advice to an alleged offender in 2009.
Sergeant Guy Baldwin, of Auckland, advised a potential car thief to ''always blow on the pie'' in the television show Police Ten 7.
Since the segment was uploaded to YouTube it has been viewed nearly 500,000 times.
