A spokeswoman for Guinness World Records said yesterday that despite the group producing 4 tons of fried rice, the fact that they threw a few of it away meant their efforts had been in vain.
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“We held back on publicizing the results because we had been reviewing the information submitted by the organizer”, Sharon Yang, Guinness Greater China marketing director, told Xinhua.
“The discarded rice will be sent to a pig farm”.
Sang Jian with the China Cuisine Association (CCA) said that workers only had dumped the “non-edible” portion of the record-setting serving, while the lion’s share was distributed to locals and university students free of charged as planned, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.
Using the rice as pig feed might not technically be wasting it, but Guinness’ rules are apparently very strict about what happens to food used in pursuit of records, and the food must be eaten by humans, not pigs.
According to the Guinness website, the Turkey Culinary Federation holds the current record for cooking 6,945 lbs of fried rice on September 27, 2014.
This year marks the 2,500th anniversary of the establishment of the city of Yangzhou, known for its connection with Marco Polo and its trademark fried rice dish.
It was estimated to have cost them about 140,000 yuan (US$22,000) to make.
Media reports identified the organizer of the event as the World Association of Chinese Cuisine, though local authorities denied any links to it.
Fried rice is Yangzhou’s signature dish, combining rice, eggs, chicken, ham, shrimp, scallop and vegetables.
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In response, the organisers clarified that they had to consider safety and health issues.
