Chinese Fried Rice Guinness World Record Disqualified In Yangzhou For Being Mostly Inedible, Used As Pig Feed

The Chinese city that broke the world record for the largest serving of fried rice has been disqualified after Guinness officials learned that much of the rice was inedible and used as pig feed, the BBC reported. Yangzhou, in eastern China, surpassed the record Thursday by cooking 4.19 tons of the dish and distributing most of it to schools for students to eat for free, according to a press release from Yangzhou’s tourism bureau, which supervised the event.

But shortly after the record was announced, local media reported pictures emerging that showed the rice being loaded into garbage trucks and eventually sent to pig farms. Yangzhou’s tourism bureau confirmed to local media that approximately 330 pounds of the rice had gone to waste.

“It is now clear that over 150 kilograms of fried rice was not fit for human consumption,” said Sharon Yang, the Greater China marketing director for Guinness, according to AP. Guinness rules stipulate that all food be consumed by people and not wasted in order to break the record.

The record-breaking event had been witnessed by Guinness certification officer Cheng Dong, and involved 300 cooks frying the rice in individual woks before combining it into one enormous bowl. But a portion of the rice was not considered edible after it reportedly spent four hours in the cooker.

Yangzhou fried rice is the city’s signature dish, internationally renowned for its combination of ingredients such as eggs, chicken, ham, shrimp, carrots and peas. The record attempt had been held in an effort to celebrate local cuisine and bolster Yangzhou’s reputation among foreign tourists.

According to the Guinness website, the Turkey Culinary Federation holds the current record for cooking 6,945 lbs of fried rice on Sept. 27, 2014.