Yangzhou stripped of fried rice record after waste scandal

300 people make a 4.19-ton Yangzhou fried rice in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, Oct 22, 2015. [Photo by Meng Delong/Asianewsphoto]

BEIJING - A group of 300 people who cooked four tonnes of fried rice in Yangzhou in the eastern province of Jiangsu have been told that they failed to break the world record because the food had been wasted, confirmed Guinness World Records Ltd. on Monday morning.

"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 organizer admitted that 150 kilograms of the rice was handled improperly. The products created in any record attempt involving food must be given to people and not wasted. Hereby, we have notified the organizer that the record was revoked," she said.

This decision came after reports that the rice was used as pig feed.

This year is the 2,500th anniversary of Yangzhou City. As part of the celebrations, 300 people last Friday spent four hours cooking 4.19 tonnes of Yangzhou fried rice.

The fried rice, which is flavored with eggs, sea cucumber and other ingredients, reportedly broke the previous record, which had been held by Turkey.

The organizer of the event had said that the fried rice would be distributed to students of four schools.