A group in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province who set the Guinness World Record on Friday for "largest portion of fried rice" has refuted online accusations of wasting the food afterwards.
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.
Witnessed by an official Guinness representative, a total 300 cooks concocted the 4.19-ton portion of Yangzhou fried rice at the Songjia Sports & Leisure Park on Friday.
However, controversy sparked when an online video showed several workers after the event shoveling the famed stir-fried rice from a giant porcelain bowl into a garbage truck.
According to an official surnamed Qiu with the Yangzhou Cuisine Association, the event's co-organizer, only the top layer of rice was discarded because it was not sanitary.
"We disposed of it for health safety concerns," Qiu said.
"The discarded rice will be sent to a pig farm. It's not fit for human consumption, but it should be fine for pigs," Sang of the CCA told media.
The event drew criticism from many on Chinese social media.
"The record was broken by some hare-brained idiots who wasted food for a ridiculous promotional stunt," one netizen wrote.
Few defended the action. "You cannot eat the contaminated rice anyway, it's unhealthy," wrote another social media user.
