McGill breaks world record for biggest fruit salad

The McGill community broke a Guinness World Records title today by creating an 11,197-pound fruit salad, the largest fruit salad in the world. The completed fruit salad was weighed shortly before 4:30 p.m. by a Guinness World of Records official.

Volunteers from all parts of the McGill community gathered to create the gigantic salad, a large majority of which is destined to local charity organizations. The event, led by McGill Food and Dining Services, in collaboration with a myriad of partners, was part of the revamped McGill Orientation Week, held from Aug. 25 to Sept. 2.

The challenge consisted of chopping more than 5,000 pounds of watermelon, 1,300 pounds of cantaloupe, 1,000 pounds of honeydew, 2,250 pounds of pineapple, 220 pounds of apples and 360 pounds of strawberries, among other components. More than half of the fruit was harvested from McGill's Macdonald campus, home of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition.

The event aimed to promote community engagement, sustainable practices – such as buying local products – and healthy eating. It will benefit a number of the city's charities including Moisson Montréal, The Old Brewery Mission, Dans la Rue, Welcome Hall Mission and Meals on Wheels, who will be receiving over 60 per cent of the fruit salad. In addition, about 300 portions of the salad will be sold in McGill cafeterias, the proceeds of which will be donated to Centraide.

McGill's composter on campus, Big Hanna, will be composting between 500 and 1,000 pounds of the rinds and peels from the challenge. The remainder will be composted by the City of Montreal.

Many of McGill's food suppliers participated in the challenge, including Aramark, Hector Larivée and GFS. Tzanet, Bertoldi and Balance GTR supplied select equipment, such as knives, cutting boards and the official scale for the event.

The Guinness World Records title for largest fruit salad – at 10,440 pounds – was previously held by California State University at Fresno.

Provided by McGill University