A Potato So Big Even Guinness World Records Doesn't Believe It

Whether you couldn't resist taking a peep at Guinness World Record books during book fairs growing up or you just have to reference the website from time to time to learn about some of the most extreme things that are out there, those who make and break the records are exceptional. From people who perform such tasks to things that break existing records, those feats are always changing. And that's exactly what happened with the latest potato to be submitted to the records. But in this case, the potato was actually so large that even Guinness World Records called in for additional verification, according to Food & Wine.

The past two records were set by the same man, Peter Glazebrook. According to BBC, Glazebrook grew an 8 lb and 4 oz potato in 2010. He then topped his own record with a potato that weighed more than 10 pounds in 2011, according to CNN Travel. While Glazebrook works hard to grow an array of extraordinarily large vegetables in England as a hobby, the latest excessively large potato was actually stumbled upon in New Zealand.

According to CNN Travel, Colin and Donna Craig-Brown found the questionably large potato growing in their yard in November 2021. They even named the potato Dug and submitted their surprisingly large find to Guinness World Records (via Food & Wine). Initially, the potato weighed a whopping 17.4 lbs, but it did lose some mass after being stored in their freezer while waiting for a response from Guinness World Records.

But with the potato weighing more than 7 lbs more than the previous record, the record keepers had a few questions that needed to be answered before updating the title. Colin Craig-Brown told The Times that the potato had been evaluated by "experts and agronomists and field scientists," but Guinness World Records reached out to Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) to test a piece of the potato for DNA testing. While this was discouraging news for the couple, they're dedicated to completing the tests. While everyone holds their breath in anticipation of the findings, Colin is already making plans to turn Dug into vodka once the record has been determined.