For decades, people have used January as the month to make major changes in their lives. Before, it was all about New Year’s Resolutions. However, the internet and social media allowed people from around the world to coordinate their goals. As a result, we have things like Dry January in which people put down booze for a month. In recent years, more and more people are also giving up meat and other animal products for Veganuary. One food producer in Northern Ireland decided to get an early start on Veganuary. Last year, Finnebrogue Artisan secured the Guinness World Record for World’s Largest Vegan Burger.
Finnebrogue Artisan is one of the UK’s leading meat producers. However, in recent years, they’ve expanded to meat-free and plant-based options, according to Guinness World Records. Their line of vegan meat substitutes includes the Naked Evolution Burger as well as vegan bacon. Both of those went into the creation of the world’s largest vegan burger.
World Record Requirements
Finnebrogue Artisan had a tall order when it came to creating the world’s largest vegan burger. First and foremost, all of the ingredients had to be certified vegan. Additionally, the burger had to have a patty, a bun big enough to hold the patty, one condiment, and one vegetable. That sounds like a pretty basic burger until you take into account that it had to be at least 100 kg or 220 pounds.
The folks at Finnebrogue took it up a notch, though. The burger consisted of
- 7 kg vegan cheese
- 5 kg vegan bacon
- 10 kg tomatoes
- 4.5 kg lettuce
- 2 kg tobacco onions
- 5 kg pickles
- 5 kg Naked Burger sauce
All told, that’s 38.5 kg of add-ons. The massive bun and patty combo made up the rest of the weight of the largest vegan burger in the world.
Making the World’s Largest Vegan Burger
The patty used in the world’s largest vegan burger was equivalent to 1,274 of Finnebrogue’s Naked Evolution Burger patties. They created it at their plant-based food production facility in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. The food producer also built a rig to help flip the patty as well as one on which to build the final burger.
Sean Kearney, Innovation Process Manager for Finnebrogue Artisan spoke about creating the world’s largest vegan burger. “We were set a target weight of 100 kg, but we knew from the outset we wanted to exceed that.” Then, he discussed some of the behind-the-scenes work. “We designed and built everything, including a swing to aid in turning the patter during cooking.” That, he said, was the hardest part. The patty took nearly nine hours to cook.
After constructing the burger, it weighed a whopping 160.5 kg or 353.1 pounds.
Guinness World Records rules state that the food cannot go to waste. As a result, some of the Finnebrogue team ate pieces of the largest vegan burger ever for lunch. Then, they donated the rest to The Simon Community, a local charity that helps feed the homeless.
