By Boris Zyumbyulev || Staff Writer
A new Bulgarian achievement has entered the Guinness Book World of Records book. The employees of Mars Incorporated Bulgaria put together the largest candy mosaic on Friday, the 29th of September. Their project was to take over one million M&M candies and recreate the infamous logo.
Put in place one by one, the classic M&M chocolate candies span 23 meters (250 feet) in length and 7 meters (75 feet) width, which is 161 square metres or 1732 square feet. The logo itself makes up almost a third of the area: a 12 by 4 meters (130 by 43 feet) area or approximately 50 square meters (540 square feet). The size is almost the same a volleyball court covered by one candy thick layer of m&m’s. The mosaic contains 1,030,400 individual candies, and the total weight is over one ton.
44 Bulgarian employees participated in the project and managed to finish in in just 31 hours and 17 minutes. The mosaic is in the Paradise Center mall in Sofia, Bulgaria. The whole process was tracked by representatives of the Guinness Book of World Records, who came to the country specifically for the event.
Paulina Sapinska, the official judge from the Guinness Book of World Record, congratulated the participants: “Your achievement is truly impressive. Often people around the world attempt to put together mosaics much smaller, enough to beat the older record. But here I saw something much bigger. I observed the arrangement of the candy and I was left fascinated by the enthusiasm by the Bulgarian people, who worked through the long hours.”
“Setting a new world record for the Guinness Book is an extraordinary experience and feeling. I’m happy that the biggest chocolate candy brand in the world M&M’s was awarded the new title. Together with the Bulgarian employees of Mars Incorporated Bulgaria we managed to break the record and enter the Book”, said Martin Dimitrov, the brand manager of the Mars Incorporated.
Up until the Bulgarian achievement, the previous record for the same category in the Guinness Book was held by the USA. It spanned a total area of 11.5 square meters or approximately 125 square feet. The owner of the previous title was Jackson McKenzie, then only 17 years old, from Idaho earned it in 2014 with the help of friends and family. Using 70,980 candies he finished the mosaic in 6 days.
Sophomore Boris Zyumbyulev is a staff writer. His email is bzyumbyu@fandm.edu.