By Hannah Brelsford
There are over 40,000 world records so it should come as no surprise that there are quite a few about candy. Not every candy-related world record is like the biggest chocolate bar, some of them are very obscure, like the longest line of M&M pretzel candies lined up in 30 seconds to the most people unwrapping candy simultaneously.
It’s hard to say how many world records about candy there are because Guinness World Records are always evolving. So here are a few candy world records that are sure to blow your minds and activate your sweet tooth.
Longest Candy: On April 13, 2011, Look-O-Look International, a candy company, achieved a candy that was about 6,597 feet long (2,011 meters). It was a long strawberry fizzy belt that took about four hours to make. The candy was distributed to 1,700 visitors about a month later in the Netherlands. That’s about 4 feet per person, their sweet tooth was surely left satisfied that day.
Largest Candy Cane: Believe it or not this record was set all the way back in 1998 in Michigan. It was made by Fabiano's Homemade Chocolate and Ice Cream. The candy cane ended up being 36 ft and 7 inches long. It’s safe to say that this confection was a mint lover's dream and a mint hater's nightmare.
Largest Gummy Candy: One of the best ways to gain attention is to do something big, even better to do something never done before. To raise awareness for the protection of dolphins, who are endangered because of human activity, Shiba made a HUGE dolphin gummy that weighed about 2,673 pounds (1,212.5 kilograms). It was made in Iran very recently in January 2022.
Largest Lollipop: See’s Candies made the largest lollipop ever, one of their most iconic products. It was chocolate flavored and weighed 7,003 pounds in July 2012. See’s Candies makes over 26 million pounds of candy every year so even though 7,000 pounds sounds like a lot, it was only a small addition to their mass production every year.
Biggest-selling Candy: It may come as no surprise but M&Ms set the record for the biggest selling candy in 2007. It had an annual sales of 1.8 billion dollars in the US. With many flavors and many sizes of packaging, M&Ms has so much to offer from peanut butter to fudge brownie. M&Ms is also an evolving candy and will last the test on time through its evolving flavors.
Largest Bag of Candy: The largest bag of candy was arguably a bag of one of the most controversial candies in history, licorice. To be more specific, salty licorice. The bag was made by Kouvolan Lakritsi Oy in Finland in May of 2020. It weighed about 1,827 pounds (829.1kilos). That’s more candy than any person would ever want or need and I think they might get bored of it if they had to eat it for the rest of their lifetime.
Longest Candy Necklace: To set the record for the longest candy necklace ever made Koko’s Confectionery & Novelty decided they had to go over the top. In Cockeysville Maryland, in December 2014 they made the longest candy necklace ever which totaled up to be 5,361 ft and 1.5 inches long. That’s almost a whole mile long! It’s hard to imagine where they made and stored such a large piece of candy.
Longest String of Licorice: Forget about a package of licorice now you can get your full licorice serving in just one string, or at least in April 2012 you could. Latritsfabriken in collaboration with Scandi Candy made the longest string of licorice to ever be made which measured 1,702 ft and 9 inches long. This string of licorice was made by 12 people in Sweden and took a little over 3 hours to complete!
Largest Collection of Candy Wrappers: It may seem like a strange record, especially a strange record to set but it exists after all. Milan Lukich Valdivia from Peru set the record in October 2015 with his collection of 5,065 wrappers.
His collection lasted 32 years with wrappers from 49 countries. I wonder which one was his favorite but I am pretty sure he either doesn’t remember or has too many to count.
Largest Candy Dispenser: Taller than the average-sized human, at 7 ft and 10 inches tall the largest candy dispenser is a bit hard to reach.
This oversized plastic dispenser was made by Gary Doss in January 2007.
It was in the shape of a snowman so whenever you tipped back its head it would dispense candy. It wasn’t the most practical piece of candy machinery but it got the job done while putting smiles on people’s faces.
Most Expensive Candy Dispenser: With about 70 million candy dispensers made per year Pez is one of the most popular handheld candy dispensers. It’s hard to believe they are the most expensive being that Pez isn't normally that expensive. However, in 1998 Pez sold a set of three luxury dispensers. The set consisted of a Gold Elephant, Mickey Mouse, and a headless dispenser that was embossed with “Pez-Haas”. Each of the Pez dispensers was $6,000 but as a set, they sold for $18,000.
Most Downloaded Mobile Game: Candy Crush Saga set the record for the most downloaded mobile game on December 31st, 2014. Candy Crush is a match puzzle game that allows players to swap pieces of candy on a board to make them match which eliminates those candies. To win you must obtain a certain score through those candy elimination skills and sequences.
Candy soars over the top record charts and even sets records that aren’t related to candy at all, like the video game one. However, this should come as no surprise to anyone, just on Halloween over 600 million pounds - no, this is not a typo - of candy are sold in America alone. That’s just one day so it’s hard to imagine how much is sold and consumed yearly and how many records can be set with that candy.
Candy is for everyone and everyone (and I mean everyone) has at least a little bit of a sweet tooth. Not everyone will love a specific candy but there is candy for everyone. Just like world records are a part of our culture, so are candy lovers (that's us!)
By the way, our beloved blogger Hannah tried to break a few candy-related World Records. Learn more!
