Axel Reyes of the California Highway Patrol watches as the final
bins of fresh fruit are dumped into a 2,000-gallon water tank.
Reyes served as a witness to the record-breaking event.
Esteban Cortez / The Collegian

Fresno State students from the Marketing 188 course have broken the world record for the world’s largest fruit salad. Students, community members and other organizations cut fruit from 8:18 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4.

The official weight of the fruit salad was 10,440 pounds. The fruit was mixed with fifty 32-ounce containers of lemon juice. Two forklifts were used to carry the fruit to a refrigerator where the fruit will be stored until Friday morning.

Friday morning, some of the fruit salad will be donated to Poverello House, Fresno Rescue Mission and other local charities.

In the afternoon, Fresno State student and community members can get their share of the fruit salad.

“We will have a drive through where people can get a bag of fruit,” Fresno State student and organizer of the event Nick Morales said.

Fresno State students and active participant Sam Mabanta calculated there were about 100 volunteers that helped cut and prepare the fruit. The large number of volunteers began early, cutting about 1,000 pounds of fruit an hour.

“We thought we were going to finish by noon,” Mabanta said. By the afternoon, the number of volunteers began to decrease, which slowed down the preparation process.

Morales said there where two or three nicked fingers and many blisters, but no serious emergencies. Volunteers with hurt fingers were moved to other areas where they weren’t in contact with the fruit.

Morales said he was very happy with the results of the event and he would do it again. “On behalf of the group, we would do it again.”