Fresno State marketing students now hold the World’s Largest Fruit Salad after verification this week by Guinness World Records.

On Nov. 3, 2011, at PR Farms in Clovis, the team of students cut and mixed 10,440 pounds of fruit to  breaking the previous record by three-quarters of a ton.

The fruit salad team organized in Dr. William Rice’s “Strategic Planning in Marketing” (Marketing 188) class. Nicholas Morales of Dinuba; Francisco Rodriguez of King City, Michael Leal, Scott MacKellar, Alfredo Escalante and Colin Hough, all of Fresno, Sam Mabanta of Lamont; Tyler Guthrie of Goleta; Ryan Sherwood of Beaumont; and Gabby Gutierrez of Pixley were team members.

They recruited 97 Fresno State students and community volunteers to assist in the world record attempt by slicing peaches, nectarines, plums, Asian pears and apples and adding plenty of lemon juice before most of the salad was donated to charity.

Guinness World Records certification requires independent witnesses from the local community and extensive documentation. In this case, the local verification came from Axel Reyes, a California Highway Patrol officer, and Frank Alvarez, a forestry technician with the U.S. Forest Service.

It was the second record set by a team of Fresno State marketing students certified in less than a month. In July, Guinness World Records verified that the team could claim the World’s Largest Fruit Smoothie.

Teams in Rice’s class this semester are gearing up to attempt to break more records, he said.

Students in the class have the option of several marketing campaigns and Guinness World Records are a popular goal, but a major undertaking. Rice said the Guinness exercise “gives students a macro-view of accomplishing a project from beginning to end” – strategy, planning, finances, operations management, accounting, public relations, advertising, legal issues and community engagement.

“Every student who has accomplished this task walks away with a level of ‘I can do this’ attitude going into the market place,” Rice said. “These kinds of projects get our students on the world stage and provide them with the hands-on experience that propels them into thinking globally and working more efficiently.”

(Copy by University Communications news student assistant Alejandra Garcia, a mass communication and journalism major.)

Related links: