World’s longest ‘torta’ sandwich: Mexico City breaks record with 173-foot ‘torta’

The ninth annual Torta Fair in Mexico City opened with something big: a torta sandwich measuring 173 feet long.

And depending on who you ask, it is both the world's longest 'torta' sandwich AND the longest sandwich in Latin America. Titles given, respectively, by the World Records Academy and the Guinness Book of World Records.

Dozens of cooks worked together to create the seemingly endless torta sandwich — comprised of thousands of pieces of bread, topped with hundreds of liters of mayonnaise and 70 different ingredients including mustard and spicy sauces.

It took the assembly line of cooks a little more than four minutes to build the sandwich, a Mexican staple food often stuffed with grilled meats, cheese and vegetables.

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Each section of the long torta was given a different flavour, the Daily Mail reports.

And while the World Records Academy calls the sandwich "the world's longest torta sandwich", according to their records there are other types of sandwiches that are even longer.

The Guinness world record for longest sandwich remains a staggering 2,081 feet.

The sandwich-making was organized by local government in the city, hoping that the huge torta will give the sandwich a much-needed boost in sales.

"What we are trying to do is to support the social development of small businesses which are normally family businesses," says local government official, Elena Edith Segura Trejo.

"In the last ten years, the sale of the torta has fallen 60 percent due to foreign fast food which does not have the same nutritional value of the torta,"

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Big food is always big news.

Last July, "Juicy's Outlaw Burger" was awarded the title of world's biggest hamburger, weighing in a whopping 777 pounds.

In May, chocolatiers at Qzina Specialty Foods in Irvine, California smashed previous records with a 18,239-pound chocolate sculpture.

Check out a slideshow of record-breaking food here.

Watch the video below about how to turn humble beets into a delicious summer side dish.