SAN JOSE (AFP) - Members of Costa Rica's Chinese community celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Snake by setting the world record on Tuesday for the largest amount of fried rice ever cooked.

Briton Ralph Hannah, an inspector with the Guinness World Records, certified the win after putting the giant meal - enough to feed some 7,000 people - on a scale.

The official weight: 837kg, which nearly doubles the previous record.