A Guinness for 3.3-km longganisa?

CABANATUAN CITY — It beat Laoag City’s feat by 1.1 kilometers, but will it make it to the Guinness Book of World Records?

That’s what Cabanatuan officials are hoping for the city’s showpiece last Wednesday — a 3.3-kilometer string of longganisa (pork sausage) that stretched from the Lazaro Francisco Memorial Central School to the intersection of Burgos Avenue and Gabaldon street.

Bobby Pararuan, chairman of the longganisa festival, said it took 10 meat vendors about three hours to churn out the 3.3-kilometer longganisa from 2,560 kilograms of meat.

The city’s pork sausages, which cost about P371,000, trounced the 2.2-kilometer longganisa which Laoag City made in 2001.

Mayor Jay Vergara said they are planning to improve the trademark Cabanatuan longganisa by installing a blast prism to prolong its shelf life in a cold storage plant.

The longganisa festival was one of the highlights of the four-day celebration of the city’s 55th founding anniversary.

Vergara said his wife, Ria, will soon put up a P5-million storage and packaging facility for longganisa and other meat-based products like tocino.

Gov. Tomas Joson III said if properly packaged, Cabanatuan’s longganisa can be a world class-product. — Manny Galvez