New World's Biggest Pizza

Five Italian chefs have set a new record for the world's largest pizza - which is a staggering 130ft wide and covers an area of nearly 13,000 sq ft.

The massive margherita contains a whopping 19,800 lbs of flour and 8,800 lbs of tomato sauce.

A quintet of specialist pizza chefs worked around the clock for 48 hours to create the colossal Italian favourite.

Cooking the margherita was such a logistical problem the chefs had to bake the dough in 5,234 separate batches.

Using specialist equipment the whole pizza was cooked at varied temperatures, from 300 to 500 degrees Celsius.

Named Ottavia - after the first Roman Emperor Augustus - the gluten free pizza also packs in an impressive 19,800 lbs of mozzarella.

What's more, the chefs used 1,500 lbs of margarine, 550 lbs of rock salt, 420 lbs of vegetable oil and 50 lbs of balsamic vinegar.

The pizza - orgainsed by food specialists Dr. Schar - smashed the previous world record set in 1990 in South Africa which measured 122ft in diameter.

Dovilio Nardi, head of the quintet of chefs, said: "We named the pizza Ottavia to symbolise the hope of a great economic and cultural revival.

"We wanted it to be a symbol of good luck for the recovery of all countries, using the iconic pizza."

Ulrich Ladurner, president of Dr. Schar Group, said: "We decided to endorse this record attempt to show how gluten free food no longer restricts diets.

"Cooking 'gluten free' doesn't mean giving up on tasty food such as pizza."

Images: Rex