When is a potato not a potato? New Zealand couple’s world record dream smashed

The tuber became something of a local celebrity, after the couple began posting photos of it on Facebook, wearing a hat, and even built a cart to tow it around

Donna Craig-Brown holds ‘Doug’, which was believed to be the world’s largest potato, on her farm near Hamilton, New Zealand (Colin Craig-Brown/AP)

A New Zealand couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to mash.

Guinness World Records wrote to say that scientific testing had found it was not, in fact, a potato at all, but a tuber of a gourd.