The giant spud was found wedged in a machine at a food packaging facility in Odensbacken, central Sweden, where it got the attention of staff.
"We package between three and four hundred tonnes of potato each week but this one was different. It was so big that it got stuck in our processing machine and when I weighed it we saw that it was 1.98 kilos," Anders Eriksson of L.E.V & Co packing station told The Local.
The monster potato, which bears a striking resemblance to Kate Winslet in the famous nude couch scene in the film Titanic, is of the fontane variety normally used for baking purposes. It was grown on the island of Gotland before being shipped over to Odensbacken which is just outside Örebro.
"Normally in Sweden with this kind of potato we would fill it with skagenröra (creamy seafood) but this one went straight back to my fridge," Eriksson said with a chuckle.
Ironically, Eriksson's discovery of the big potato coincided with an appeal by Swedish Potato AB (svensk potatis) to find the nation's largest spud.
The record previously stood at 1.62 kilos set back in 1998, meaning that Eriksson's potato smashed, or should that be mashed, its way to the top by a monster 360 grammes. L.E.V & Co has form in the spud stakes as last year they found a potato which weighed in at 1.7 kilos.
"The contest of who has cultivated the latest potato has been settled. Congratulations to L.E.V & Co on winning," read a statement on the Swedish Potato website.
As well as winning the competition, Eriksson intends to tuck into the potato with the rest of the staff.
"Our plan is to use for lunch during the week perhaps with some seafood or cheese filling. It'll be interesting to see how many people it feeds," he said.
The record for the largest potato in the world, according to the Guinness book of records, is held by an English gardener who harvested a spud which weighed in at 3.8 kilos back in 2010.
The Local/pr
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