Eating contest is one of the oldest sports in which people consume a lot of food in a short time for the prize. The first recorded pie-eating contest took place in Toronto in 1878. This sport is gaining popularity day by day, and more and more competition are being held all over the world. However, most don’t enjoy these contests because they find them disgusting to the point of being nauseating.
The industrial revolution changed a lot about food. Inventions like refrigeration, canning, and other food storage methods have allowed us to produce more food. With better food storage and better farming methods, food became a lot more plentiful, which meant that eating contests were now more doable than ever before.
Since electricity was still relatively rare, many local fairs throughout the U.S began to feature eating contests as a way to entertain people. Many of these contests focused on local crops such as corn, watermelon, or apples; eventually, pies began to reign supreme as the competitive eating food of choice. Here below are some historical photos of different eating contests.
