College students who believe they have the ultimate appetite can travel to southeast Iowa to try a pizza large enough to feed about 30 people.

Joe Keagle, ISU alumnus and owner of Paul Revere’s Pizza in Mount Pleasant, has recently been added to the “Guinness Book of World Records” for making the world’s largest commercially available pizza.

The winning pizza, which Keagle regularly sells listed on the menu as the Ultimate Party Pizza, consists of a nearly 10-pound dough ball, half a gallon of sauce and about 6 to 8 pounds of cheese.

With a diameter of 4 feet and an area of 1,814 square inches, the pizza was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records officials on May 1 as breaking the previous record.

Until Paul Revere’s winning pizza, a 1,728 square inch rectangular pizza made by Brooks 2 for 1 in Brooks, Alberta, held the record.

“We were making a pizza almost that size and realized how close it was,” Keagle said.

With the help of Steve Gholson, a sheet metal crafter, they were able to create a 48-inch pizza pan.

“The pizza is baked in a regular oven called the Baker’s Pride Y800, the largest oven in the industry, unless custom made,” Keagle said.

The record-breaking pizza takes between 15 to 20 minutes to bake and is available for $99.95.

“We had to buy an SUV and put a new door in the back of the store to get the pizza out for delivery,” Keagle said.

The ultimate pizzas are equivalent to the size of 12 large pizzas and can feed anywhere from 30 to 40 people, Keagle said.

“Eight guys claim to have eaten the whole thing at a WWF pay-per-view party,” he said. “They brought the empty box in the next day.”

In order to break the world record, Keagle needed to have media coverage documenting the pizza’s existence.

So on February 19, Paul Revere’s Pizza held a giant pizza party for the local media. Since then, Keagle said numerous people have been calling and talking about it.

“We’ve been getting calls from all over the U.S.,” he said.

Jeffery Johnson, director of the Alumni Association, said the new record gives Iowa State further exposure.

“This bodes well for an alumnus to be cited in a national publication,” he said. “I think with [Iowa State] having the oldest home economics program, that anytime we’re making movements in the area of food and nutrition is great.”