A new speed eating benchmark was established at the weekend when a new record was set for most dumplings eaten in two minutes during a food festival in New York.

Local resident Seth Grudberg managed to guzzle an incredible 18 of the Asian appetizers within the allotted time period during a contest at the 3 rd Annual Tang's Natural Dumpling Festival in downtown Manhattan.

Speed eating competitions have become a fixture of the festival over the past few years, but this year organisers Chef One, a local Asian food company, decided to see if any contestants could officially set a Guinness World Records title.

Dumpling 2.jpg

With dumpling eating a new category for Guinness World Records, a minimum target was set at eight dumplings being eaten in two minutes for a record to be set.

The guidelines for this record state that contenders are not permitted to drink any water during the attempt or use any condiments on the dumplings.

Additionally, the dumplings have to be consumed one at a time - participants had to open their mouths following each dumpling to show the previous one was completely swallowed.

Dumplin 3.jpg

Twelve brave visitors to the festival decided to participate in the attempt and were brought out in 3 groups of 4.

The amount of dumplings consumed by the participants ranged from seven to an amazing 17, but no one could match Seth's record breaking display.

While he mortgage loan processor is new to speed eating, he has already achieved some early success with his new-found talent.

"I recently last month entered my first eating contest, at Fairway on the Upper West Side and won a $100 gift card for eating 50 blueberry pancakes in 10 minutes", he revealed.

Seth, who only found out about the competition the day before, admitted setting a world record had fulfilled a lifelong dream

"I entered the contest because I grew up reading the Guinness World Records book every year, but I never dreamed I would hold a world record - it feels amazingly great."

This year's festival featured dumplings from all over the world, showcasing regional variations from Korea, Ukraine, China, India, France, Italy, Portugal and America.

Visitors paid a fee to sample the wide variety of pot stickers, with all proceeds going to the Food Bank For New York City.