The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving and doughnut fun facts. As we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know.

We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know we will look at Doughnut fun facts.

Doughnut Fun Facts: While no one really knows when doughnuts were invented or who invented them, doughnuts were originally made as a long twist of dough. Not in the ring form that is most common these days. It was also common in England for donuts to be made in a ball shape and injected with Jam after they were cooked. Both methods of cooking involve no human intervention as the ball and twist will turn itself over when the underside is cooked. American Hansen Gregory claimed to have invented it in 1847 when he was traveling on a steam boat. He was not satisfied with the texture of the center of the donut so he pressed a hole in the center with the ship’s pepper box.

  • Doughnuts vs. Donuts? “Doughnut” is actually proper, but “donut” is acceptable. If you look in older dictionaries, you’ll only find “doughnut.” However, the Merriam-Webster dictionary now lists “donut” as a variant of “doughnut.”
  • National Doughnut Day was officially established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to raise much-needed funds during the Great Depression.
  • In the U.S. alone, more than 10 billion doughnuts are made every year.
  • The largest doughnut ever made was an American-style jelly donut weighing 1.7 tons. It was 16 feet in diameter and 16 inches high in the center.
  • Per capita, Canada has more doughnut shops than any other country.
  • Adolph Levitt invented the first doughnut machine in 1920.
  • The US doughnut industry is worth 3.6 billion dollars.
  • The Guinness World record for doughnut eating is held by John Haight, who consumed 29 donuts in just over 6 minutes.

Key Dates

  • January 12th is National Glazed Doughnut Day.
  • The first Friday in June and November 5th are National Doughnut Day.
  • June 8th is National Jelly Filled Doughnut Day.
  • September 14th is National Creme-Filled Doughnut Day.

Doughnut Fun Facts We May Have Missed?

If we’ve missed some doughnut fun facts, please let us know. Share your ideas in the comment section or our food truck forum. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Fun Facts about the Doughnut

Find all of the National Food Holidays to spice up your food truck menu specials throughout the year.