Do baguettes knead official protection?

THE French baguette should be listed as a Unesco cultural treasure, France’s President Emmanuel Macron has claimed.

Lending his support to the application from his country’s association of bakers, the French leader said: “The baguette is the envy of the whole world.”

The bakers have been inspired by the success of Italy’s Naples pizza, which was protected by the UN’s cultural body last year.

Unesco’s list aims to save traditions from globalisation.

The Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage meets annually to evaluate nominations from around the world.

The bakers say it is not just the name and shape, but the recipe and ingredients that need to be enshrined.

“Excellence and expertise must be preserved, and that is why it should be heritage-listed,” President Macron told French radio.

Artisan breadmakers have voiced concern about mass-produced imitations.

“When I see the quality of bread in supermarkets, it is impossible not to get angry,” Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of French Patisseries and Bakeries said.

“The bread is frozen, some of it comes from Romania or who-knows-where. Nothing is carried out in accordance with the rules of the art.”

The traditional baguette is already protected in France by a law passed in 1993.

To meet the criteria, the bread must only be made from four ingredients – wheat flour, water, yeast and salt.

The legislation says it cannot be frozen or contain added preservatives.

Unesco’s Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage is different from its register of places, which is known as World Heritage Sites, and lists the Forth Bridge as one.

The UK has no entries in the list.