The French baguette has been inscribed on the UN World Heritage List.

The Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today voted to add it to its list of intangible cultural heritage, which already includes some 600 items from more than 130 countries.

The inclusion of the French baguette or “250 grams of magic and perfection” – as President Emmanuel Macron described it – on the UNESCO list “glorifies the French way of life: the baguette is a daily ritual, an essential element of the meal.” synonymous with exchange and good cheer,” said UNESCO head Audrey Azoulay.

“It is important that these skills and social habits continue into the future.”

The myth of the French baguette

The long, crisp bread is a symbol of France throughout the world and has been a staple of the French diet for at least 100 years, although some believe its history is older.

According to one legend, Napoleon Bonaparte’s bakers invented a long, narrow shape of bread to make it easier for his soldiers to carry, and another legend claims that it was actually an Austrian baker named August Zhang who invented the baguette.

And the third myth relates the invention of the baguette to the construction of the Paris Metro in the late 19th century and to the idea that baguettes were easier to wrap and separate, which avoided fights between metro workers and the difficulty of finding a knife.

It officially received its name in 1920, when its minimum allowable weight (80 grams) and maximum length (40 centimeters) were established by a new law.

16 million baguettes are produced daily.

Currently, a baguette (“stick”) is sold at a price of about one euro per piece. While baguette consumption has declined in recent decades, France still produces around 16 million per day, or nearly six billion baguettes a year, according to Fiducial’s 2019 estimates.

According to the French Federation of Bakers, which fights for the protection of the product from the respective industrialized.

The ingredients are always the same, but each baker adds his own style. Every year, national competitions are organized to highlight the best baguette in the country.

Since 1970, France has lost about 400 artisan bakeries every year, from 55,000 (one in 790 inhabitants) to 35,000 (one in 2,000) today.

This decline is due to the proliferation of industrialized bakeries and the presence of supermarkets in rural areas, where urban dwellers are increasingly resorting to buying sourdough bread or hamburgers instead of baguettes.

“Initially, the baguette was considered a luxury item. The working class ate peasant bread, which was more satiating,” explains Luak Bienassi of the European Institute of Food and Cultural History, who helped prepare the dossier submitted to UNESCO.

“Then its consumption expanded and the baguette conquered the province in the 60s and 70s,” he adds. France applied to UNESCO in early 2021, and baguettes were eventually chosen over the tin roofs of Paris and the Arbois wine festival.

Source: APE-AFP.