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Victoria Mindova

The government is preparing to give a green light for the sale of semi-finished bread after the European Commission urged Greece to remove the restrictions on the minimum area of the bakeries in the country. Beside the regulations on hygiene and production there is another regulation in Greece that the bakery should have an area of a minimum 24.99 sq. m to obtain permission to work. The changes in the law as required by the European Union will remove the restriction for the area of ​​the bakery, so as to enable smaller bakeries to sell semi-finished bread. It will not be kneaded and prepared on site but will be half-baked and frozen. In the new smaller points of sale, the semi-finished bread will be reheated for short and will be sold as fresh bread. This practice is known as "bake off".
 
The hand-made bread from the neighbourhood bakeries is traditionally the most demanded in Greece. According to the analysis of the surveys agency Marc dated April 2011, 9 out of 10 Greeks buy bread from the neighbourhood bakery. The customers of the small bakeries argue that the taste of the bread and bakery products sold there is better; they have confidence in the quality of the ingredients used and the level of hygiene of the production. Only 6% of the respondents said they buy bread from the supermarket and the main reason for their choice is its proximity to their home. The survey shows that consumers almost unanimously said they would not buy bread from a certain place if they know that it is not fresh, but semi-finished and finish baked before sending it on to the supermarket shelves.

Currently, there are over 40,000 points of sale of bread in Greece, and over 150 thousand people are employed in the sector. The Greeks eat mostly bread made by the hands of small entrepreneurs. They have family bakeries, often hereditary, and the people working there have taken the craft from their parents. GRReporter asked for the expert opinion of the President of the federation of manufacturers of bakery products Michalis Musiyas who clarified some informal areas in the upcoming innovations.

We had to first and foremost find out who would benefit the most from the cancellation of the area restrictions for ​​the bakeries in Greece and from the launching of the "bake off" procedure for the final processing of semi-finished bread. "The changes in the law would benefit mostly the importers, and then the major producers of semi-finished goods in the sector and the supermarkets. Frozen and semi-finished breads have durability of up to 18 months and need not be produced locally. They could be imported from Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark and even China. The result is that the end consumer does not consume fresh bread but semi-finished that could have been made last year."

Musiyas added that after some research, the state has made some regulations for the production and sale of bread. These regulations include the need for processing and storing the food and the ingredients in an appropriate and safe environment to ensure public health and safety of the workers. The reduction of the square metres for production of bread would be beneficial only to large chains such as supermarket, which sell semi-finished bread. "Every square metre in the supermarket is money, it has a certain value. Therefore, they do not want to make 25 square metres of their area available for special ovens, refrigerators and other equipment necessary for the production of bread," explained the president of the federation of manufacturers of bakery products. He said that large companies would like to minimize the production costs of bread, thus compromising its quality.

If the law to change the requirements for bakeries and bread production is voted, the owners of small bakeries are inclined to respond by other means. They would urge the state to require manufacturers and importers to mark the package if the bread sold is fresh or semi-finished. Michalis Musiyas said that this law already exists but is not applied. "The most important thing is the consumers themselves to know what they consume and make their choice. Until now, people in the country thought they were buying fresh bread from the supermarket, because there was no mark. This should change."

At the same time, it should be noted that in times of crisis, when Greece is trying to recover the local economy and stimulate the local production, the government is opening the door to more imports of frozen bakery goods. An act completely inconsistent with the call which late last year the traders and the government made to the consumers "Buy what is made in Greece."