In a bid to avoid an imminent bread shortage crisis in the sprawling city of Cairo, governorate authorities have started to shift their attitudes towards scores of unlicensed bakeries. In the past, governorate officials sought to close down these bakeries. Now they realize the illegal operations could be the key to feeding the city's 16 million people, said the Egyptian Gazette on Monday.
The newfound leniency, however, could undermine the operation of the city's licensed establishments, it added. Unlicensed bakeries, which get subsidized flour through illegal ways, sell bread at 25 piastres per loaf, about five times the price of state-approved bakeries.
However, critics point out that the bread sold by unlicensed bakeries fails to meet hygienic and quality standards. Pebbles, lice and spoiled grain are often found in the bread, which is sometimes up to a week old.
But the bread produced by state-approved bakeries is worse, Ahmed Sayed Hassan, a former advisor to the Minister of Supply and Home Trade told the paper. He accused licensed bakeries of encouraging an illegal trade by discouraging consumers. "The production of licensed bakeries is unsuitable for human consumption. People have thus opted for bread from unlicensed bakeries, which is a little bit more expensive, but much better in quality," he said.
He said owners of licensed bakeries often cheat their customers with regard to loaf weight.
"An ideal loaf should weigh 135 grams. Any loaf of bread you buy from licensed bakeries weight between 90-110 grams. This is a blatant theft," Hassan said.
According to the former advisor, encouraging illegal bakeries was not the best solution. Better surveillance is. "All that authorities should do is step up surveillance of these (licensed) bakeries and force them to comply with quality standards," he noted.
"Violations by bakery owners are no secret," Hassan added. "Every official knows about them but they are generally overlooked." He asserted that millions of pounds of public funds is squandered each year to subsidize bread production. Much of the bread produced by licensed bakeries ends up as food for animals, as it is unfit for human consumption.
Alaa Eddin Yehya, a nutritionist at the National Center for Nutritional Research, said that licensed bakeries rarely, if ever, respect government quality standards. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
