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California county cracks down on ... French bread
Customers laugh it off
September 15, 1997
Web posted at: 11:29 p.m. EDT (0329 GMT)MILL VALLEY, California (CNN) -- Bakers and grocers in the San Francisco Bay area have been marketing sourdough French bread in the traditional French way -- with the long, slender baguettes sticking out of narrow paper bags.
But the Bay Area has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to being politically correct, so it was inevitable that sooner or later someone would point out the obvious: With the bags open at one end, people can touch the bread.
And so it came to pass that in Marin County, across San Francisco Bay from one of America's most sophisticated cities, the health department has ordered that the bread be safely and primly wrapped.
Bakers are angry about the rule, and grocers are worried.
The shoppers? "It's nice to be able to see it," says one, who prefers his baguette partially draped. "It looks fresh and it smells good."
A partially bagged baguette is about as close as most Americans get to the French French-bread experience. And the obvious possibility that the loaf one buys might, indeed, have been touched by a perfect stranger -- has not alarmed the buyers.
"I like to be able to see it," another shopper confirmed. "I hope not too many people have touched it."
The French have their reasons
Buying a loaf of bread that sticks boldly out of the bag lends a certain charm to the experience. There is something authentic about it, and faintly nostalgic as well. It summons images of shopping in a village where one might stop at the bakery for bread, the butcher's for meat, the vintner for wine and so on.
And the French, it turns out, have a good reason for not enclosing their bread. It makes the crust soft. And what worries bakers and grocers in Marin County is that the new rule is going to make sales go soft, too.
"It seems the way they're talking to the retailer, it's causing the retailer to turn it around and it cuts your sales about 50 percent," predicts Tom Miasi of Bordenave Bakery.
But some customers are laughing at the new rule.
"Look," a shopper said. "I'm buying it. And, look, it's all open on the end."
Correspondent Don Knapp contributed to this report.
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