The wheat that arrived this month in Santiago de Cuba from Russia “has a high level of impurities”
14ymedio, Havana, 26 May 2024 — “It feels like I’m chewing ground glass,” “you can build a house with this,” “it’s sandy”… This is how hundreds of angry commentators describe the bread sold these days in Las Tunas’ rationed market. The widespread annoyance over the poor quality of the product has forced the local authorities to give an answer: the flour has “a high level of impurities” but is suitable for human consumption, they say.
“Does the bread from the bakery in Las Tunas have sand?” the local newspaper Periódico 26 inquired on its social media platforms on Saturday.
Several readers had sent their complaints to the official publication, which contacted the Food Industry’s management in the province due to the pressure. The officials’ response points to the low standards of the imported raw material.
“This May, a shipment of wheat from Russia arrived in the port of Santiago, it has a high level of impurities,” the management said.
“Does the bread from the state-owned bakery in Las Tunas have sand?” the local newspaper Periódico 26 inquired on its social media platforms on Saturday
“The technological characteristics” of the Cuban milling industry do not allow the total elimination of this residue that ends up, significantly, in the bread that the ’Tuneros’ [people from Las Tunas] put in their mouths.
“When you chew, you feel a grainy, sandy sensation,” they said in their statement to Periódico 26, although they added that “the flour is being systematically monitored in the mill’s laboratories in Santiago de Cuba; and laboratory tests in Las Tunas’ soil corroborated that it is suitable for hum