(CNN) — Freshly baked news: The baguette, the long, crusty loaf that is a delicious staple of French life, has been granted special protection status, bringing it into a culinary pantheon alongside other regional delicacies from around the world.
The “craft know-how and culture of the baguette” is now officially recognized on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage, the organization announced on Wednesday, inscribing the know-how behind the baguette as an integral part of human culture.
UNESCO – the cultural body of the United Nations – defines intangible cultural heritage as “traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants”.
The baguette joins other foods and culinary cultures on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, including the making of Neapolitan pizza, kimchi, Belgian beer culture, the “Mediterranean diet” and Arabic coffee.
While sites from the United States, including the Statue of Liberty, Yellowstone National Park and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, are recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites, nothing from the United States is currently included on the organization’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
While bakeries in France typically sell numerous types of baguettes, the best are known as baguettes de tradition, or simply traditions. These can be made with just four ingredients – flour, water, salt and yeast or sourdough – and need to be baked on site.
According to the Observatoire du Pain, a research group that tracks bread consumption habits and trends in France, the average daily bread consumption of adults has fallen from 143 g/day (5 ounces/day) in 2003 to 103 g/day (3.6 ounces/day). day) in 2016. A surge in supermarket chains selling bread has been blamed for the closure of hundreds of family-owned bakeries.
Vivian Song contributed to this story | Photo credit above: Adobe Stock