Romanians start to take inspiration from their troubled past, and revive products which were popular during the Communist period. Subsistence products from the Communist time now become luxury products. Romanian bakers will re-start baking bread using recipes from the Communist period, and plan to sell it as premium bread.

After November 1, Romanians will be able to buy several types of bread that were made during Communism, such as the 65-cm long, so-called “Bucharest bread”. Some of the new bakery products made after old recipes will include semi-white bread, and the famous and popular brown bread, which was widely used during the Communist period, as it was the cheapest - and most often the only - bread Romanians could find. For a certain period of time, when the country was under economic constraints as it was trying to pay off external debts, Romanians were only allowed to buy a loaf of brown bread using a special card which capped consumption per family.

“Starting November 1, we will launch several types of special bread on the market, premium bread, that will be baked using 30-year old recipes. With added sugar, milk and fat, this bread will be more expensive than the usual one,” said Aurel Popescu, president of Rompan, the employers’ association in the bakery industry, cited by local Mediafax.

Bread recipes from the communist period were better and bread was a healthier food that it is now, it was more natural and preservative-free, according to Popescu.

The new types of bread will receive a certificate from the Ministry of Agriculture that will show that they were made following old recipes and that they do not contain any preservatives.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com, contribution by Corina Chirileasa