A Revamped Chilean "Marraqueta" Is Accepted By Consumers, A Study Says

Two crisp marraquetas at lunch time.
The marraqueta is considered to be the quintessential
Chilean bread (photo by author)

By CTN. April 15, 2017

SANTIAGO, Chile. A study found that Chilean consumers would accept and would buy a less salty marraqueta.

The study was conducted jointly by Universidad Católica and Univesidad de Chile, Chile's two most prestigious and traditional universities.

Singled out for its high content of salt, which exceeds the 400 milligrams (mg) of sodium per 100 grams of bread recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the marraqueta is considered to be the favorite type of bread among the Chilean population, achieving the status of a cultural item that is inseparable from Chilean daily life and tradition.

The Chilean Health Ministry had proposed a limit of 400 mg of salt per 100 grams of marraqueta, in accordance with the WHO recommendation.  However, last year, the President of the Santiago association of bakers said that taking the salt away from the marraqueta would spell the demise of Chile's most beloved bread, because a less salty marraqueta would lose its crunchiness, its crispiness, its taste, becoming an altogether different kind of bread.

In the study, samples with 400 mg, 200 mg and 0 mg of salt per 100 grams of marraqueta were offered to 30 selected consumers. 

The consumers in the study were asked to rate the samples on a 1-7 scale, with 1 meaning "I hate it" and 7 "I like it a lot". 

In Chile, the 1-7 scale is used for grades from elementary to university education and therefore is very easy to understand for a Chilean national.

The consumers in the study rated with 5.5 the marraquetas with 400 mg of salt and with 5.3 the marraquetas with 200 mg.

After trying these revamped marraquetas, the consumers were asked whether they would buy them. On a scale of 1-5, the answers were 4.0 for the 400 mg marraqueta and 3.6 for the 200 mg variety, suggesting that marraquetas, even if baked with a lot less salt, will still be present on the tables of Chilean households for many, many years to come. (Data for this article were taken from El Mercurio newspapers and the Chilean press).

Rafael Garay, back in Chile, in handcuffs, amid huge media coverage

By Nono Barahona. March 17, 2017

SANTIAGO, Chile. According to a story in a Chilean newspaper, on the eve of his journey to France to seek treatment for terminal cancer, Rafael Garay, 41, would have paid a visit to one of his favorite places: a stripper club in Santiago, Chile's capital. According to the manager and the girls there, he was a regular since approximately 4 years who would spend large amounts of money in a single night drinking in the company of several of the dancers at a time. In the story, the girls said that he behaved like a gentleman but after a few drinks he would turn aggressive. But the girls said that he never asked for sex.

This is just one of the many stories making the rounds in the Chilean media about this man who claimed to be an economist. Other stories have focused on his penchant --strippers aside-- for expensive clothing and luxury cars. Still others have discussed his personality, his senatorial race, the mysterious woman that allegedly would be pregnant with his child.

Until his downfall, he was a respected and trusted financial commentator for several publications, and radio and TV shows, attaining even the status of TV personality.

His announcement in June 2016 that he had brain cancer made instant headlines. He explained that he would be returning the money he managed in his privately-run company. When the money didn't materialize, his investors decided to sue him. But he left the country for France, to seek treatment for his alleged terminal illness.

In Europe, he ended up in Romania, home country of his girlfriend. Reporters took turns to interview the woman's parents, villagers who spoke through an interpreters, offering no clues to the whereabouts of Chile's then most wanted fugitive. But the media never gave up.

Until they found him.

He spoke to the press on the doorway to his Romanian house. Following that, Chilean authorities asked for his arrest. And Romania decided to extradite him.

All these stories have fascinated the Chilean media and Chilean audiences, and yesterday, when he arrived back in Chile in handcuffs to stand trial accused of 36 counts of embezzlement, he was given as much air time by the four major Chilean TV stations as they devoted to the latest wave of wildfires that hit Chile in January and February of this year. Some of them even broadcast live a boring courthouse hearing in which the judge, in the end, decided that, if left loose, Garay would attempt to flee the country and, besides, that he was a danger for society, and for that reason the judge decided to send Garay to jail for the length of the investigation about the alleged embezzlement of which he is accused.