Cinnamon alert

THE Spanish food safety agency has issued an alert about the possible presence of bacteria in the Especias Pedroza brand of ground cinnamon. According to Aesan, clostridium perfringens has been detected in 700 gram jars of cinnamon with batch numbers A220079 and A222605.

The alert was raised in the Madrid region, but it is not known how widely distributed the product has been within the rest of Spain.

The bacteria can cause gastroenteritis with symptoms including diarrhoea and abdominal pain.

By Simon Hunter

nounced on Twitter the fact that she and her colleagues were left with serious cases of gastroenteritis by the food. According to her messages, she had to be given an injection at the emergency room to stop her vomiting, and she claimed she lost five kilos in three days.

“Thank you MasterChef for the worst gastronomic experience I’ve ever had in my life,” she added.

She claimed that more than 70 people were left sick, but sources from the regional health department in Valencia said the number was actually 44.

Shine Iberia, the producer of the program, released a statement admitting that the reports were true but stressed that nothing like this had happened in the 11 years that the program has been broadcast in Spain.

The case will now be passed on to the health department in Madrid, which is where the production company is based.

TikTok no

A VIDEO on TikTok has gone viral for revealing an innovative tapa served at Bar la Cuadra in Ronda.

The clip, which has attracted comments from foodies and travellers alike, features a tapa of what appear to be croquettes. But after a punter takes a bite into the little round wonders it seems that these are in fact deep fried breaded olives.

These olives have the approval of the tiktoker, a unique take on the classic olives that are served automatically with a cold beverage along the Costa. But one commenter has slammed the snack saying ‘Just No! This isn’t Glasgow’.

Good And Not So Good

ALICANTE airport recorded a record-breaking March for passenger numbers as all-time highs were achieved for a second successive month.

By contrast, Murcia’s Corvera airport continues to flounder due a much-lower range of flights. Alicante reported 1,045,004 travellers last period - up 4.9% compared to the same month in 2019, a year before the Covid pandemic struck. The airport’s cumulative rise on four years ago is 2.6% and a year-on-year increase of 15.4%.

Just 33,811 passengers used Corvera last month - 40% below 2019’s totals and a paltry 4.3% improvement on the same month last year.

Once again UK travellers dominated Alicante’s March figures with 375,537 passengers, with the Netherlands trailing a distant second on 86,044.