The house boasted its authentic pastries. However, she sold them frozen, with industrial flavoring and powdered milk. The Bordeaux flagship of cannelé Baillardran was sentenced this Thursday to a fine of 100,000 euros, for misleading commercial practices, by the criminal court. The flagship cannelés brand, which sells them more expensively than its competitors, was exempted from displaying this condemnation in its 22 points of sale, where the King of England Charles III and his wife Camilla had stopped off during their visit of the Gironde capital in September 2023.
In May 2023, Baillardran was the subject of a health inspection by the Population Protection Directorate (DDPP) which revealed practices that did not comply with its communication, based “on an image of high-end products, of superior quality to that of competitors”according to the Bordeaux public prosecutor's office. At the hearing at the beginning of December, the public prosecutor requested that the company be fined 800,000 euros, of which 400,000 would be suspended.
Real milk powder, fake bourbon vanilla from Madagascar
The DDPP's inspection revealed that the composition of the pastry, invented in the 16th century by Girondine nuns, was not part of the “Madagascar bourbon vanilla” more than “industrial aroma” for classic cannelés. Even for the version “pure vanilla”the manufacturer used “mainly synthetic flavoring and a small amount of non-organic vanilla”according to the same source.
No more “amber/old rum” as indicated by Baillardran but “white rum containing coloring” ; nor butter, which has disappeared from the recipe. And the milk? “Powdered”according to the remarks at the hearing of the founder of the company Philippe Baillardran, reported by South West.
Presented as “costs”cannelés and other unsold macaroons “were frozen then put back on sale thawed”. Certain shops far from Bordeaux such as that of Arcachon sold “exclusively defrosted cannelés”according to the prosecution for whom “the traceability of products and ingredients” was not assured either.
