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A social media creator has been slammed online for vlogging the process of making sourdough bread – all from her seat on a flight to Spain.
Content creator Maria Baradell, 37, has gained an online following for documenting how she makes baked goods for her bread bakery business, however, a recent video sparked some controversy after she filmed herself making sourdough while on a plane.
The video shows the mother-of-five starting the process of creating a fresh loaf of bread to surprise her sister with, first adding water and sourdough starter to a pop-up bowl before tipping in flour and other ingredients.
The bread then went through a series of stretch and folds while balancing on the fold-out tray, before it started to ferment while Baradell took a nap in her seat on her connecting American Airlines flight from Chicago to Barcelona.
However, due to the altitude, temperature and humidity inside the cabin, the dough did not fully rise, so she had to wait until she was reunited with her sister for her to complete the proofing and baking section.
What was intended to be a creative video to promote and share her passion for bread making unfortunately ended in a flurry of comments criticising the act of making bread on a plane.
The video, posted on both TikTok and Instagram, had people worried about how people with allergies, especially gluten, would fare with someone making bread mid-air, while others were concerned about bacteria on the plane that could make the bread unsanitary.
“What about people who have severe allergies?” one user wrote, while another said, “I carry an Epi-pen for a severe wheat allergy. The flour particles in the air would not be good.”
“As an airline employee…this is a perfect example of we’ve seen it all,” another commenter also said.
Others wondered how she managed to get past airport security with all her ingredients.
In response, Baradell told The Independent that the ingredients she bought with her were allowed after they passed TSA’s tests. She also said that she asked her seatmates if it was okay, and when the bread was baked at home, it would have killed any germs, and that she used sanitising products every step of the way.
However, the comments were not all backlash, as some praised the creator for the interesting idea and others were impressed that she was able to succeed in starting the sourdough so high in the sky.
“Girl, I can’t even read on a flight…. You’re up there making bread,” someone wrote. Another commented, “As someone who gets super nervous flying, if I saw you doing this next to me, I would instantly feel relaxed.”
Despite the mixed reviews of her viral video, Baradell did apologise in a follow-up video, stating that she would not attempt something like this again.
“I was trying to be creative after I saw another creator making pasta in-flight, but thanks to your comments I learned this was not a great idea,” she wrote.
“I am very thankful for the people who shared their feedback in a kind way, but it’s ok if you want to hate on it, I had good intentions. We had this bread for dinner the following day and it was great! I loved exploring Barcelona and visiting a few of the best bakeries.”
In response to a comment about the potential risk for those with allergies, the creator also said: “I learned that after my first video. I figured because they serve bread on the plane it would be fine, but I was corrected. That’s why I am saying I wouldn’t try this again and that I was sorry.”
"I said I wouldn’t try this again because it was brought to my attention that the flour could be a risk if there were coeliacs on the plane since the air recirculated,” she said.
Baradell, originally from Venezuela but now living in Dallas with her husband and five children, told The Independent that she fell in love with sourdough bread-making in early 2024 and started gifting it to her neighbours, but before long, people started to ask if they could buy it from her weekly, prompting her to become a licensed bread seller.
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