ENSAIMADA GETS SECURITY CLEARANCE

By Humphrey Carter THE hand luggage ban on cream-filled ensaimadas, the most popular Majorcan souvenir, was yesterday lifted by the Spanish airport authorities after widespread complaints. Since Monday, when the new EU-wide hand luggage regulations came into force, passengers armed with cream-filled ensaimadas have been prevented from taking the world-famous pastry through the security checks and onto planes at Palma's Son San Joan airport. Under the new regulatyions, ensaimadas have been checked in as luggage and, as a result, scores of tourists have decided against taking ensaimadas home for friends and family, an old age tradition for visitors to Majorca, and a number of Palma bakeries said yesterday that they have experienced a marked fall in sales of ensaimadas. But, not only have there been security fears over ensaimadas, but passengers concealing a sobrasada, the traditional Majorcan pate, have also sparked security incidents and some security guards have also been hesitant to allow passengers proceed into the departure area packing a Mahon cheese. What is more, security guards checking to confirm whether passengers were carrying flat (permitted) or cream-filled (not-permitted) ensaimadas caused long delays and indignation to travels by opening hundreds of ensaimada boxes. However, Spanish airport authority AENA, announced yesterday afternoon that, following consultation with the Guardia Civil, the security force in charge of security in airport departure areas, cream-filled ensaimadas are no longer considered “non-solid” food items and therefore no longer prohibited from being taken onto planes as hand-luggage. AENA sources said yesterday that if has had access to the departure area denied because they have been parmed with a sobrasada, it was because the security guard involved may not have been fully aware of the new security regulations and that customs and security will need time to fully adapt to the new hand luggage controls.