Tripping on Bulgarian tomato spread

Dinner may have just become a bit more exciting in Bulgaria, where the authorities are examining claims that a particular brand of popular lutenitsa tomato and pepper spread contains a substance with cannabis-like effects.

The country’s prosecutor’s office revealed last Friday that it had heard word from a prominent consumer organisation that lutenitsa made by the company Ideal featured a rather unusual ingredient — oleamide, an industrial substance known to induce sleep. Did Ideal break the law, or were they just innocently and generously hoping to give consumers a little something extra? The authorities must now decide this, as well as attempting to find out just how the substance got into the spread.

Social media has been abuzz with jokes centred on the scandal.

“Grandma, I finally found out what you are putting in the lutenitsa, please go on!”, reads a widely shared Facebook post, while Al Pacino got in on the action in a popular meme showing the actor appearing in a scene from the movie Scarface, with cocaine replaced by jars of lutenitsa.

Source: Balkan Insight