Is wrapping food in newspaper healthy?
We all have the habit of eating those chaat from khumcha or other fast food from the roadside corner hawkers. Quality of food is undoubtedly a question mark! Let’s assume that the food is hygienic, still the material in which the food is served /packed becomes a big question from the health perspective. FSSAI (food safety and standard authority of India) has reported not to use newspaper as a material for food serving because it can be dangerous to human health. We also used to soak the oil from cooked food by the newspaper. The newspaper ink that is used on the paper contains ‘multiple
bioactive’ materials. Research has shown that it contains aromatic hydrocarbons and naphthylamine. Even for manufacturing the print ink poisonous metals like cadmium and lead are often used and the dangers of lead and cadmium poisoning are well known. Printing inks may also contain harmful colours, pigments, binders, additives, and preservatives. Besides chemical contaminants, presence of pathogenic micro organisms in used newspapers also poses potential risk to our health. It can cause the digestive problem and also lead to severe toxicity. Plus the long-term exposure of the ink chemical can cause lung and bladder cancer. People with compromised vital organs and immune systems plus children, teenagers, elders have more risk if they are exposed to food packed in this kind of material. It can be even poisonous to the Mother Earth. Newspaper should not be used to wrap, cover and serve food or to absorb excess oil from fried food. Though the department focuses on creating systematic awareness about discouraging the use of paper for food it is not possible to control the use among unorganized vendors so only the consumer awareness can help.
“Prevention is better than cure”. We can’t control certain things, but we can certainly stop eating food that has been touched by newsprint. Source:
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