IS IT SAFE TO EAT FOOD SERVED/WRAPPED IN NEWSPAPER?

It's a very common sight where roadside food stalls and vendors serve food on newspapers or wrap food in newspaper. And we accept that without even a thought, don't we?

Hey everyone! In this blog we are gonna discuss about how safe it is to eat food served on newspaper. The very common reason why it seems unfit is about the ink on the newspaper. Internet clearly mentions that warm food placed on a newspaper melts the ink on it and it (the ink) somehow gets inside the body. And it is not at all required to mention the fact that ink is not meant for human consumption. It is not edible. Dyes, harmful pigments, colours, additives, bio-active material and drying agents are present in the ink.

Now, exploring further reasons why this practise is unfit, I would like to discuss the journey of a newspaper. After being freshly printed, newspapers are out for delivery asap. They reach at your doorsteps, you read them (or might not lol). You might put the newspapers to some use but mostly it's just an addition to the scrap of your home. Piling up in one corner, tasting all the dust, now they are all set to be sold to the raddiwalas in near future. After a hard negotiation with the raddiwalas, the newspapers find their new home in their cart and then ultimately some godown (basically a warehouse) or shop and again I don't need to mention how clean and hygienic those storage facilities are :) The raddiwala just dumps the scrap in shops buying discarded goods/scrap. Those shops are rarely clean. Again the newspapers gather dust and bad articles lying in the godowns. From godowns, they reach these roadside food vendors. Obviously these vendors aren't buying freshly printed newspapers (which anyways is also not safe) to be used as plates or wrappers. So basically, till the time they reach to you as a plate or something through these vendors, they have collected or came in contact with dust particles, insects, insects waste, micro organisms etc.

Till now I have made it crystal clear that IT IS NOT SAFE TO EAT FOOD SERVED/WRAPPED IN NEWSPAPER.

Also, this is a very common practise among Indian families to squeeze out oil from deep fried food like pakoras. THIS SHOULD BE COMPLETELY AVOIDED. Newspapers should never be used for such purposes. Though I would suggest not to go for deep fried food but anyways, it's better to use a tissue paper or a napkin for this purpose.

In an article on food safety, Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) stated that "the printing ink contains cancer causing agents that can cause severe health issues. Once warm food is placed under newspapers, he printed ink melts and expose the human body to various health issues"

It is advisable to serve food in stainless steel, dry leaves, plates made specifically for serving purpose or glass vessels to keep it free from germs and bacteria. I hope this blog was of some help in awakening you all in this regard. 

Try to avoid this practise in future as and when possible.