Use of printed and used paper to serve street foods is yet a common occurrence despite posing serious health risks.
Snacks such as samosa, roll, jhalmuri and pickles are being sold even in front of educational institutions, where the main customers are children, across the country – thanks to a lack of effective monitoring and enforcement drives.
Recently, the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) issued several warnings and asked vendors not to use printed papers for serving oily and warm food, but not many are paying heed to the calls.
In its latest attempt, the BFSA on Friday issued another directive.
Terming food sold on printed paper harmful to human health, the BSFA states that it is a punishable offence under the Food Safety Act, 2013, and suggests selling food in safe food-grade containers.
The notice further says that hotels, restaurants and street food vendors are selling foods, including jhalmuri, fuchka, samosa, roll, singara, peyaju, jilapi and parota wrapped in old newspapers and many other drafted papers.
Dangerous colours and pigment are used on the papers. By eating food from the paper, people may be affected with various diseases like cancer, heart disease, and kidney ailment, the notification adds.
The whimsical use of such harmful papers is seen widely in Dhaka and other parts of the country.
Habibur Rahman, a jhalmuri seller in Kushtia town, told Dhaka Tribune that he requires up to 1kg of printed papers every day to serve his customers. On average, he collects 30kg of used papers per month.
He collects these papers from nearby scrap shops or households at cheap rates.
Usman Gani, a student of Kushtia Government College, said it is a normal practice to eat snacks wrapped in pieces of old newspapers. Most of the students are habituated to it as an alternative to tissue paper, he added.
Abdus Salam, a professor at Nuruzzaman Biswas Degree College, said that food items wrapped in newspapers or other printed papers are hazardous to health as these contain poisonous ink. Also, no one knows in which condition the paper was kept before being used as a wrapping paper.
Saffat Hossain Rana, a former resident medical officer at Rajshahi Metropolitan Hospital, told Dhaka Tribune that alongside poisonous ink, these papers may also contain germs.
Najib Pal, a food safety officer in Kushtia, told Dhaka Tribune that they are running campaigns in hotels and restaurants to make the sellers aware of the hazards of such printed and used papers.
He said that such campaigns, however, fail to reach roadside vendors as they keep moving from one place to another.
