Dissuade vendors from using newspapers to pack, serve food:

Union Health Minister J P Nadda today asked people to dissuade the vendors from using newspapers for packing and serving food items, a day after the FSSAI asked authorities concerned of all states to take steps to restrict such practice.
"I request public to dissuade the vendors from using newspapers in packing and serving food & we have also issued an advisory to this effect," Nadda tweeted.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has asked food safety authorities of all states and Union Territories to take steps for restricting the use of newspapers for storing and packaging food items.

FSSAI also asked state authorities to create awareness among food business operators, especially unorganised ones, as well as consumers about harmful effects of using newspapers as packaging material for eatables.
"Commissioners of Food Safety of all States and Union Territories are requested to initiate a systematic campaign for generating awareness amongt all stakeholders to discourage the use of newspaper for packing, serving and storing of food items," the food safety regulatory authority had said in a letter.
It said use of newspapers for wrapping, packing and serving food, a common practice in India, "is a food safety hazards."

"Food contaminated by newspaper ink raise serious health concerns since the ink contains multiple bioactive materials with known negative health effects.

"Printing ink may also contain harmful colours, pigments, binders, additives and preservatives. Besides chemical contaminants, presence of pathogenic microorganisms in used newspapers also pose potential risk to human health," the letter said.
Informing that newspapers should not be used to wrap, cover and serve eatables or to absorb excess oil from fried food, the FSSAI said, "Suitable steps need to be taken to restrict and control the use of newspapers for packing of food material.