Unhealthy practice unnoticed

​Hyderabad: Wrapping food in newspapers still remains a practice among the roadside food stalls and small eateries though it is hazardous to health.

What is strange is that the people, too, complacent about health hazards such a practice is posing. It is carcinogenic. It means that it may cause cancer in the long-run. Despite the warnings by the Food Safety and Standard Authorities of India (FSSAI), stalls continue the practice because old newspapers are available in plenty at low price.

Most of the small eateries and roadside food stalls across the city have been using old newspaper sheets to parcel the food continue for a long time now. Santosh (32), a worker at an eatery at Maredpally said it is the easiest and the most convenient way to wrap the food. “The person, who makes the parcels, cuts out all the newspaper pages first early in the morning. It is so convenient. As far as I remember this has been the practice for long,” he said.

Paper bags, which are costlier when compared to these newspaper sheets are being used even by sweet shops and other fast food chains. Ganesh (28), who runs a small Jalebi stall near Uppal, said old newspapers are cheap and easily available when compared to paper bags.

It hardly makes much of a difference to his everyday profits. “I get newspapers for free sometimes but buying paper bags can add another Rs 2 to5 per piece to my daily budget eating into the profit,” he said. Kanishka Das (40), a resident of Banjara Hills, said he buys a bunch of paper bags of different sizes once in a month to avoid wrapping the food items in newspaper sheets after he came to know the health hazard the latter posed.

“Once polythene covers proved hazardous to the nature, paper was considered the next best thing. But the moment I came to know how bad it can be to use a newspaper sheets, I started buying my own stock of paper shopping bags of different sizes for different weights and carry them every time I go for shopping”, he said.