Terrible news for nasi bungkus aficionados: the paper used to wrap your to-go rice dish contains bacteria that are harmful to you, according to The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).
“So the paper used to wrap food like nasi goreng, nasi bungkus, or martabak, like the brown paper, is harmful to one’s health – for example, it could reduce male fertility,” said LIPI researcher Lisman Suryanaga during a food packaging safety talk in Bandung yesterday, as quoted by Warta Kota.
Lisman explained that Indonesian food vendors often use reused newspaper or recycled paper to wrap take-away dishes, both of which are unhygienic and contain an alarming amount of harmful bacteria.
LIPI’s research shows that there are 1.5 million bacteria colonies on a single gram of recycled nasi bungkus paper. Considering an average nasi bungkus paper weighs 70-100 grams, one of them could theoretically contain 105 to 150 million colonies worth of harmful bacteria.
“The microorganism content on recycled paper is higher than those of other kinds of paper – it’s way above the safe standard,” Lisman said.
Besides damage to male reproduction, the bacteria found on nasi bungkus paper could also cause the onset of various diseases from cancer to liver failure and asthma, according to LIPI’s research.
Lisman said that non-recycled but biodegradable paper is much safer to wrap food, and is not as harmful to the environment as other food wrapping materials like Styrofoam.
This is quite a troubling revelation for those of us who prefer that their nasi Padang be wrapped in a banana leaf and paper because it tastes way better than eating in at the restaurant. We can hope that the banana leaf can shield the food from the paper’s harmful bacteria, but then what if it’s covered in pesticides?
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