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Do you remember the good old days when you went to the fish and chip shop and came out clutching a little parcel wrapped in newspaper? Today this is a dying practice, with only a handful of shops remaining that serve one of UK’s finest dishes wrapped the way it should be, instead of being in white paper, white paper printed to look like newspaper (why bother) or most heinous of all, a polystyrene tray.
I’m not sure exactly when the tradition of using newspaper to wrap your chips was phased out, but certainly by the end of the 1980’s you’d be hard pressed to find a chippie serving in this manner. So why did the practice stop?
Well, as usual it was a Health and Safety concern. Despite the fact nobody has ever died of fish-and-chip-paper-poisoning, at least not as far as I’m aware of, it was deemed unsafe in case the ink used for the newsprint came off on the food. I dare say that in order for this to be a problem you would have to eat fish and chips for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper every day for every year of your life, and by then you’d die from your blood having slowly turned into a mixture of cooking oil and batter.
What makes this concern even more ridiculous is that the food was generally never placed directly against the newspaper anyway. Normally the fish was placed onto a small sheet of greaseproof paper, and the chips placed in a white paper bag similar to those used for penny sweets. This was then wrapped in the newspaper, so hardly any of the food was actually in contact.
If you’re very lucky today you might get your chips served wrapped first in a sheet of white paper, then in newspaper, which is cheating a little, but at least it looks authentic when you leave the shop I suppose. In these days of recycling you’d think that using newspaper would be a good thing, especially since used newspapers were never used, although I concede that these days unsold newspaper probably are recycled already.
Sadly no chippie in my area uses newspaper these days, but I’d love to know if you’re local fish and chip eaterie still does. If they do, please add a comment below!
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March 12th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Nope, none round here…
It’s one of the reasons I hardly ever have Fish and Chips any more!
March 14th, 2009 at 9:22 am
[...] my post earlier this week about Fish and Chips being wrapped in newspaper led me to wonder what everybodies favourite Fish and Chip shop food is. And if you’re [...]
March 18th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Definitely the best way to have them….I remember sucking the salt and vinegar soaked inner paper (sick I know, but the kind of thing you did as a kid).
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:31 pm
And yet they still wrap in paper. But the smell of the warming paper doesn’t compare to the searing stench of newsprint.
June 20th, 2009 at 6:53 am
West Park Fisheries on Thornton Road in Bradford still serves up in newspaper. Best fish and chips in Bradford ans still only £2.80! What are you all waiting for?
June 20th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Brilliant! Glad to know there’s still a chippy out there using the traditional methods. Thanks for letting us know William.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I understood that the end of newspaper for wrapping was not to do with concerns over ink but that most chippies used old newspapers donated by customers. The hygiene issue is where those papers had been and who had touched them with whatever contamination on their hands! Bear in mind that newsprint is highly absorbent so provides a useful breeding background for bacteria. Nostalgia is not needed: I’ll take my fish suppers in clean, new white wrappers please!
November 14th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I’m also nostalgic about wrapping newspaper but another thing, namely flowers. When I was younger almost every flower store used newspaper when wrapping flowers. There are som few left, I think it’s much more beautiful with flowers wrapped in newspaper, especially the old good broadsheet newspaper!
November 18th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I remember the cones (printed as if they were actual newspaper..wonder what the stories on them were about?) which would get a nice puddle of vinegar in the bottom for a satisfying “shot” at the end of a great meal!!
November 20th, 2009 at 10:28 am
My biggest problem with the cones was that you could never get any salt onto the chips at the bottom.