Restaurant-Dining Critiques

Culinary Tidbits, Currently Mildly Worrisome . . .
Cardboard packaging made from recycled newspapers can carry the mineral oils used in the papers’ ink, Swiss researchers have found. These oils, their study says, can seep into foods such as cereal, pasta and rice and even pass through the packaging’s protective inner plastic bags, bringing possible health risks. Certain cereal-makers are working with suppliers on devising new packaging “which allows us to meet our environmental commitments but will also contain significantly lower levels of mineral oil”. The Food Safety Laboratory in Zurich said toxicologists had linked the oils to inflammation of internal organs and cancer, though they stressed meals would contain only minute traces.