The British style fish & chips place nearest me, Proper Fish, has “(served in newspaper)” written underneath on the hand-done menu on the wall. It’s a pre-printed fake newspaper. Next time I’m there I’ll check the paper consistency, I think it felt more like parchment paper.
Even 50+ years ago H. Salt was serving its fish & chips in mock newspaper, so even then, there was a worry about the safety of newsprint. Not just the chemicals in the ink, but the fact that that paper was never intended for use with food. It’s not like the printers and news boys were required to wash their hands before returning to work.
So I think AI is wrong here (or at least misleading). IIRC even in the 1980s you still needed a layer of grease proof paper between the chips and newspaper, the newspaper was just there for insulation. It was a while before that it became illegal to wrap chips directly in newspaper
I can’t actually find a cite for that, as Google sucks now, cos AI 
I’m a Yank, but the first time I went to Britain ca. 1987, the fish and chips were served in newspapers. Bareback.
That was also my first experience drinking room temperature soft drinks. They were puzzled when I asked if they had ice. To this day, I prefer room temperature soft drinks in cold weather.
I’m pretty sure that when I went to Britain in 2008, fish and chips were no longer served in newspapers.
ETA: Come to think of it, I can’t be sure that they were served bareback, without another layer. I was just fascinated that they used newspapers.
Preach it, brother! I hated having to quote that AI crap.
j
In 2004-05, I got some kind of fish & chips in London. It was wrapped in food service grade waxed paper that was printed up in a newspaper theme. I liked it because I’d always heard of the old “wrapped in newspaper” tradition for takeaway food.
Yes, outlawed in the EU at least, likely UK-
I’ve never had fish and chips because I’ve never been to the UK, but according to Elvis Costello, the custom was still common in 1981:
As a mid-50s NZ native; in the 70s a lot* of Fish and Chips was wrapped in the same kind of paper as newspapers were printed on, but blank. They were sometimes secondly outer-wrapped in printed newspaper, but that was phased out by 1980 and just blank paper parcels were used up until the late 90s, when most transitioned further into paper bags and cardboard trays.
*The local chip shop to my school had paper sacks, which were double layered for heat insulation.
It was in use in 1985, when I was in the UK and staying with friends. They insisted that I try the traditional fish and chips “served in the newspaper.” So we went for takeaway to a local place that they liked and that served the food in newspaper, and did just that.
This thread has made me doubt my own memory. I was born in 1977, lived in the South of England so would have had Fish & Chips in the early Eighties, and have always felt nostalgic about this being served wrapped directly in printed newspaper.
But then talk of this practice being banned prior to that made me think I was being nostalgic for the idea rather than reality.
But after that I dug up a distinct memory of seeing the actual newsprint, in mirror-image, transferred to the fish itself sometimes.
And now I’m doubting this memory, too.
Australian with memories stretching back to the 1960s. Yes there was newspaper used then, but rapidly being replaced by plain white-cream butchers paper. Usually in both there was a single sheet of baking paper placed directly between the food and the paper to prevent that sticking event situation. It was ?foolscap in size, so never so big that it covered all the food contact area.
Probably by 1990 newspaper was completely out, except for novelty fake newspaper as mentioned above. Greengrocers might use a bit of newspaper to pack more fragile items, like if you had a dozen eggs in with your coconuts, but disposable plastic bags had come in by then.
I think that was probably just a persisting cultural reference by then. In the same way that someone (well, someone of my age) might talk about “tuning in” to a TV show, when in reality TVs that you tuned in haven’t existed for decades.
j
(Just waiting for someone to put me right on that.)
False or otherwise, I share this memory.
j
If it helps, the best reference I could find to the 1976 ban was a BBC interview which also stated something along the lines of ‘it was later copied into UK law’, without any actual date when this happened- which given that it was supposed to be a history of the practice seemed notably oddly vague.
It may be that there was some years that it was technically banned but not actually enforced, so maybe some places were either ignoring it entirely or maybe just using a small bit of plain paper which didn’t actually cover the whole portion, assuming that was good enough?
Listen, after a night at the pub, when you’ve had a few more than you should, especially when you’re driving (and I wasn’t, and I hope that you are not), do you really worry about newsprint affecting your meal? I sure didn’t. That meal was goooood!
I had fish and chips at Lords Cricket Ground in 1999 or 2000 that was at first glance wrapped in newspaper, but my Londoner friend told me that not only was it first wrapped in plain wax paper, but the newspaper was fake. It was food grade paper with food safe ink made to look like newspaper. Either for the tourists or for the old codgers. Real newspaper wrapping had been banned “for donkeys years” according to that same friend. I remember distinctly because the third member of our group was a Norwegian who spoke perfect English (of course) but was unfamiliar with that idiom.
This was a Test (international) match, so packed ground of cricket fans. I was in the MCC members area so did not interact much with the traveling fans except when I went to get some lunch.
And yes, you could get lamb rogan josh wrapped in a naan as well.
In 2007 I recall having fish and chips served in the fake newspaper wrapping while I was in London for business. It wasn’t in a tourist spot, I just think it was some sort of nostalgia thing.
What I didn’t understand was the side dish of mushy peas. I tried a couple of bites and found it to take away from my enjoyment of the meal. If I’m going to enjoy a nice greasy meal, why ruin the experience with something so awful that doesn’t compliment the main course?
Of course! Back then they used a linotype machine for newspapers and every page was impressed from a mold made of lead and antimony. Yummo!
I recall fish ‘n chip takeaway being wrapped in unprinted newsprint, then printed newspaper pages were wrapped around the plain newsprint. I suppose this was for extra insulation, the grease factor and newspaper pages were so readily available in those days. A cost saving.
Ink was nasty stuff back in the day. Lead & who knows what all chemicals. ‘Food safe’ inks have been available for some time—I still wouldn’t want it in such close contact with my fish ‘n chips. Conversely, these days, availability of newspapers, not so much.
Side note: Fish ‘n chip places that serve frozen chips (french fries) should be banned from the planet!