Can someone cite a law that specifically says that fish and chips cannot be wrapped in newspaper? I tried Googling on this matter and some websites claim that there is no such law. If so, the reason that newspaper is used much more rarely these days may be some other reason. Perhaps it’s because newspaper is more expensive than the plain paper that’s usually used these days. The only citation given so far says nothing except that potentially dangerous material can come in contact with food being served. Nothing was said about newspapers.
No law will explicitly rule out newspaper. It will lay down requirements which make newspaper (and many other papers nobody would even consider) unsuitable.
I had Fish and Chips in newspaper when I visited the UK in '71. I remember my cousins saving old newspapers, slicing double sheets into single sheets, and then selling it to the chippies. They deny it. Any of you Brits remember doing that?
Around here if you buy fresh fish down at the fish market, they still wrap it in newspaper. But that’s probably less bad than wrapping the cooked product in it.
See post #9. The law mentions ink.
I think I had fish and chips in newspaper in 1980. It wasn’t that way in 2001. I’m sad, I miss it. Aren’t modern newspaper inks made from soy? Not only does it tattoo your fish, it’s good for you.
The E.U. law cited in post 9 only mentions inks at one point, and it just gives a long list of materials which may be covered in specific measures. Among the materials mentioned is paper. There’s no ban on paper touching food, so I don’t know why you think there’s a ban on ink touching food… Furthermore, the law is dated 2004. The claim in this thread is that this ban on newspaper for wrapping fish and chips happened long before this. I don’t see how this law is relevant.
So is this where the whole thing about portraits of Alfred E. Neuman being “suitable for framing or wrapping fish” got started?
Although it is the current law, it refers back to 1988, and obviously the ban is on certain inks, not all inks. If you want to get into which chemicals in which inks, you will have to dig further to specific regulations. As Bobotheoptimist has already pointed out, the ink in newspapers is not necessarily food grade.
Really? I had no idea it was odd at the time. My Mother is British and we were visiting family.
This was in Bedford, in the county of Campton.
Was it really illegal by 1989?
It seems to me that it was, but I can’t find any sensible reference to a law, so I could be wrong there. I seem to recall the newspaper thing having stopped in the early 1980s, even if “seem” isn’t very GQ-worthy. 
Of course, I suppose the change might have come about gradually by a series of localised trading standards rule, , and if that were the case I suppose it helps explain hwy none of us are too clear on when the change happened.
I can remember getting them in newspaper at the local chippie in 1985 (The Lemon Plaice, Bicester, Oxon).
There is a fish and chips place in San Francisco (authentically British, it is run by a Chinese guy) somewhere near Van Ness and Geary. At least as of two years ago when I last ate there they were serving it wrapped in newspaper.
I’m fine with it. I’ve eaten food sold out of coolers on the back of a bicicle in Singapore I can survive a bit of newspaper ink.
Another thing about newspaper and food, aside from ink: You don’t know where that newspaper has been. Not exactly sanitary 
The newspapers I saw being used to wrap fish and chips in various places (north and south) back in the… I dunno… 80s? - were taken from a stack consisting of multiple copies of the same issue. I think they must have been surplus unsold copies - either bought or begged from newsagents or something.
It was always (in my lifetime) the case that a sheet of butcher paper would be put on top of the newsprint sheets, so that the hottest and greasiest part of the portion was not directly in contact with the newspaper, but the butcher paper was typically not big enough to wrap around the portion, so the newspaper would be in contact with the food in some places.
Newsprint doesn’t actually taste nice and it never did, but there’s something nostalgic about the experience, flavour and aroma of eating fish and chips from a bundle of newspaper (with a hot cup of tea and a slice of buttered bread, in my particular version of this memory).
It’s possible that we’re all only remembering the better examples of fish and chips from our pasts, and associating these with the newspaper in which all examples (including the poor and mediocre ones) were served.
Ah memories…
Coming home from the cinema having paid 1/- to take your current love of your life into the posh seats (back row) so you could have a bit of a grope.
Stopping at the chippy, “6 o’ chips an’ a fish twice please mate, and have you got any fish bits?”
Walking your girl home busily gronffing, a slight drizzle and a bit of chill in the air.
Stop at the bus stop, another grope and a snog that tasted of cheap lipstick and vinegar…but who gives a shit…a grope is a grope is a grope even if you could never get her to undo her bra 
Memories, memories…and it allus tasted better wrapped in the Manchester Evening News.
You sprogs don’t know yer born
I seem to recall that fish and chips in newspaper were common in 1983-84 in London. I can’t say I was overly fond of the practice. I liked the fish & chips themselves (mind you) and it would be nice if my fellow Americans could deal with the little bones, now that I reside on the other side of the lake.
How much would it take to wrap up the chips so you don’t get uncomfortably hot or the grease doesn’t leak through. I imagine once you’ve had a few chips or a bit of fish, your hands would make short work of newsprint.
You can’t blame her - it must be tricky handling the clasp with chip-greasy fingers.
Is there a ban on recycled paper touching food? That would rule out newspapers.