http://www.asiaone.com/Wine%252CDine%2B%2526%2BUnwind/News/Food%2B%2526%2BWine/Story/A1Story20080313-54189.html
JOHOR - SOME hawkers in Johor Baru are literally cooking popular
snacks such as goreng pisang and keledek with melted plastic,
creating a health scare, a news report said.
The News Straits Times reported recently that e-mails on the
unethical practice have been circulating to warn people of the
potential health hazards of eating extra crispy fried snacks or
even chicken.
The e-mails describe how some hawkers had been seen adding plastic
straws and bottles into boiling oil before frying their
snacks.
The snacks would then remain crispy for several hours. Factory
worker Rauf Hamdan, 24, was cited by the newspaper as one of the
'witnesses'.
Mr Rauf said he saw a goreng pisang seller in Johor Baru throw a
plastic bottle into boiling oil.
"When I asked the hawker about it, he just said matter-of-factly
that his customers had not complained of any health hazards from
eating his goreng pisang."
"He also said this 'recipe' was now popular among many hawkers like
him."
Plastic bottles are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which can
cause various forms of cancer and birth deformities if
ingested.
According to the e-mails cited by New Straits Times, the trend
allegedly started in Thailand, for frying ikan bilis and
onions.
It spread to Kedah and Perlis, then the rest of the country, the
report said.
Another witness said via email that his uncle had allegedly seen a
goreng pisang seller adding plastic drinking straws into hot oil in
Perlis.
According another e-mail, a hawker in Cameron Highlands allegedly
melted a five-litre empty cooking oil bottle in boiling oil by
stirring it in, New Straits Times reported.
Similar accounts are spreading among blogs.
The Consumers Association of Penang research officer T. Subbarao
said that the agency would launch an immediate investigation.
