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Back in the 50’s most food vendors packaged food with leaves (such as plantain leaves, corn husk, an waakye leaves), paper bags (usually cleaned cement paper bags) and into re-usable aluminum bowls (aka food flasks) for their customers.

Currently, urbanization and modernization has introduced rubber and plastic packaging which most food vendors claim is the cheapest and handier food packaging material. But have you ever thought about their side effects on your food and your health?

In Ghana many food vendors dish out food in rubber, plastic, and polythenes packaging for their customers. These rubber, plastic, and polythenes packaging add no medicinal benefits to the foods but rather have side effects which are not known most of its users.

When hot foods come into contact with these plastic, polythenes, and rubber packages, toxic compounds from these packages leaches into the food. Also, when these rubber, plastic, and polythenes packaging materials are irradiated along with food, toxic substances are transferred into the food.
 
These toxic chemicals that leach into foods from plastic, polythene and rubber packages have been proven to cause cancer. It is then advisable to explore other sources of food packaging, especially the ones comes into direct contact with the food.

Unlike plastic and rubber packages, plain paper packaging, leave packaging and the use of re-usable bowls are healthy alternative options you can consider on a frequent use. Example of the leaf packaging is the large leaf (katemfe leaf) which is used to package waakye in Ghana and used to wrap beans pudding in Nigeria.

This leaf adds lots of medicinal benefits to the food and so common especially at food vending points in Ghana and some other countries.