No One Can Eat This One...    

Those crispy, crunchy potato chips are so tempting! Especially when they come in colourful packages...But every time we take a bite we are also swallowing a mouthful of pesticides and additives like sulphites and Temik. Potatoes are rich with vitamins, minerals and starch. But they are stripped—stage-by-stage—of their nutrients..before they are put in those dazzling plastic wrappers. And the packets we throw away take a toll on environment...

1 Raw materials Potato crops: Pesticide Temik sprayed to kill pests like nematodes. Creates respiratory problems.

2  Travel toll Storage, energy spent in fuel consumption. Potatoes are frozen to prevent oxidation. Sulphites (Sulphur dioxide, sodium bisulphite) added to prevent discolouration, oxidation and bacterial growth.

Effects - Destroys Vitamin B-1. Irritant for asthmatics.

3  Processing Restaurants – slice, fry, dry, additives

Frying: BHA & BHT added to frying oil to prevent oxidation, check rancidity. A carcinogen called acrylamide forms when starch-rich potatoes are fried at high temperatures.

Effects: BHA causes tumours; BHT & acrylamide induces cancer

Steam drying: Controls oil over chip’s surface

Effects: Burns away vitamins

Remaining oil from drying is recycled for reuse

4  Packaging Plastic & aluminium bag Toxic, non-biodegradable

5  Disposal into landfills Release greenhouse gases. Only 10% of plastic waste from potato chips wrappers is recycled globally.