Is it dangerous to use staples for Food & Beverage Packaging?

Hello Local Guides,

I want to share my experiences with a little thing called staples that are very common for office and paper uses to hold things together. The staples are very easy to use anywhere anytime for wrapping things like gifts, papers, and several packaging things.

In Indonesia, there are a lot of street foods served along the way. Since I was a kid, I used to buy foods from street food area like Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice), Sate (satay), or even Nasi Ayam Bakar (Rice with Roasted Chicken) and they use paper for the packaging since it’s cheaper. For some occasion, they use a rubber band to wrap the packaging, but most of the people use staples since it’s cheaper and more efficient.

One day, I ate my fried rice at night while I was reading my fave comic book and suddenly something like steel in my mouth cannot be eaten. I was wondering why then I spit out the things, then it was a staple. I really thankful that it isn’t swallowed into my stomach, and perhaps it’s the power of prayer before having my meals. Cause my maid’s friend swallows the staples and she was passed away.

This happens again when I ate in the restaurant in one of the biggest mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, I meet again with a little thing called staple in my soup. Once again, I was thankful that I didn’t swallow that stuff. At that time, I directly open my google maps apps and review the restaurant as the worst restaurant ever in my life and I won’t visit it again unless they already take out the staples in their serving and kitchen area.

Now, whenever I go to the restaurants whether it’s street food or in the mall, I am very sensitive when there are staples in the kitchen or serving area, especially for packaging. I don’t know if this problem common in other countries, but in Indonesia using a staple is a very common thing but yet so dangerous. I already put out my voice in change.org website to make a regulation in terms of food safety to forbid in using the staples for packaging, and it needs a stricter regulation and fines for every restaurant or street foods if they are caught using the staples, however, I still got no response. I just think using staples for the food packaging does not only add some risks to the customers but also reduce their credibility in serving the good stuff.

So, what do you think about this problem guys? Do you ever have the same experience too?

Cheers from Bandung, Indonesia

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Wow! I was shocked when I read your whole story. It never happened to me but thanks for sharing your experience with us.

A similar story happened in NYC but with my cousin when he came for a visit to NYC. We invited him to good restaurant in Grand Central for New Yorkers, they know what I am talking about.

He ordered an apetizer spinach creamy. The first bite he stopped and he couldn’t finish and he took off a stone from his mouth. It was a size of a grape!! We called the waiter and we told him about it. He apologized and he asked if he could have something else but my cousin preferred to eat just his main dish. They didn’t charge us for it. I think accident could happen but we need to be more careful what we eat.

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