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.

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