s/([^\0-\x7F])/'&#' . ord($1) . ';'/eg; ##

##

$proper_utf8 = pack 'U0a*', $raw_from_database;

##

##

s/([^\0-\xFF])/'&#' . ord($1) . ';'/eg;

##

##

use Interpolation;
tie %HTML, "Interpolation", \&escape;  # works with global or with lexical: my %HTML
{
    my %esc;
    BEGIN {
        %esc = ( '&' => '&', '<' => '<',
          '>' => '>', '"' => '"',   # if you want them
        );
    }
    sub escape {
        my $s = pack 'U0a*', shift;
        $s =~ s/([&<>"])/$esc{$1}/g;
        $s =~ s/([^\0-\x7F])/$esc{$1} ||= '&#' . ord($1) . ';'/ge;
        return $s;
    }
}

##

##

print qq(
$HTML{$article->{'title'}}

Publication Date: $HTML{$article->{'pub_date'}}

Author: $HTML{$article->{'author'}}

Price: $HTML{PrintablePrice($format_list[0])}

);