The 'surprise' in Kinder eggs may be a choking hazard

Ever since we wrote about the choking hazards of toys encased in hollow Easter eggs around this time last year, we've been getting comments from devotees who see no issue with the chocolate novelty. While we realize the Kinder Surprise eggs, made by Italy's Ferrero Group, are popular worldwide and considered a collector's item by some, we want to issue a reminder that the Surprise eggs have been banned in the United States since 1997, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned that the toys could pose a choking hazard to children under 3. (That same year, Nestle voluntarily withdrew a similar product, Nestle Magic.)

The CPSC banned the product because the toy surprise hidden inside can pose choking and aspiration hazards to children younger than three years of age. The Kinder eggs are hollow milk chocolate eggs about the size of a large hen's egg in a colorful foil wrapper. The toy within the egg is contained in an oval-shaped plastic capsule. The small toy requires assembly and each egg contains a different one. The labeling is in various languages.

Kinder Surprise also falls afoul of a provision in the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which prohibits embedding "nonnutritive items" in confections. Despite the ban, which is fully honored by Ferrero's U.S. arm, Surprise eggs are widely available here, with many imported by companies specializing in foods from countries where the product is legally available. The eggs pictured above, for example, come from Poland, and were purchased for $1.59 each in a suburban New York gourmet food store. A Consumers Union staffer recently confirmed they are available in a small supermarket near our offices in Westchester County, New York. They are also widely available along the U.S.-Canadian border, since they're legal in Canada. Surprise eggs are also easily purchased on the Internet, from ethnic importers and candy merchants.

If you really want to surprise your kids this Easter, you can consider getting them candy and toys separately. Mixing the two, especially when the toy is embedded inside the candy as it is with the Surprise egg, sends a mixed message about what is and isn't edible, and puts younger children at risk. If your child receives a Kinder egg, the CPSC recommends taking it away.

Comments

[Leigh]

I love kinder eggs, and my son does too.
I think the ban is silly for all the reasons others have listed above.
Guess I will have to move to Canada.

[Kelley]

If anyone has ever tried to open one of the capsules, he or she would realize the joke it is trying to 'protect the child.' It would take an extremely irresponsible parent to hand the capsule, much less the toy, to a child 3 and under. The parent would be violating the warnings, printed in several languages!

Parents are the first line of defense for protecting their children. The governments want to preempt our God-given right to choose what is best for our children and put their "superior" child-rearing skills in place of ours.

God, in His infinite wisdom, gave every human being a right to free will -- to make our choices. Government, thinking they are smarter, higher or somehow better than God, seeks to take it away.

Incredible.

[Ralph]

Does anybody knows who is the company that provides, manufactures these toys?

[Christina G]

I agree with the first two commenters. Why would pretty much every country in the world allow them if they were unsafe? Parents just need to have common sense and supervise their children. Considering the almost constant barrage of recalls for safety and poor production values in children's products in the US (something that hardly EVER happens here in Germany), something is out of whack about this ban.

[Jemima Wishart]

I think that Ferrero have a tiny bit of a conscience about the potential danger of their chocolate eggs to vulnerable children. Otheerwise why have they changed the design to a single piece toy and the cylinder to a hinged capsule? And why is the European Parliament inundated with lobbying Italians when the subject of the Toy Safety Directive is being considered?

The solution is so obvious its a pity that it has taken such a very long time for the manufacturers to bow to the opinion of many good folk worldwide? Your contributors who find the whole thing a storm in a teacup are fortunate not to be the parents of dead children in Turkey, Germany, England, Ireland and Greece (not to mentikon Israel).

[Peter]

I agree with the first comment...

1) every egg comes with the necessary warnings on the aluminum cover clearly indicating that it is not to be given to kids under the age of 3.
2) even if, a 3 year old, and even older kids, will have a hard time even opening the capsule and often require the help of their parents.
3) You really do not believe yourself that a kid might ot be able to keep the edible and not edible apart...
4) It is sold throughout the world, with exception of the US and does not face any problems what so ever regarding safetety concerns elseswhere
5) The quality standards of FERRERO are extremely high

The only risk to my humble opinion is teh possibility of a irresponsable parent opening it and giving it to a kid less than 3 y.o., but you cannot hold the producer resonsible for that, can you?

Not sure whether Nestle did any of the lobbying, but there is a whole local US chocolate industry that probably faces less competition thanks to the ban... pure protectionism

[Brian]

I must say that this is one of the strangest bans I have ever seen. Small toys have not been banned, but yet this candy has been? There is a warning on each package to let parents know of the hazard, but yet the government has to take it a step too far. I spent 12 years in Germany and never heard of a single choking incident. I think it was the power of Nestle's lobbyist afraid of a superior product that had Kinder Eggs banned.