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Recently my son was given a 40 gallon tote box full of Playmobil toys. There are big pieces and little pieces, trees and beards, and s a tiny suitcase and a large tent. He is almost three and my youngest is five months old. Not really age appropriate some would say, and I would have to agree. Yet he loves his “peoples” and they keep him occupied for hours on end. So how is it that my motherly intuition did not instantly seek to banish these diabolical small toys from my home?
Well, we applied a little common sense to the situation. My husband and I took the box, reviewed all the pieces and evaluated what he could play with safely and what he could not. Little pieces went into storage for a future date, while big pieces, and a few small accessories for testing the situation, are being played with on a daily basis. He is having a great deal of fun with them. Occasionally we come across a little piece that is problematic and into the box it goes.
When I was child I collected little toys from inside Kinder Eggs. Kinder Eggs are an Italian chocolate egg, the egg is hollow and inside is a plastic container with a small toy inside. Sometimes the toy is a figure, sometimes it is a toy in pieces for you to assemble. I had a small basket full of them, and believe me a small basket full of Kinder toys is a lot of Kinder toys. When I met my future sister-in-law, who I discovered had a passion for all teeny tiny things, I of course introduced her to Kinder Eggs. Recently, we were shocked to discover that you couldn't bring them into the US.
You can buy all kinds of Kinder treats on Amazon, and surprisingly one Austrian vendor is selling the eggs, but Kinder Eggs are prohibited in the US. The 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act states that a confectionery product that contains a "non-nutritive object" which is partially or totally contained within the food product, cannot be sold within the United States without an accompanying regulation from the FDA stipulating that the object has "functional value." Such a regulation was sought by Ferrero in 1989 but the petition was later withdrawn.
While CrackerJack is exempt from the regulation, as the toy is within the box not the food, Free the Egg, a Kinder Egg supporter site, is keen to point out other violators of this provision are not subjected to the same scrutiny that Kinder Eggs are. ChocoTreasure, King's Cake and fortune cookies all contain non-nutritive objects. ChocoTreasure is in fact a chocolate egg containing a toy.
An alert specifically concerning Kinder Eggs was issued by the FDA as recently as April of this year and re-states that the "non-nutritive object is adulterated unless FDA has issued a regulation recognizing that the non-nutritive object is of practical functional value to the confectionery product and would not render the product injurious or hazardous to health." If you are stopped at the border with a Kinder Egg the fine is $2500, per egg, a penalty avoided by two travellers crossing into the US just this month.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUngGTzGAH8[/youtube]
Well, eggs of the world, unite. Free the Egg is a site founded by Leslie Dannelly, an ex-military kid who wants to bring back the treats of her childhood for children across the US. On this site you can sign the petition, read other articles about the Kinder Egg ban and even buy the T-shirt. All proceeds raised will pay for the administrative costs of sending the petition to Congress once they have reached their goal of 3,000 signatures. The Free the Egg blog also has links to various other articles covering the ban of Kinder Eggs, and why many feel that enforcing such a ban is a waste of taxpayer money. While the Consumer Product Safety Commission is not subject to congressional regulation, someone must sit up and take notice if enough citizens raise an issue.
So I encourage you to sign the petition. Sign if you want to see Kinder Eggs on the market, sign if you think enforcing this law is a waste of money, or sign if you think that parents should take responsibility for the things that are brought into their house.
Luckily my parents live in England still, so my boys will know the joy of Kinder Eggs once a year on our annual visit. I'll just have to be sure to check their bags before we board the plane!