WRITTEN QUESTION E-2479/97 by Phillip Whitehead (PSE) to the Commission (16 July 1997)

Subject: Food products containing inedibles

A recent study (('Injuries From Food Products Containing Inedibles'. )) published by the Centre for Research and Prevention of Injuries has estimated that in Greece alone 117 children a year will suffer choking from toys and other non-food items placed in food products as a marketing device.

Has the European Home and Leisure Accident Surveillance System (EHLASS) identified this as a problem in other Member States? If so, how many cases have been reported?

On the basis of the evidence, does the Commission consider that the incorporation of non-food products in food products is a health risk that might be addressed at EU level?

Answer given by Mrs Bonino on behalf of the Commission (26 September 1997)

The Commission can confirm that the European home and leisure accidents surveillance system (EHLASS) has reported such accidents in other Member States, but a general analysis of the total number of such accidents has not been made.

The report mentioned in the question was based on EHLASS data not only from Greece, but also from Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Finland. When this report was brought to the Commission's attention in June 1997, the problem was immediately listed on the agenda for the meeting of the committee on product safety emergencies according to Directive 92/59/CEE on general product safety ((OJ L 228, 11.8.1992. )) and a supplementary question was raised to EHLASS administrations in other Member States. Denmark had no such accidents over a five-year period and neither Italy nor Austria reports incidents. The United Kingdom reported from its data from 1995 a few accidents and the Commission has from a letter from an English consumer learned that a little boy suffocated after having ingested a toy from a chocolate surprise egg. This incident took place some time after the egg was ingested.

The Commission confirms that it considers unwrapped non-food inedibles in foodstuffs a health problem. The emergencies committee has made its conclusion as follows:

'It was the consensus of the meeting on the 30 June 1997 of the emergencies-committee set up by the general product safety Directive (92/59/EEC) that unwrapped non-food articles mixed with food-products, in circumstances when a consumer may accidentally place these articles in the mouth and swallow and/or ingest them, pose a serious and immediate risk to health.

The members of the committee and the Commission services noted that all Member States already have the necessary legislation, either general or specific, which would allow them to take action against this category of products when they are present on their market.

The Commission services invite Member States, in the light of this consensus,

1. to take the necessary action to identify these kinds of products on their market,

2. to restrict the placing on the market or take other appropriate measures against these kinds of products in order to ensure safety,

3. to report before the middle of September to the Commission services, the measures taken and the outcome of these.

The Commission services will if necessary consider further steps, in the light of the reports from the Member States in order to protect consumer safety and to ensure the free movement of safe goods, including the possibility to launch the procedure foreseen in articles 9-11 of the general product safety directive'.

Furthermore, the Commission approved on 14 May 1997 a communication and a proposal for a decision of the Parliament and the Council adopting a programme on injury prevention in the context of the framework for action in the field of public health ((COM(97) 178. )). Prevention of accidents to children is one of the fields of activity in this programme.