Hacker News Reader

Comment by civilitty | Hacker News Reader

It's not the eggs that are banned, the FDA bans the practice of putting inedible objects fully encased in edible things in general. I loved me my Kinder Surprise when I was a kid but I don't think that's an unreasonable restriction when it comes to products marketed towards children (I don't know if it applies across the board or only to things marketed at children). Kinder has introduced an American version now where the egg is split vertically into two halves - one half has the chocolate and the other half has the toy so that there's no risk of accidentally eating it. I'm not sure if they do the assembly required toys for the American version but I see the eggs everywhere now.

View on HN

How do tiered cakes work in USA? Wedding cakes, for example, in UK often have hidden 'pillars' inside the lower tiers to provide structural strength.

Perhaps there's a size limit on embedded non-edible components.

I could tell you but it'd void your cake's warranty.

That happens here too, but a lot of the stricter regulations apply only to prepackaged foods; I expect this is one of those.

King cakes are another example — commonly enjoyed despite how many baby Jesuses have been swallowed or choked on.

Section 402(d)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is what regulates this. It says:

(1) has partially or completely imbedded therein any nonnutritive object, except that this subparagraph shall not apply in the case of any nonnutritive object if, in the judgment of the Secretary as provided by regulations, such object is of practical functional value to the confectionery product and would not render the product injurious or hazardous to health

Since hidden pillars are neither hazardous to anyone's health and also provide functional value, seems like they'd be just fine.

People actually do injure themselves on them, I think mainly through doing "face smashes cake" type "pranks".

Thanks for the research.

Huh, I guess I have never seen "fake bone-in chicken". Interesting that food can contain inedible objects, but you're not allowed to put them there.

At this point I guess it would be helpful to know the letter of the law/regulation, but it's also probably not important enough to bother.

Do big American Easter eggs sometimes come with plastic bags of smaller candies inside? Those seem less likely to be a choking hazard, but similar enough that they could fall afoul of the law that hits the Kinder eggs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com