Kinder Joy is a popular confectionery product made by Ferrero, an Italian confectionery company, as a part of its Kinder brand. It is a plastic egg-shaped package which splits into two halves. One half contains a mixture of cocoa and milk cream topped with two wafer balls, while the other half holds a toy and spoon. Kinder Joy was first launched in Italy in the year 2001.
Ingredients of Kinder Joy include skimmed milk powder, milk chocolate, vegetable fats, sugar and crispy wafer bits. It is known for including a small collectible like toy or puzzle for encouraging creativity and play. The packaging is gender-coded, with blue colour for boys and pink colour for girls. Kinder Joy is produced in multiple countries, including India, China, Belgium, Poland, Ecuador, Cameroon and South Africa. It is sold in over 60 countries.
Legal Status of Kinder Joy in India
Kinder Joy doesn’t face any kind of ban in India by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India or FSSAI. It entered India in the year 2007 and is widely available in the Indian markets ever since. Ferrero also operates a dedicated manufacturing facility for Kinder Joy at Baramati in Maharashtra.
Kinder Surprise Eggs, which is the official name of Kinder Joy, was banned in the United States of America. The bone of contention was toys encased in the chocolate mixture of the confectionary product. Kinder Joy was banned under Federal Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, in accordance with Section 402(d) of the Act, which prohibits the sale of confectionary items with objects or non-nutritive elements embedded in them.
The aim of the ban was protecting children against the risk of accidentally swallowing the soft toy embedded in the edible mixture contained in Kinder Joy. Ferrero responded by separating the chocolate mixture and toy into two compartments. Subsequently, Kinder Joy received FDA approval in 2018.
Original toy-encased Kinder Joy did not violate the regulations mandated by FSSAI. Hence, it was never banned in India, unlike in USA. No choking or other safety-related incidents due to the consumption of Kinder Joy was ever reported in India, thereby leaving no rationale for a ban. However, Ferrero has discontinued the toy-in-chocolate design Kinder Joy in India, and is currently selling the separate-compartment design Kinder Joy in the country.
Salmonella Controversy
In April 2022, Ferrero had to recall some of its Kinder Surprise Eggs after salmonella infections in children in multiple European countries were linked to the product. Following a furore in India, Ferrero clarified that all the infected Kinder Surprise Eggs were manufactured in its Belgium factory, while the ones sold in India are manufactured at its Baramati facility.
