Posted on 04/24/2011 1:30:02 PM PDT by Nachum
I am looking this bright Easter morn at a Department of Homeland Security “Custody Receipt for Seized Property and Evidence”. Late last night, crossing the Quebec/Vermont border, my children had two boxes of “Kinder Eggs” (“Est. Dom. Value $7.50″) confiscated by Customs & Border Protection.
Don’t worry, it’s for their own safety. I had no idea that the United States is the only nation on the planet (well, okay, excepting North Korea and Saudi Arabia and one or two others) to ban Kinder Eggs. According to the CBP:
Kinder Chocolate Eggs are hollow milk chocolate eggs about the size of a large hen’s egg usually packaged in a colorful foil wrapper. They are a popular treat and collector’s item during holiday periods in various countries around the world, including those in Europe, South America and even Canada. A toy within the egg is contained in an oval-shaped plastic capsule. The toy requires assembly and each egg contains a different toy. Many of the toys that have been tested by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in the past were determined to present a choking hazard for young children.
And yet oddly enough generations of European and Latin American children remain unchoked. Gotta love that “even Canada”, by the way: Is that an implied threat that Kinder Egg consumption is incompatible with participation in NORAD or membership of NAFTA?
The Food and Drug Administration has issued an import alert for Kinder Eggs, because they are a confectionery product with a non-nutritive object imbedded in it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Wasn’t this “Kinder Eggs” discussed last year?
Probably.
You can’t have anything the 0bamas don’t like.
Seems like there was a woman who got stopped driving back from Canada and had her kids’ chocolate eggs confiscated.
And Poker too.
ML/NJ
“has issued an import alert for Kinder Eggs, because they are a confectionery product with a non-nutritive object imbedded in it.”
Don’t lollipops, suckers, ring pops, etc, have non-nutritive objects imbedded in them, too?
I laughed at this part and thought that Mark Steyn's children are just like him.
All your eggs are property of anyone in the government who wants them.
Ice cream on a stick. Banned? You could really choke on one of those sticks.
So what if some particularly bloody-minded jihadist cuts a dozen eggs in two and refills the capsule with a boomthing, then reglues and repacks the eggs? Lets the morons seise the chocolate and makes like gone?
Probably getting the foil back would be the most difficult thing...
Yes, you read that right. At school!!! The horror!
I did it simply because they were not sold (permitted for sale by the proto-nanny vs. nanny-on-steroids enforcers we have now) in the USA, the outer shell of the Kinder Eggs is excellent European style chocolate (milk on the outside and white on the inside) and the toys require assembly so when completed they are interesting and fun to play with. US Customs knew very well that I was bringing them in since I usually bought them at the departure airport and always carried them in a plastic sack or packed in a carry-on bag. I'd get the occasional smile and nod as they saw all the little foil egg images on the x-ray screen.
It is going to take the labors of Hercules to clean out the regulatory Augean Stables now overflowing with the "output" of fifty years of law school graduations. The smell is unmistakable.
I’m sorry it happened this way. He probably declared the eggs, and did everything right. It was within the CBP officers discretion to let the kids eat the chocolate. I probably would have given the toys to the parents to dispose of as they saw fit. I was a Customs Inspector on the Mexican border many years ago. You can enforce the law without being cruel. We had the responsibility to enforce laws for many other agencies. So when we enforced USDA laws and seized fruits that could contain some insect that could have an adverse effect on our own agricultural industry, I would allow the folks to eat as much as they wanted before tossing the rest into the Ag bucket.
Some of the CPSC rules are ridiculous. Some are necessary. Years ago I was assigned to the Mexican border. Late one night I was processing a car through my lane. The driver handed me her immigration document. As I took it, I saw a gun pointed at me from the back seat! I jumped back and reached for my service revolver. By the time I had my hand on the grip, the individual holding the gun leaned forward into the light, and I could see that it was a toddler. The gun was a toy, but I had no way of knowing that until I could see it closer. Now toy guns are required to have an orange cap to distinguish them from real guns.
Now here’s a laugh. I looked up the law to see if the orange cap thing had changed, and I see that some of the toy guns with orange caps were seized, because the orange cap posed a choking hazard! http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10132.html
Ahh...I thought it was a FReeper.lol. Thanks.
I’d never heard of these eggs until I read your post a while back.
So, it’s a rather large plastic egg (not small enough to be swallowed) covered in chocolate and the toy parts are inside the plastic egg, and can’t get out - correct?
That being the description, it seems like the egg might have an age warning on the outside, like other toys containing small parts, but to ban them completely is absurd.
that was classic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.