Toy Safety

New toy safety legislation comes in to play July 2011. This represents the biggest overhaul of toy safety regulations for decades and is going to cause some manufacturers huge problems. It requires the toy importer to know that not just the toy itself is safe but that all the various components which make up the toy have been tested properly as well

As a soft toy wholesaler we have worked hard to build up good relationships with our manufacturers so this causes us no problems but if you currently continually switch factories to get the best prices its going to cause you huge issues!

But this article is not about the new safety regs which will be covered in detail in a later blog. When we had our marathon discussion with the safety guys we uncovered a few safety myths which we had presumed to be law

1. "Not suitable for children under 18months". All soft toys have to be suitable from birth and you cannot exclude ages even if the pile is long. There are no cases of babies ingesting long plush and so there is no requirement not to use it on plush toys. Most soft toy wholesalers and retailers ask for toys with long plush to have a warning on it but they will have been tested to be suitable from birth. We will continue to recommend a suitable age on our toys as we think that it reassures consumers but it is not a legal requirement
2. Machine washable. There is no test for machine washing except putting it in to the washing machine! Whether the toy is machine washable is covered by "fit for purpose" so if you sell a soft toy designed to appeal to a young child for £100 it will be required to survive machine washing considerably better than one sold for £1. Toys will pill when they go through the washing machine but they should not collapse
3. You are not required to have the fabric content on the toy
4. You do not need to warn the consumer to take the labels off the toy before it is played with. The consumer is deemed to have enough sense to do this!

We will be updating our blog on the new safety legislation as it is a fundamental change to the way toy regulations are administered, for instance you will need to ask your toy wholesaler for their technical file and not their test certificates. Internet retailers will also need to include in their descriptions any warnings which are on the toy but we will bring you more detail later