This is a story about candy eggs.
My first encounter with these eggs was in the early 2000s. My wife and I were visiting with a longtime friend and she was very excited because her secret shipment of Kinder Surprise eggs had arrived from Europe. We had no idea what she was talking about, but she produced one to show us.
The Kinder Surprise egg is a hard chocolate egg-shaped candy with a toy surprise inside.* The toys are packaged inside a large plastic capsule, which should prevent you from accidentally getting stabbed by a toy while enjoying your chocolate. You don’t want to end up like the customers of a Monty Python “spring surprise” candy.
But back to our meeting with our German Candy Smuggler and her “ovoid at all costs” contraband. She slid the candy egg across the table to us and my wife and I examined it. It looked innocuous enough, but at her urging we unwrapped and cracked open the shell. The chocolate shell was tasty. Creamy and delicious. Not delicious enough that I’d risk a $2,500 (per egg) fine to get one, but pretty tasty.
Inside the egg was an large, innocuous plastic capsule. Cracking that open we found a “construct it yourself” toy with colorful instructions. Not quite LEGO, but a fun amusement and with its bright colors and appealing design I could quickly see why people would want to collect the surprise toy payloads.
The Eggs Terminator
Why were these delicious eggs contraband? It was not, as you might suspect, because of some horrible accident with the eggs. Rather, it was because of a law that (wisely) prevents people hiding inedible stuff inside candy.** What was this law? It was the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938.
Section 402(d)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act provides that confectionery having partially, or completely imbedded therein, any non-nutritive object is adulterated unless FDA has issued a regulation recognizing that the non-nutritive object is of practical functional value to the confectionery product and would not render the product injurious or hazardous to health. (source FDA Import Alert 34–02)
Are these eggs particularly dangerous? My reading suggests they’re no more dangerous than any other candy. A quick look for the most common choking hazard food suggests that hot dogs, carrots and apples are more likely to kill you than Kinder Surprise eggs. There have been Billions of dollars worth of the eggs sold since they were introduced in the 1970s, so it is more likely that the challenge here is a legislative one rather than a safety one.
To make a similar legal candy egg for US markets, Ferrero (owner of the Kinder brand) created a special new candy/toy combo. Kinder Joy eggs circumvent the American legal issue by separating the toy and candy into separate compartments. Sure, there’s still a toy — and there is still chocolate but it’s not quite the chocadoobie experience of the original.
Breaking into New Markets
The Kinder Surprise story is an interesting one when considering global markets. It isn’t uncommon for a company to carefully craft a new product in accordance with their home country’s laws, regulations and cultural understanding taken into account. But when a company wants to try a new market, whether International or just outside of one’s current market region, there is much to consider.
Fighting regulatory blockers means hiring lobbyists and working to get permits or exemptions. Sometimes companies have success setting up factories within the target company that will almost assuredly fare better with compliance when staffed with locals and supplied with materials already approved by that country’s government.
But the social barriers to new products can be weird and difficult to overcome. It’s worth mentioning that product names, flavors, colors and brand identity don’t always translate the same across borders.
Getting International Branding Eggsactly Right
A long time fan of urban legends, I’ve heard many that involved this sort of challenge. One of the most famous was that the Chevy Nova didn’t do well in Mexico because “no va” means “Won’t Go” in Spanish. (This one is false.) Another is that Coca-Cola, when translated into Chinese, came out as “bite the wax tadpole!” (Strangely true, but not Coke’s fault.)
It took my wife and I only moments to see the appeal of the Kinder Surprise eggs. The product would, I suspect, simply dominate the chocolate egg market in the US. Because of its toy payload, it has year long appeal and wouldn’t be relegated to the remaindered candy bin the Monday after Easter. There is no translation issue here. Just show a kid one demo of opening the egg and I believe they’d figure out how to have a safe, enjoyable experience. In fact, you can see such a video (and its amazing view stats) here.
At $2,500 per egg violation, and more than 40 eggs, Evan’s looking at over $100,000 worth of candy violations in that video. Good luck, Kid. They’re tough on candy egg smugglers on the inside. Just ask my nameless friend from the intro to this article. Being an illegal-candy mule is no way to make a living.
Oh. You make over $1.3 Million a year on your YouTube channel?
Never mind then.***
Lessons Learned?
Even if you’re not in the chocolate business, looking at the story of the Kinder Surprise egg is interesting. How can such an innocuous looking product fail to break into the American market because of legislation dating back to the 1930s? Keep in mind, Ferrero is not a small chocolate company. Even if you’ve never tried their Ferrero-Rocher chocolate truffles, you’ve probably seen them. Ferrero also own Tic-Tacs and Nutella. In January of 2018, Ferrero bought Nestle’s chocolate division for $2.8 Billion.
If Ferrero can’t get Kinder Surprises past the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, I’m not sure who could. Personally, I’m holding out for the real deal. Maybe they’ll get some kind of federal permit? Maybe they’ll get some kind of legal amendment or exemption? Or maybe my friend will have to keep buying smuggled chocolates hidden in remaindered German copies of Dianetics for a few more years.
Bottom line? As you probably have heard often since kindergarten, it’s not what’s on the outside but what’s on the inside that counts. Especially if that inside is in violation of FDA rules.
*Technically, it’s a two-layer hard shell with an exterior milk-chocolate layer and an interior white-chocolate layer. Little known fact: Pedants actually get most of their nutrition from footnotes.
**Helpful law, I’m sure, but it doesn’t protect consumers from inedible material being used as candy. I’m talking to you, Twizzler!
***Maybe I should let my kids get on YouTube after all? I mean they’re on YouTube all the dang time, but I mean as content-producers. That’s a topic for another day.
