TOY SAFELTY

Toy safety standards are essential to ensure the items you buy for your loved ones are appropriately designed and manufactured to a standard that will prevent any harm coming to them. Toy safety standards in Europe are amongst the highest in the world and are enforced with vigour in the UK by local Trading Standards Officers.

Incidents of accidents involving toys are rare and more often than not are due to the toy being used in a way it wasn't designed for, has been given to a child of an unsuitable age or was a toy belonging to an older sibling and has been found by a younger child.

To help our customers better understand the markings found on toys and the legislation behind them we have written this short guide.

European Toy Safety Standard EN71
EN71 is a Europe wide set of legislation covering the standards for all toys for children up to the age of 14 and within the legislation splits toy suitability into age specific ranges and in particular, warnings for toys that are deemed to be unsuitable for children under 36 months. The legislation is in 6 parts and covers things such as flammability, toxicity and safety marking.

CE Mark

Toys have a number of symbols to indicate they meet the requirements of the legislation the most common of which is the CE mark. This symbol together with the name and address of the first supplier, was required by law to appear on all toys placed on the market in the European Union on and after January 1990. It is important to stress though that the CE marking is not a European safety marker or quality symbol intended for consumers and should not be presented as such. Its purpose is to indicate to enforcement authorities that the toys bearing it are intended for sale in the European Community and signifies a declaration by the manufacturer or his authorised representative in the Community that the toys satisfy the requirement applicable to them and are entitled to access Community markets.

Not withstanding this though the CE logo does indicate that the manufacturer, importer or their agent has had the toy tested for compliance and is able to demonstrate this to the appropriate authority (Trading Standards in the case of the UK) upon request.