Food Products Containing Inedibles: Why do we need experimental observations of children's behaviour with them?

OBJECTIVE The general aim of this study, involving 176 children of three different European countries interacting with FPCIs was to examine risks associated with FPCIs. A more specific aim is to understand how three common FPCIs, present on the European market, are recognised by children aged 3-6 as having edible and non edible parts, referred to FPCIs ”double nature”. The first experimental study on this topic, carried out by Benelli et al. (2002) in Italy, showed that FPCIs do not represent a higher risk of accidental ingestion when compared to toys presented alone. The same experimental observations were later duplicated in Spain during 2003, in order to understand if similar social-cultural context and market give rise to similar behaviour of children presented with the same FPCIs. Finally, comparable experimental observations were carried out also in Sweden, which represents a strongly different situation as far as FPCIs are concerned, since these products are not present on the Swedish market, or when present are subject to strict use regulations (for example, cannot be advertised on TV). As a consequence children are much less familiar with them as compared to the children of the other countries involved in the present project. The present study shows that FPCIs do not represent a higher risk of accidental ingestion of the contained toys as compared to toys alone.