[Coda]

Originally Posted by Den

People think it's due to safety reasons. The real reason is that back in 1938, Mars Candy Company pushed a law through that bans the sort of candy that Kinder Surprise eggs are, to "Make a more fair market", but really it's a non-competition law. Nestle got sued when they tried introducing a similar candy in the US back in the late 1990s.

I think you're getting your news stories a little bit mixed up. It IS due to safety reasons.

Mars didn't push through the FD&C Act of 1938, and there was no product even remotely similar to a Kinder Surprise Egg back then -- it wasn't invented until 1974, and it was never permitted to be imported into the US, though they've been smuggled into the country a lot. When the law was passed, it was 100% for safety reasons. The same law governs any additives that could bear a health hazard to the consumer.

Mars has never manufactured or announced a similar product.

It's entirely likely that Mars attacked Nestle over the Nestle Magic candy for competitive reasons, but the FDA was a disinterested third party in that fight and made its ruling concerning Nestle Magic based on the existing law on the grounds of a choking hazard.

In the end, it's actually a really good example of capitalism working correctly -- competition between companies serving to police behaviors that would otherwise go unchecked until things got bad.