Dangerous: Products that look like food
ALL THESE FOOD-IMITATING PRODUCTS HAVE BEEN RECALLED.
Already since 1987, Directive 87/357/EEC prohibits the marketing, import and manufacture of products that look like foodstuffs but that in fact should not be eaten at all. The Directive prohibits all products that have a form, odour, colour, appearance, packaging, labelling or size, such that is likely that consumers, especially children, will confuse them with foodstuffs and in then place them in their mouths, or suck or ingest them, and cause suffocation, poisoning, or perforation or obstruction in the body. Still today, after almost forty years, products are recalled for this reason.
The General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) (EU) 2023/988 that applies from 13 December 2024 and that repeals Directive 87/357/EEC now includes the same rule on food imitation products in Article 6(f)(i).
Just a few randomly taken examples of food-imitating products are shown below, there are many more products that look like food. All of these products have been recalled from the market and were notified on SafetyGate (previously RAPEX).
