While we are happy to offer a range of really great toys for you to buy through our shop there are a few things that we can't find and would like to see. One of these is a travel car mat and so, after many hours of designing and making and a bit of faffing we finally had a prototype. BUT while toys made for your own kids can be made just however your want, toys made for sale in the EU must meet a range of safety standards. The rigor of the standards delights us as parents and makes us tremble as potential manufacturers.
For those of you who are as new to the CE (Certification European) regulations as us I thought it might be helpful to give a bit of an overview.
Basically, anyone making toys to sell for children in the EU has to test them. There are loads of people out there who don't know this so it would be great to spread the word. Though testing is quite complicated when you first look at it, it is not too bad once you have taken an deep breath and especially if you join one of the online support groups of like minded people. The standard that needs to be met is called BS EN71 and in summary there are a number of criteria that toys must be tested for:
1. Mechanical and Physical properties - how strong it is and whether it may physically harm a child.
2. Flammability - how likely it is to catch fire and how it burns if it does
3. Migration of certain elements - whether it contains anything that may poison children
There are other test which apply to specific toy types such as chemistry sets, activity toys etc but the above 3 are relevant to all toys.
If you would like to know more about CE testing this facebook group is an amazing resource and a great place to start. CE Support Chatter Group
We'll keep you posted on our toy testing progress!
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