In order to make their products more attractive to children, it is a common practice for many manufacturers to include small toys in snack packages, according to Monday’s China Daily.

Most of the small toys are guns, cars, spinning tops and other similar items, made of metal or plastic.

Small paper cards with cartoons or figures from folk tales printed on them are also often inserted in packages.

Since the production of toys does not include strict measures for sterilization, it is highly possible that germs on the toys might cause serious disease. As the snacks are then exposed to toys in the packets, germs are in turn transferred onto snacks. This makes the sterilization of snacks a useless step.

Another problem is that the toys, which are often quite small, could inadvertently be swallowed by children.

Last August, the Ministry of Health issued an urgent circular forbidding the practice of inserting toys and cards into food packets and the sale of such products, according to the paper.

(Xinhua 04/16/2001)