Child's Death Leads To Recall Of Over 70 Million Liquid Rolling Candy Products

In April 2023, a seven-year-old girl in New York fatally choked on a detached ball from a tube of roller candy (from CNN). On Thursday, October 5, the distribution company, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC), and a separate, second manufacturer of similar candy announced a recall of this style of sour candy for safety concerns.

The candy involved in the choking incident is Cocco Candy's Rolling Candy, manufactured in Turkey and distributed by KGR Distribution Corp in New Jersey. The notice states that the recall affects the sour strawberry, sour tutti frutti, and sour cola flavors (UPC codes are available in the notice). Customers are urged to stop using the candy and immediately take it away from children. They can request a refund for these products by calling KGR at 888-802-8823, emailing recall@kgrdistribution.com, or visit kgrcandies.com/recall-registration. The Daily Meal has reached out to KGR for a comment on the lapse between the incident and the recall but did not receive a response before publication.

The other recall notice is for Candy Dynamics Inc. roller candies, called Slime Licker, in blue razz, strawberry, black cherry, and sour apple flavors. The candy was manufactured in Spain for the Indiana importer; there have been two reports of the roller ball detaching but no reports of injury thus far. Customers can view affected UPC codes in the notice; the company is offering refunds for returned product as long as it isn't returned empty.

Though these roller two candies are the only ones of this style currently being recalled, they're by no means the only ones that exist or have been involved in safety incidents. In July 2023, there was an incident in Lakewood, New Jersey, where a 7-year-old boy accidentally consumed the roller ball when it detached from the tube. The ball lodged in his throat and caused him to choke. Paramedics on the scene were unable to remove the ball from the boy's throat, so they forced the ball down to allow him to breathe before taking him to the hospital. Scans at the hospital confirmed that the ball had gone into his lung; after emergency surgery to remove the ball, the boy was in stable but critical condition and put on a ventilator (from Lakewood Alerts). He was released two days later.

Though there was a voluntary recall issued by the manufacturer, Happiness USA, to its retailers and an incident report lodged with the CSPC, there was no public statement and no official recall by the CSPC. Similar candies such as Dip-N-Lik from Koko's Confectionary & Novelty (the makers of ICEE and Slush Puppie) are not involved in the recall but seem to have been pulled from the company's website. Customers of all ages are urged to take extreme caution when consuming roller ball candy and to check for recall notices on the CSPC website. If a child is choking, call 911 and follow these steps from Stanford Medicine.