Inventor Of Kinder Surprise Eggs Dies Aged 83

Kinder Surprise Eggs are not legal in the United States, but in much of the rest of the world, the egg-shaped chocolate candy with a toy inside is an icon. This week the Italian inventor of the Kinder Surprise Egg passed away at the age of 83.

According to The Local, 83-year-old Morto Salice from Turin, Italy, started working for the Ferrero food group back in 1960. The company made chocolate eggs for Easter, but nobody wanted chocolate eggs during the rest of the year, so all the Easter egg production molds and equipment just sat around without a purpose the rest of the year. The company was looking for a way to get more use out of those Easter egg molds when Salice invented the Kinder Surprise Egg: a chocolate egg with a capsule inside, and the capsule contained a random, tiny toy.

The Kinder Surprise Egg was a huge success, and still is to this day.

Salice also helped develop other famous chocolates like Ferrero Rocher and Pocket Coffee. He passed away on Thursday at the age of 83.