The Kinder Surprise ban

QUESTION Is it true that Kinder Surprise eggs are illegal in some countries? What other everyday products have been banned abroad?

like kinder Surprise, Nestle Magic Balls, sold in the U.S., consisted of hollow milk chocolate housing a plastic toy.

They were withdrawn in 1997 in response to a lobbying effort spearheaded by parents who claimed the toys represented a choking hazard. kinder Surprise was likewise banned.

in 1971, it became illegal to import haggis into the U.S. from the Uk due to a ban on food containing sheep lung.

Foie gras — fattened duck or goose liver — has been banned in israel, Argentina, parts of the U.S. and much of europe because the force-feeding required to make it has been declared cruel.

There is a strict ban on importing chewing gum into Singapore. Since 2004, only dental or nicotine gum is allowed.

New Zealand, Australia and Russia have banned farmed salmon because the fish are fed chemicals to give them the desirable pink colour — their diet would otherwise make them a rather dull brown.

Dr Ken Bristow, Glasgow.

QUESTION Is Trigger’s Rodney/Dave ongoing joke the longest in sitcom history?

FURTheR to the earlier answer about the couch joke in The Simpsons, the show also features the long-running gag of Bart writing lines as a punishment in chalk on a blackboard.

The first (season one, episode two) saw him writing ‘i will not waste chalk’, which embodies the show’s take on school as a kafkaesque nightmare. Other favourites include ‘i will not show off’ in gothic script and ‘i will not plant sublimin(al) messa(gore)s’ — aired two days before the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

M. Roberts, Hayle, Cornwall.