Need to know
- Product Safety Australia has issued a recall for a toy handed out with Hungry Jack’s children’s meals
- The "Burping Garfield" contains button batteries, but doesn't include warnings that products with these batteries need to have
- CHOICE advocacy helped bring about laws regulating button batteries, but now further product safety standards are needed
Consumer regulators are urging anyone with a "Burping Garfield" toy handed out with children's meals at Hungry Jack's to return it to the fast food giant.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) product safety arm issued the recall notice this week after finding the toy didn't come with required battery warnings.
The toy, which was being distributed to promote a new Garfield movie, was available at Hungry Jack's stores nationwide between 20 May and 30 May 2024.
It's concerning that two years after mandatory button battery safety standards came into effect, we are still seeing these kinds of compliance failure
CHOICE campaigns and communications director Rosie Thomas
The recall is the latest of many that consumer regulators have issued for products not complying with button battery safety rules, after world-first standards came into force.
Under the changes championed by CHOICE, items with button or coin batteries are required to come with specific warnings; the ACCC says this information wasn't included with the Garfield toy.
"It's concerning that two years after mandatory button battery safety standards came into effect, we are still seeing these kinds of compliance failures," says CHOICE campaigns and communications director Rosie Thomas.
The Garfield toy was given out with Hungry Jack's children's meals last month. Image: Product Safety Australia.
The dangers of button batteries
Button batteries can be found in a broad range of toys and household items and multiple children have died after swallowing batteries they had retrieved from insecure packaging.
Once ingested, button batteries can cause choking, severe burns and internal bleeding.
In 2020, following campaigning by CHOICE and parents, Australia became the first country in the world to introduce mandatory safety and information standards for products containing these batteries.
Small button batteries are found in many household items.
As well as mandating secure battery compartments and testing, the standards also require warnings and emergency advice to be put on the packaging of products containing these batteries.
Thomas says these warnings play an important role in helping parents and carers keep their young ones safe.
"Hearing about dangerous products being served alongside children's meals is very alarming, so we're pleased to see the regulator warn people about this safety failure."
Customers urged to return toy
The ACCC says anyone with the Garfield toy should immediately stop using the product and place it out of reach of children. They should then return it to their nearest Hungry Jack's, where they can receive a battery-free replacement at no extra cost.
In a statement, Hungry Jack's says it has "implemented immediate steps" to halt distribution of the toy and is working with the product supplier and authorities to address the situation.
The ACCC says anyone with the Garfield toy should immediately stop using the product and place it out of reach of children
While Thomas welcomes these warnings, she says more must be done to protect Australians from unsafe products.
"CHOICE encourages consumer affairs ministers across the country to prioritise the introduction of a market-wide general safety provision," she says.
"This will mean manufacturers and retailers will have to make sure that the products they sell are safe – something not currently required in Australia."
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
