Imported mostly from Asia, fruit-flavored gel candies were a huge hit with small children. They were sold individually in tiny plastic cups and featured a small piece of fruit suspended in a gel-like substance called konjac. However, research from the Food and Drug Administration showed that konjac does not dissolve in the mouth like other gelatins do-in fact, people usually freeze the candies furthering their hardness. When the gel is hard and sticky, it presents a serious choking risk. This is not just worried parents; the candies have been linked to the deaths of several children by choking. In Japan, over the last decade, the fatality count has climbed past ten. Manufacturing labels in that country now warn of the risk, but these do not exist written in English yet. And even when there is a label, they do not sufficiently highlight the danger of the candies. Experts have shown that the candies are too wide for most children’s throats. Safeway and Albertson’s both stopped selling the candies in most of their shops several years ago, but other stores have not followed their example, especially small Asian markets and mom-and-pop grocery stores.
