What is EN 71 testing and certification

EN71 is the standard for toy products in the EU market. Children are the most concerned and cherished group in the whole society. The market for toys that are generally loved by children is developing rapidly. At the same time, various types of toys often cause harm to children due to various quality problems. Therefore, countries around the world are very concerned about the toys in their own markets. Safety requirements for toys are becoming increasingly stringent. Many countries and regions have established their own safety standards for these products, and production companies must ensure that their products comply with relevant standards before being sold in the region.

As a result, the toy safety law EN71 was launched in Europe. Its significance is to carry out safety technical specifications for toy products entering the European market through the EN71 standard, thereby reducing the harm of toys to children.

Zhongyu can provide professional EN71 testing services, and provide EN71 testing technical guidance and EN71 regulatory consultation to help your products enter the European market smoothly.

1. EN 71-1: physical & mechanical Test physical & mechanical test

(a)Without Sound module Silent toy

(b)With Sound module Sound Toy

(c)Earphone with Sound earphone sound toy

(d)Mouth-actuated Toys Mouth-actuated toys

(e)Ride-on Toys

This part of physical and mechanical properties mainly includes drop detection, small parts detection, sharp edge detection, tension detection, pressure detection, seam detection, ear, nose and eye tension, torsion detection, etc. General requirements for the physical test part: 1 Material 2 Assembly 3 Soft plastic film 4 Toy bag 5 Glass 6 Expansion material 7 Side 8 Powder cap specially designed for toys 9 Sound toys 10 Toys with heat source 11 Small balls 12 Sharp *** 13 Protruding parts 14 Relatively moving parts 15 Oral toys 16 Balloons 17 Ropes for toy kites and other flying toys 18 Enclosed toys 19 Toys that bear the weight of children 20 Heavy stationary toys 21 Projectiles 22 Water toys, etc.

2. EN 71-2: flammability Test flammability test

(a)Finished Product

(b)Pile fabric or material Pile fabric or pile material

(c)Flash Point liquid flash point test

3. EN 71-3: Toxic Elements Test (19 heavy metal tests)

Toy materials are divided into the following three categories according to the degree of possible ingestion by children (see Table 1 for details): 

Category *** – Dry, friable, powdery or flexible toy materials

Category 2 – Liquid and viscous toy materials

Category 3 – Toy materials that can be scratched off

-The test objects include 19 chemical elements (trivalent chromium, hexavalent chromium, organic tin and tin elements are counted separately, so it can also be said to be 17 elements).

-Retains the original 8 elements (chromium, which is divided into the two different valence states of chromium mentioned above), plus another 9 different elements.

-Lowered the migration limits for most elements. (See Table 2 for details)

- ***The migration limit of barium set by the EN71-3 standard is even much lower than that stipulated in the directive.

- The migration limit of hexavalent chromium in Category *** and Category II toy materials is too low to be detected by the test method of EN71-3:2013. Therefore, its compliance with the requirements must be proved by other methods.

- The new standard removes the application of analytical correction factors.

- In the previous version, only the analysis results corrected by the analysis correction coefficient can be used to judge the conformity of the product. That is to say, the analysis results of toy materials must still exceed the limit after being corrected by the analysis correction coefficient to be considered as non-compliance.

- The new standard requires laboratories to use their own uncertainties to assess whether test materials meet the requirements. 

- If the laboratory's measurement uncertainty is less than the analytical correction factor of the previous version, the chemical analysis will no longer appear to have test results significantly higher than the regulatory limit as in the previous version, due to the correction of the analytical correction factor to obtain compliance required conclusion.

Table 1 – Toy material categories

Table 2 - Migration limits of different categories of elements

4. EN 71-4: Experimental Set for Chemisty Chemical experimental toys

5. EN 71-5: Chemisty Toys(Sets) Other than Experimental Sets

6. EN 71-6: Graphical Symbol for Age Warning Labelling

7. EN 71-7: Finger Paints Testing of finger paints

(a)Colorants Colorants

(b)Preservatives

(c)Binding agents, extenders, humectants and surfactants, ingredient review Binding agents, extenders, humectants and surfactants, ingredient review

(d)Limits for the of Transfer certain elements

(e)Limits for primary aromatic amines

(f)Ethanol ethanol

(g)pH value acid-base

(h)Product information & Container Product information and packaging container

8. EN71-8: Household swings, household slides, household seesaws, household playhouses, household paddling pools, others (such as climbing facilities)

(a) Playground Equipment (Exclude Swing) Recreational facilities other than swings

(b)Swing swing

9. EN 71-9: Organic Chemical Compounds-Requirements Organic compounds-Requirements

EN71-9 test items are as follows, for different material testing requirements: click to view

(a)Flame Retardants flame retardants

(b)Color fastness to perspiration Color fastness to perspiration

(c)Colourants colorants

(d)Limits for primary aromatic amines

(e)Monomers-migration TestPlastic monomer (migration)

(f) Solvents-migration Test solvent (migration)

(g) Solvents-inhalation Test Solvents (inhalation)

(h)Wood Preservatives wood preservatives

(i)Preservatives (Other than wood preservatives)

(j)Plasticisers-migration TestPlasticizer (migration)

(k)Toxicity Classification according to 1999/45/EC Toxicity Classification

(l)PH pH value

(m)FormaldehydeFormaldehyde

10. EN 71-10: Sample preparation and extraction procedures for specific safety requirements for toys in EN71-9

11. EN 71-11: Organic Chemical Compounds-Methods of analysis Organic Chemical Compounds-Methods of analysis

12. EN 71-12: Testing of nitrosamines and nitrosamine compounds

13. EN 71-13: Testing of fragrances in certain toys

14. EN 71-14: Safety requirements testing for household trampolines

15. EN 62115: Electric Toy Safety Test Safety of electric toys

16. EN62471 (formerly EN60825-1) LED/Laser Classicification LED/Laser Classification Judgment

17. EMC60825 Directive 89/336/EEC European Community electromagnetic compatibility test