Though these roller two candies are the only ones of this style currently being recalled, they’re by no means the only ones that exist or have been involved in safety incidents. In July 2023, there was an incident in Lakewood, New Jersey, where a 7-year-old boy accidentally consumed the roller ball when it detached from the tube. The ball lodged in his throat and caused him to choke. Paramedics on the scene were unable to remove the ball from the boy’s throat, so they forced the ball down to allow him to breathe before taking him to the hospital. Scans at the hospital confirmed that the ball had gone into his lung; after emergency surgery to remove the ball, the boy was in stable but critical condition and put on a ventilator (from Lakewood Alerts). He was released two days later.
Though there was a voluntary recall issued by the manufacturer, Happiness USA, to its retailers and an incident report lodged with the CSPC, there was no public statement and no official recall by the CSPC. Similar candies such as Dip-N-Lik from Koko’s Confectionary & Novelty (the makers of ICEE and Slush Puppie) are not involved in the recall but seem to have been pulled from the company’s website. Customers of all ages are urged to take extreme caution when consuming roller ball candy and to check for recall notices on the CSPC website. If a child is choking, call 911 and follow these steps from Stanford Medicine.