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Claim A says Nestlé's Magic Ball candy broke a 1938 law. Claim B says Nestlé's Magic Ball was pulled after a Hershey lawsuit. Claim A is true, and Claim B is completely made up.
Picture a trick-or-treat haul in the 1990s. Tucked among the candy was the Magic Ball, a hollow chocolate sphere with a plastic toy hidden inside, often a Disney or Pokémon figure.
The problem was a law older than the candy itself. The 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act says a confection is adulterated if it has "partially or completely embedded therein any nonnutritive object." A toy inside chocolate fit that description.
That means the treat was arguably illegal for roughly five decades before it was ever invented.
In 1997, consumer groups raised alarms that the toys were choking hazards. Atlas Obscura reports that these groups were largely subsidized by Nestlé's rival, Mars. Nestlé insisted the product was safe.
The FDA sided with the groups and said the candy violated the Act. Nestlé withdrew the Magic Ball on October 1, 1997, just in time to leave a hole in that year's Halloween candy aisle.
As for Claim B, no Hershey lawsuit ended the Magic Ball. Pressure from consumer groups and the FDA's ruling that it violated the 1938 law is what pushed Nestlé to pull it.
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