Some 1.5 million of the toys, which were made at low-cost factories in China and have been on sale in Britain since may, are being recalled worldwide.
The UK withdrawal relates to several best-selling products under the Fisher-Price brand, owned by global toy-maker Mattel. The company put the blame on its supplier in China. However, the problem must also call into question Mattel's system for policing product quality.
Its quality assurance vice-president, Jim Walter, said 'We require our manufacturing partners to use paint from approved and certified suppliers and have procedures in place to test and verify, but in this particular case our procedures were not followed.'
The latest alert will raise concerns that cheap merchandis from China fails to meet required health and safety standards.
