<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>327517</docID> <postdate>2024-08-24 12:16:36</postdate> <headline>Thousands of illegal jelly cups seized during sting</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-327518" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jelly-cups-resized.jpeg" alt="" width="900" height="507" /></p> <caption>Jelly cups containing Konjac were banned in Australia as a potential choking hazard in 2004. Photo NSW Government</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Caitlin Powell</strong></span></p> <p><strong>Thousands of illegal mini jelly cups have been destroyed after a sting operation found the potentially deadly products at three businesses in western Sydney.</strong></p> <p>Australians have died choking on mouth-sized jelly cups containing Konjac as the additive stops the jelly dissolving. The government outlawed the products in 2004.</p> <p>NSW Fair Trading carried out snap inspections of three businesses on July 10, and 11,300 of the hazardous confectionery.</p> <p>The organisation had been tipped off by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) about two suppliers in Wetherill Park and Wentworth Point receiving a shipment of the product.</p> <p>The discovery was made by the ACCC after a customer reported spotting the product at a third location in Banksmeadow.</p> <p>All three businesses were ordered to stop sales, destroy their stock and submit voluntary recall for products that may have been sold.</p> <p>Only one packet had been sold and was returned before being destroyed while NSW Fair Trading oversaw the destruction of the remaining thousands of cups.</p> <p>The organisation's commissioner Natasha Mann said the operation was a warning to businesses that action will be taken.</p> <p>"It just takes one of these mini jelly cups to lead to an irreversible tragedy."</p> <p>Firms in Australia risk hefty fines for importing or supplying the banned products: up to $50 million for corporations or $2.5 million for individuals.</p> <p>Ms Mann said that consumers who are worried about purchased mini jelly products should read the packaging and throw them out if they are unsure if konjac is an ingredient.</p> <p>Konjac is not banned on its own, only in jelly cups that have a height or width of less than or equal to 45mm.</p> <p>The ingredient also goes by the name konnyaku, conjac, glucomannan, taro flour/power or yam flour/powder.</p> <p>A three-year-old boy from Sydney died after eating a cup in 2000, a two-year-old in Queeensland had almost choked to death the year before.</p> <p>A government statement noted in 2002 that the confectionery was a problem across the world with eight deaths in Japan, five in the US and one in the UK.</p> </body>