LFGB? EN71? What Does All This Baby Product Safety Testing Actually Mean?
If you’ve spent any time looking at silicone baby products, you’ve probably seen phrases like “food-grade silicone”, “LFGB tested” or “LFGB certified” thrown around.
And if you’re anything like me, your next thought is probably:
Okay… but what does that actually mean?
Because when something is specifically designed to spend quite a lot of time in your baby’s mouth, I think it’s completely reasonable to want to know a little more than just:
“Don’t worry, it’s silicone.”
So, let’s get into it.
First — are silicone teethers safe?
Silicone is very commonly used for products babies put in their mouths — things like bottle teats, dummies and teethers.
There are a few reasons it works particularly well for this type of product. It’s soft and flexible, it can be made into lots of different shapes and textures, and it’s relatively easy to clean.
But this is where I think the important distinction comes in:
Knowing that something is made from silicone doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the finished product.
There are different silicone formulations, different manufacturing processes and potentially different additives and colourants involved.
So personally, I’m much more interested in the question:
What has actually been tested?
And that brings us to LFGB.
So what actually is LFGB?
This is where the terminology gets slightly confusing.
LFGB stands for a very long German word — Lebensmittel-, Bedarfsgegenstände- und Futtermittelgesetzbuch — which essentially refers to Germany’s Food and Feed Code.
You’ll often see baby-product brands use phrases such as “LFGB tested”, “LFGB compliant” or sometimes “LFGB certified” when talking about silicone products.
The terminology can be a little confusing, because LFGB itself isn’t a certification company handing out badges.
For silicone products, independent laboratories can test materials against relevant German requirements and recommendations.
The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment — the BfR — has a specific recommendation relating to silicones, and it explicitly covers products including bottle teats, dummies and teething rings.
So when I’m talking about LFGB/BfR testing, the important part for me isn’t really the acronym on its own.
It’s that the material has actually been independently tested against defined requirements, rather than a manufacturer simply describing the silicone as “food-grade”.
Is that different from “food-grade silicone”?
Yes — and this is a distinction I think is worth understanding.
“Food-grade silicone” is a description you see used all the time.
But seeing those words on a product page doesn’t necessarily tell you what independent testing has actually been carried out.
That’s why I personally place much more value on being able to ask:
Has this material been independently tested, and what was it tested against?
There are so many reassuring-sounding phrases used on baby products that it can become a little overwhelming.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is ignore the marketing language for a minute and look at the actual testing behind it.
Does LFGB testing mean a teether is completely safe?
No single test can tell you absolutely everything about a baby product.
And this is actually one of the things I think is most important to understand.
You could theoretically have fantastic silicone material and then turn it into a badly designed teether.
Maybe part of it is too small. Maybe something can detach. Maybe the shape creates another hazard.
The material is only one part of the finished product.
Which brings us to another acronym you might have seen…
What is EN71 — and how is that different?
EN71 is a series of European toy-safety standards.
And I don’t really think about EN71 and LFGB/BfR testing as competing with each other, because they’re answering different questions.
Very simply:
LFGB/BfR testing helps tell us about the silicone material.
EN71 testing helps assess safety aspects of the finished toy.
For Cheers Baby Co., our teethers have been independently tested to:
EN71-1 — Mechanical and physical properties
This looks at aspects of the product’s construction and potential mechanical or physical hazards.
EN71-2 — Flammability
This looks at how the product behaves in relation to fire.
EN71-3 — Migration of certain elements
This looks at limits for certain elements that could potentially migrate from toy materials.
So if I were looking at a teether as a parent, I personally wouldn’t be searching for one magical acronym that tells me everything is safe.
I’d want to know about the material AND the finished product.
That’s a much more useful way of thinking about baby-product testing.
So what should you actually look for when buying a teether?
You absolutely do not need to become a toy-safety expert before buying your baby a teether.
But I do think there are a few reasonable questions to consider:
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Has the product been independently tested?
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What testing has actually been carried out?
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Is it designed for your baby’s age?
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Are there small or detachable parts?
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Has any clip or attachment actually been designed for use with babies?
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Are clear safety and care instructions provided?
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Is there information about who manufactured or supplied the product?
And honestly, if you’re not sure about something, ask the brand.
I don’t think parents should ever feel awkward asking what testing has been done on something their baby is going to spend half the day chewing.
So what did we actually do at Cheers Baby Co.?
When we started developing our teethers, safety was something we spent a lot of time thinking about.
Probably a slightly unreasonable amount of time, actually.
But these are products designed specifically to go into babies’ mouths, so we wanted the claims we were making about them to have proper testing behind them.
For our teethers, there are really two layers of testing:
The silicone material itself has been independently tested to relevant LFGB/BfR requirements, and the finished teether has separately been tested to EN71 Parts 1, 2 and 3.
And I think that distinction matters.
It isn’t just:
“We use good silicone.”
It’s:
What is the material? What has been tested? And has the finished product itself been assessed too?
Our teethers are designed for babies aged 3 months+, with multiple textures for little gums to explore and shapes designed for small hands to hold.
They’re dishwasher and steriliser safe, can be chilled in the fridge, and every teether comes with its own matching clip included.
Because obviously safety and practicality come first.
But after we’d done all of that…
we still wanted them to actually be fun.
That’s pretty much the entire reason Cheers Baby Co. exists.
We don’t think choosing a properly considered baby product should mean choosing another beige thing that looks exactly like everything else in the baby aisle.
Baby products can be well-made, properly tested, practical and have a bit of personality.
We’re pretty committed to proving it.
Cheers,
Heather, IBCLC and former Labour & Delivery RN
This article is intended for general educational information. Product-safety requirements can vary by product and market, so always follow the manufacturer’s age guidance, warnings and instructions for the specific product you are using.