Product Safety Quality
As a company privileged to bring toy and gaming experiences to fans of all ages, product safety is a top priority. We create a systematic approach to safety through collaboration, an iterative quality assurance process, alignment with standards and additional focus on key areas including age grade and chemical use.
Approach and Oversight
We take an integrated approach to product safety and reliability. This work is led by our Global Quality Assurance team, who is responsible for tracking new global regulations, monitoring compliance, updating Hasbro’s product safety and reliability requirements and administering training to Product Development Teams. The President Toys, Licensing & Entertainment, Chief Legal Officer, VP Product QA & Regulatory Affairs, Head of Global Product Development & Quality Assurance, and Senior Vice President of Global Legal Compliance oversee the product safety program. This team meets to discuss incidents or issues as they arise.
We embed safety and quality into our product and play experiences at each stage of our product lifecycle. Our five-step testing and review process ensures our quality standards and procedures are followed. This helps anticipate potential problems, improvements, and ensures product safety, compliance and reliability.
Following approval of a new toy or game concept, our Quality Assurance Engineers work with our designers to specify the Hasbro design and manufacturing Safety and Reliability Standards (SRS) the product must meet, as set forth in a written Test Plan.
Our teams will review concepts and samples to generate a Test Plan, which communicates product-specific requirements to our manufacturing vendors.
Throughout manufacturing, Hasbro Quality Assurance teams collaborate closely with our OEM vendors to ensure all critical to quality and safety protocols are being followed, and the products are compliant to SRS requirements. The components and finished products are inspected by sampling per Hasbro QC procedures. We also contract with independent third-party labs to test our products.
We capture global feedback from a wide variety of sources – including consumers, retailers and regulators – on every Hasbro product around the world through a consolidated system that alerts and enables us to respond immediately to any potential safety or quality concern.
Input from the steps above are implemented back into the first step to facilitate continuous improvement
Alignment with Standards
Every Hasbro product must be compliant with national and regulatory standards and satisfy our own safety and quality standards.
Regulatory compliance
The toy and game industry is highly regulated by stringent national and international laws. Hasbro adheres to all applicable safety and quality standards. Examples include the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), U.S. Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA), European Toy Safety Directive (TSD), and REACH, RoHS and CLP regulations. Additionally, our Product Safety and Quality team has ongoing partnerships with regulatory bodies and external experts to stay up to date on upcoming regulations.
Internal standards
Our internal quality assurance standards provide consistent, rigorous guidance on product requirements, and are often more stringent than regulations. We follow our Reasonable Testing Program (RTP), which has two parts: (1) Safety and Reliability Specifications (SRS) and (2) Product Development Process.
- • Phase 1: Safety and Reliability Specifications (SRS): SRS’s combine U.S., European, and international safety standards, and are tailored to meet our specific needs as a toy and games manufacturer. They incorporate requirements set by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), European Committee for Standardization (CEN), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and are updated as regulations and standards change. In addition, Hasbro suppliers maintain ISO 9001 certifications. We currently have over 100 proprietary SRSs in place, including Chemical Management, Chemical Requirements for Vendors, Labeling Specifications, Heavy Metals Specifications and Stabilizer Specifications.
- • Phase 2: Product Development: During the product development phase, a product design is evaluated for appropriate age grading, safety, reliability, and compliance risks. Additionally, important safety labeling requirements are identified.
Area of Focus
Specifying which toys and games are appropriate for fans at each stage of their lives is a critical component of our product safety program. Additionally, materials selection and chemical management ensures products are safe for fans and provide the quality they are looking for.
Age Grading
We design toys and games for fans of all ages; however, not all our products are suitable for everyone. Our toys and games are age graded using CPSC guidelines, ISO guidelines, EU age grading requirements, historical and market data, and testing.
Materials and Chemical Management
Our Materials and Chemical Management Policy applies to Hasbro products, vendors and suppliers worldwide, and are communicated via Hasbro’s vendor manual. Our materials and chemical management principles include:
• The safety of the people enjoying our products is our number one priority. In the countries in which we distribute our products, we comply with all applicable laws, regulations and safety standards, and adopt and apply international standards where laws and regulations are less stringent.
• We proactively evaluate materials and chemicals in Hasbro’s products and packaging, and we prioritize them for restriction. This is based on published lists of chemicals of concern and sound scientific analysis that may reveal a potential impact on human health or take over the environment.
• We perform chemical safety assessments, including Bills of Substance and toxicological risk assessments (where appropriate), for all materials used in our products and packaging.
• We strive to reduce potential hazards by replacing a chemical of concern with a less hazardous alternative where the replacement does not adversely impact other aspects of product safety.
• We work with our vendors, suppliers, product safety experts and stakeholders to redesign products and packaging to limit the use of chemicals of concern and to drive innovation in the development and adoption of safe and environmentally friendly alternatives.
• We support policies, standards and legislation based on sound science and include assessments of relevant hazards, exposures and subsequent risks, with a preference for lower-risk alternatives.
There are additional steps in place to assess and manage risks from harmful chemicals, including:
• Upstream monitoring of discussions in various industry forums and publications of chemical risks and hazards by regulators and scientific studies.
• Leveraging a third-party platform to receive real-time updates on proposed chemical regulations.
• Mitigating risks and hazards by restriction, elimination or ban of certain chemicals and classes of chemicals.
At the factory level, Hasbro’s Factory Chemical Control Process requires factories to control production tools from chemicals of concern and consult our Chemical Management Database. This database contains an approved supplier list and a testing process for incoming materials. In addition, we require Hasbro approval on Bills of Substance and incoming testing for all high-risk Tier 3 material suppliers.
From a product standpoint, our Safety and Reliability Procedures (SRPs) provide specifications on chemical and material usage. SRPs include a restricted substance list (RSL), which contains more than 6,900 chemicals that are not allowed in Hasbro products. The chemicals from this list are derived from global laws and regulations, chemicals identified by Hasbro, and chemicals whose use is not restricted but may be reportable to regulatory authorities. We disclose and register all substances based on regulatory statutes, including substances of concern as identified by various states and regulatory bodies. Chemicals on Hasbro’s RSL include, but are not limited to: A list of some substances on Hasbro’s RSL can be found below
Learn more
Read our latest Corporate Social Responsibility Report for more information about Hasbro’s commitment to product safety.
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