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Alert over exploding whipped cream makers

Joshua Melvin
Joshua Melvin - [email protected]
Alert over exploding whipped cream makers

An epidemic of exploding Chantilly cream dispensers in France has left users with facial and chest fractures, neck wounds and even caused the loss of an eye. As a result a consumer watchdog is pushing the government to launch an urgent public education campaign.

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Dispensers of the seemingly harmless, creamy goodness that is ‘creme chantilly’ are causing some serious damage to users in France due to a defective part which causes them to explode.

At least 15 brands of dispensers sitting in thousands of French kitchens have the same defect and a consumer watchdog group has called for the government to mount a full-scale public education campaign on the dangers of the devices.

When a user screws a new gas cartridge into the head of one of the defective canisters the resulting pressure causes the spray nozzle to break free and fire off like a rubber bullet, according to French consumer watchdog group 60 Millions de Consommateurs.

Whipped cream making casualties aren’t that rare in France. The watchdog group said the whipped cream propelled missiles have cut users necks and hands, prompted serious injuries to faces and throats.

In June 2013 a woman in Corsica even lost an eye when her dispenser exploded, French daily Le Parisien reported. Then last October an older woman, trying to make a dessert for her grandson, was wounded when her whip cream maker ran amok.

“There was a huge explosion. I fell to the ground. I broke six ribs and my sternum,” she told RTL radio. “At the hospital they told me that if the shock and the blast had been directed at my heart, I’d be dead now.”

All 15 of the brands identified as dangerous have been subject to a government recalls in the past four years, but only a handful of the devices have been turned in.

The recall “of these products has been too discrete, many consumers don’t even know they have a dangerous utensil.

For example, the spray nozzle for the brand ‘Ard’Time’ was the subject of an alert in April 2013, but of the 160,000 units sold, only about 25,000 have been turned in,” the watchdog told Le Parisien.

 

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