Find the paperwork
The certificate every children’s product must have — and how to ask for it.
US law requires a Children’s Product Certificate (CPC) to be furnished on request — it does not require it to be posted. So for most brands the operative tool is asking: you can demand the CPC, and a brand that shares it on request is demonstrating exactly the transparency the tiers on this site reward. A brand that will not share it has still told you something.
The one question to ask
“Can I see the certificate for this exact model?” The words exact model do the work. A certificate for another product from the same brand, or a brand-wide assurance page, is not the document for the toy in your hand.
What to ask for, in order
- The Children’s Product Certificate (US market). The CPC names the product, the standards it was tested to (for most toys, ASTM F963), and the testing laboratory. Ask customer care for the CPC for your model by name and number.
- The EU Declaration of Conformity (EU-market toys). The DoC is the EU counterpart: it names the product, the directives and standards it conforms to, and the maker taking responsibility for it.
- A lab test report naming the item. A report from an accredited laboratory that names your exact product and the standards tested is the most checkable document there is — it is what the Documented tier rests on.
- A described testing program. If no per-item document exists, ask how the product is tested: in-house or third-party, before shipment or by batch, and to which standards. A described program is real evidence — it sits in the Program-backed tier, not Documented — while a bare “tested and compliant” claim with no program behind it is only Compliance-stated.
- For art supplies: the AP seal. Art materials carry their own bar — the ACMI AP (Approved Product) seal, certifying non-toxicity under ASTM D-4236. Ask for the seal and the standard by product, not by brand line.
Where to look before you ask
Start with the brand’s own safety or quality page and the product page — some brands publish more than others. LEGO publishes per-item CPCs, which is why its listings can sit in Documented. HABA publishes a described program instead (in-house plus third-party CPSC-authorized laboratory testing before US shipment, under a DIN EN ISO 9001 quality system) — thorough, but a program, so Program-backed. If the brand’s pages give you only a general assurance, write to customer care with the exact model and ask for the CPC or DoC by name. This site does the same: its outreach to Juratoys US customer care on 2026-10-24 asked for the EU Declaration of Conformity for the Janod Sweet Cocoon Multi-Activity Trolley (J04410), and the receipt records that no reply has come yet. A sent request is logged whether or not it is answered.
How to read the answer
What counts
- A document naming your exact product, the standard(s) tested, and the laboratory or issuer.
- A document furnished on request, once it has been checked against that bar for your item — the claim that a document exists does not count until the document itself is seen.
- A described testing program, with who tests, when, and to which standards — evidence for Program-backed, not Documented.
What does not count
- A brand-wide assurance page that is not the document itself.
- A document for a different product, even from the same brand.
- An assembly notice or instruction sheet — the Janod J04410 file located so far is a 2-page assembly notice, not a DoC, CPC, or lab report, and it counts for nothing here.
- A retailer’s claim about a product — retailers repeat brand copy; the document has to come from the maker or its laboratory.
- A material certificate alone (for example, a latex or cotton certification) — it certifies the material, not finished-toy safety testing for the item.
How this site’s receipts show it
On a receipt, a row links to its source document where a public one exists and has been verified. A row with no link is labeled brand-stated or furnished on request — the missing link is itself the signal — and every receipt carries a what’s missing line saying plainly what could not be found. When this site has asked a brand for a document, the receipt’s note records the method, the recipient, and the date, and whether a reply came. That is the standard to hold any listing to, including this site’s own. And when a toy does not clear the bar at all, the decision is recorded in Considered and rejected, with the reason.