Shoppers at Marks & Spencer are encountering explosives security checks at self-service tills when buying Christmas crackers, with one customer left stunned after being told her purchase needed staff approval.
The customer told the Sunday Mail: "It is health and safety gone mad. I was stopped at the self-serve checkout and told I needed authorisation to buy them. I asked why."
"They were only a box of Christmas crackers and I was told because of the 'explosives'. It was ridiculous. It was not as if I was buying cigarettes or alcohol."
Why Crackers Trigger Explosives Alerts
A Christmas table staple, a cracker is usually filled with a colourful paper hat, a cheesy joke and a small novelty gift. They contain two overlapping strips of card treated with a tiny amount of the explosive chemical silver fulminate, which creates a bang when pulled apart.
Under the Pyrotechnic Articles (Safety) Regulations 2015, Christmas crackers are classified as low-hazard pyrotechnic articles (Category 1), meaning they cannot legally be sold to children under the age of 12.
Retailers' Age Check Policies
There is no requirement for shoppers to obtain a licence, undergo a background check or seek formal government permission to buy them. However, retailers can carry out age checks, with many operating a Challenge 25 policy, meaning customers who appear younger than 25 may be asked to show identification.
In 2009, a 99p Store in England was forced to apologise to customers after wrongly demanding shoppers prove they were over 21 before being allowed to buy Christmas crackers. The bosses of the store in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire said the crackers had been wrongly programmed to flash up as a 21-year-old age restricted item. After receiving complaints, they offered 10 free boxes of crackers to affected customers.
M&S Response and Scottish Law
Marks and Spencer said the legal age restriction is not an M&S-specific policy, and instead UK law sets a minimum age of 12 for the sale of Christmas crackers. High street stores Sainsburys, Home Bargains and B&M confirmed 12-year-old age checks were in place on crackers at their stores.
In Scotland, strict age restrictions apply to buying, possessing, and supplying fireworks, and it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to buy, possess, or use adult fireworks. It is also illegal to sell, buy, or supply these fireworks to anyone under 18.
