Mattel Inc the largest toymaker in the world announced a third recall of Chinese manufactured toys, affecting more than a half million toys in the United States alone.

The recall was triggered by "impermissible levels of lead" in paint used in 11 toys include Barbie kitchen and furniture items, Fisher-Price train toys and Bongo Band drums.  

With this new recall the number of Chinese-made Mattel products recalled since August has reached 21 million.

In a public statement Mattel said the move was a voluntary recall of 11 toys which came after implementation of a "strengthened" system of checks.  But the chief executive said he could not promise that there would not be more recalls.

"We've worked very hard on this issue," said Robert Eckert, Mattel's chief executive. "We've got teams working around the clock. We've literally spent tens of thousands of man-hours testing toys. We will continue to work as hard as we can because we want to get this issue behind us."

In the first recall announced on August 2, Mattel said to take back 1.5 million toys, followed by second recall announced on August 14 in which 18.2 million toys were recalled. As part of the third recall 522,000 would be recalled from US and 322,000 from outside US.

Mattel decided to recall the manufactured in China after it had been found that they either had high lead levels or contained small magnets which could be harmful if swallowed.

Meanwhile, the European Commission will review its product-safety measures after Mattel’s third recall.

The Commission has "asked the (EU's) national surveillance authorities for a specific report on the Mattel recall" and will be holding an "internal stock-take" of its own measures, coordinated between the trade, industry, customs and consumer-protection commissioners, a Commission spokeswoman said.

Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva is expecting a report from China on national quality-control systems in the run-up to a major EU-China summit this November, she added.