diff --git a/R/choices_selected.R b/R/choices_selected.R
index a12a5d3c..66cf88e8 100644
--- a/R/choices_selected.R
+++ b/R/choices_selected.R
@@ -152,6 +152,11 @@ choices_selected <- function(choices,
   }
 
   if (inherits(choices, "delayed_data")) {
+    if (is.character(selected) && !inherits(choices, "delayed_variable_choices")) {
+      if (!all(selected %in% choices$var_choices) || !all(selected %in% choices$var_label)) {
+        stop("Selected, '", selected, "' is not in the available choices.")
+      }
+    }
     return(
       structure(
         list(choices = choices, selected = selected, keep_order = keep_order, fixed = fixed),
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-choices_selected.R b/tests/testthat/test-choices_selected.R
index 4cf40b41..45f5e8dc 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-choices_selected.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-choices_selected.R
@@ -70,6 +70,12 @@ testthat::test_that("choices_selected throws error when selected is not found in
     choices_selected(choices = c("a"), selected = c("c", "b")),
     "Must be a subset of \\{'a'\\}"
   )
+  testthat::expect_error(
+    choices_selected(
+      value_choices("ADTTE", "PARAMCD", "PARAM"),
+      "OS"
+    )
+  )
 })
 
 testthat::test_that("delayed_choices select the desired choices", {