Morrisons has backed down after customers complained the label on some of its chicken was ‘political’.
They apologised and promised a redesign after the label fell fowl of some shoppers’ expectations.
The supermarket’s roast in the bag salt and pepper chicken crown, featuring the Union Jack on the packaging, proudly declares the product is ‘made from British chicken’.
Fair enough – but it also adds it is seasoned with ‘non-EU salt and pepper’ and it is this detail that has upset some shoppers.
The label provoked furor on Twitter with angry customers complaining the wording was ‘petty’ ‘laughable’ and even ‘stoked anti-EU hatred’.
Some even said they would be boycotting the chain as a result of the packaging.
Others questioned the usefulness of such packaging – saying they would rather know where food was from rather than where it wasn’t.
In response to the complaints, the business said the wording was ‘an error for which we apologise’ and said it would be ‘changing the packaging immediately’.
A spokesperson for Morrisons later clarified that it was not an anti-EU statement but was due to labelling guidelines, saying: ‘Our chicken label is adhering to British packaging regulations, however, we will be redesigning it to make it clear this is not a political commentary.’
According to Government guidance on food labelling, the term ‘non-EU’ must be used on meat products where the full country of origin information is not available.
This will change to Non-UK from September 30 2022.
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