UK Grocery Store Removes Packages Of Chocolate Ducks After Complaints Of Racism

As Easter quickly approaches, chocolate bunnies, eggs, and ducks are lining the shelves of grocery stores everywhere. One particular package of chocolate ducks in the U.K. is receiving a lot of criticism, and it’s not over the taste as one might expect. Packages of chocolate ducks that were sold at the Waitrose grocery chain have been pulled after complaints regarding racism. The ducks in question are a trio of various flavors sold in a set. The first is a milk chocolate duck labeled Crispy and the second duck is a white chocolate one labeled Fluffy. The third one is the duck that caused the stir. It is a dark chocolate duck with pink splatters. Its name is Ugly, according to PopCulture.

Social media caught wind of the controversial ducks and questioned why Waitrose would sell such a product. Some felt that the labeling was conveying that the dark chocolate duck was deemed the ugly one because it was darker than the rest. Angry customers demanded to know why that name was chosen instead of a friendlier title.

Waitrose & Partners issued a public statement in which they apologized for having upset people with their product. They stated that the old packaging had been removed. The chocolate ducks were put back on the shelves after a change of labeling.

“We are very sorry for any upset caused by the name of this product, it was absolutely not our intention to cause any offense. We removed the product from sale several weeks ago while we changed the labeling and our ducklings are now back on sale.”

Still, many other social media users were incredulous about how a simple package of chocolate ducks could cause someone to take offense and questioned about how overly sensitive and politically correct society is becoming. They noted that it was pretty clear that the company had taken inspiration for the product from the classic children’s story “The Ugly Duckling”. In the story, a young duck is made fun of for looking different than his siblings. To everyone’s surprise, he ends up growing into a beautiful swan.

One Twitter user defended Waitrose.

“I’m totally against racism but this is NOT racist especially as in the original story the ugly duckling grows up to be the most beautiful of them all! The racists are not Waitrose or those using the trad labels of white, milk & dark chocolate, but those looking for racism where there isn’t any.”