Waitrose forced to pull 'racist' chocolate ducks after backlash

9 April 2019, 11:18 | Updated: 9 April 2019, 12:32

By Mared Parry

@maredparry

The store received a wave of complaints after labelling the dark brown duck as 'ugly'

High street giant Waitrose has come under fire for their questionably named chocolate ducks.

The trio of 'Easter ducklings', which have a milk, white and dark chocolate offering have all been named to add some personality to the offering, but one name has raised a fair few eyebrows.

The £8 Easter treat called the milk chocolate duck 'Crispy', the white chocolate 'Fluffy', but the darkest duck 'Ugly'.

Read more: Marmite releases chocolate egg flavoured with the yeasty spread

The "small number" of complaints centred around the 'racist' decision to name the ducks and as a result, Waitrose pulled the trio from shelves.

They have since been reintroduced to stores across the country and online, but this time around they are without any names.

It's likely that the 'ugly' duck was named after the poem The Ugly Duckling, written by Hans Christian Andersen and made famous by Disney.

Read more: Hemel Hempstead's Tesco found guilty of a breach of health and safety

A Waitrose spokesman said: "We are very sorry for any upset  caused by the name of this product, it was absolutely not our intention to cause any offence.

"We removed the product from sale several weeks ago while we changed the labelling and our ducklings are now back on sale."