Birmingham shoppers join boycott of Morrisons after row over ‘non-EU salt and pepper’ chicken packaging

The product in question is available in Morrisons stores in Birmingham and has caused quite a stir on social media.

Morrisons apologised for the packaging for their salt & pepper chicken crown after customers were outraged that the product mentioned it contained “non-EU salt and pepper”.

The labelling on the chicken crown sparked outrage on social media, with the company being accused of xenophobia, and ‘freezing’ out loyal Morrisons shoppers.

People flocked to twitter when someone shopping and the famous supermarket chain snapped an image of the salt & pepper chicken crown, and the photo garnered a lot of attention, having got over 1,000 retweets, 1,000 replies and over 4,000 likes.

The original tweet read: “Tell me @Morrisons that this is not real. Your response will dictate whether or not I ever shop at your stores again.”

The first reply was: “I’m done with shopping @Morrisons. I can live with union flags on bananas but the gratuitous slight on the EU is too much.”

However some shoppers defended the supermarket chain saying: “Another EU fanatic having a meltdown over a pack of chicken. Embarrassing.”

Morrisons swiftly replied to the tweet, ensuring angry customers the packaging was merely a ‘error’: “The wording on the packaging is an error for which we apologise. We are changing the packaging immediately.”

A spokesperson for supermarket said: “It is adhering to packaging regulations, rather than making a political point”

The salt and pepper chicken crown also features the union jack on its label, like a lot of Morrisons products, which says that is make from British chicken.

The supermarket confirmed it would indeed change the packaging and replace the wording of non-EU products. However, it must remain somewhere on the product as per packaging laws.

Government guidance on food labelling states that the term “non-EU” must be used on meat packaging when full country information is not available.

As from October next year, follow post-brexit rule changes, non-EU will be replaced by ‘non-UK’.