Supermarket chain Whole Foods was forced to apologize for selling whole, peeled oranges in plastic containers at one of its California locations, after a shopper tweeted a photo of the product, questioning the company’s packaging methods.
On Thursday morning, Nathalie Gordon tweeted a photo showing whole, peeled oranges packaged in a plastic container.
“If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn’t need to waste so much plastic on them,” Gordon questioned.
Gordon’s tweet was re-shared over 56,000 times.
However, it appears the photo was originally taken by vegan news and recipe source World of Vegan and shared by the Plastic Pollution Coalition on Wednesday. The image was captured in an Oakland, Calif. store.
The supermarket chain apologized Wednesday evening for the “mistake.”
“@PlasticPollutes @worldofvegan Our mistake. These have been pulled. We hear you, and we’ll leave them in their natural packaging: the peel,” the supermarket tweeted.
Even though the supermarket apologized for the “mistake,” some social media users thought the some customers may need pre-peeled, packaged oranges for health reasons.
“.@WholeFoods @awlilnatty Please dont. A lot of ppl with disabilities like arthritis see them as a lifesaver, and don’t appreciate the “joke,”” Kevin Carson tweeted.
“@WholeFoods @awlilnatty I’m so sorry you’ve decided to do that. I have rheumatoid disease and it’s often impossible to peel an orange,” another Twitter user said.
Here’s a look at some of the reaction.
Last year, Whole Foods was targeted on social media after a customer shared in image of $6 bottles of water containing three spears of asparagus.
The bottles of “asparagus water” were spotted by a Los Angeles-area shopper who snapped a photo of the $6 product and shared it on Instagram.