Whole Food Sells Pre-Peeled Oranges & Twitter Roars Its Disapproval
Alex Whittler, CBS 2 Intern
CHICAGO (CBS) — Grocery stores are notorious for finding convenient ways to package food. Yoplait's Go-Gurt, Otter Pops and Welch's "easy open" fruit snacks are staple lunch time treats.
But is there a way to make fruits and vegetables more "user friendly," too?
Whole Food seems to think so. It recently began offering pre-peeled oranges to its customers. The food giant strips the fruit of its own built-in, natural seal to put it in a man-made package.
The fruit, which are more specifically sumo tangerines, sell in select stores for $5.99 a pound.
Some environmentally-conscious customers are unhappy with the new offering.
Nathalie Gordon, (@awlilnatty) snapped a picture of the packaged goods and shared it on Twitter saying: "If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn't need to waste so much plastic on them."
Whole Foods got the message and promptly responded by tweeting: "Definitely our mistake. These have been pulled. We hear you, and we will leave them in their natural packaging: the peel."
Unfortunately, there is no way to please everyone. When the store took the fruit off the shelves, people with disabilities said they were looking forward to finally enjoying the sweet treat.
"I'm so sorry you've decided to do that. I have rheumatoid disease and it's often impossible to peel an orange."
"Please dont. A lot of ppl with disabilities like arthritis see them as a lifesaver, and don't appreciate the "joke[.]"
The debate prompted some people to re-think their initial criticism over selling un-peeling oranges.
"I was at first really critical about the waste of plastic that the peeled oranges are causing," says Meriam Bht tells CBS2 via Facebook. "It's a pity that it's causing more plastic waste, but I'm glad to hear it's helping people with arthritis and other difficulties in terms of movement."
