Marks & Spencer has removed pork gelatine from its iconic Percy Pig sweets.
The retailer said they had made the changes following repeated requests from customers to make them 100 per cent vegetarian-friendly.
In a series of Tweets responding to customer enquiries this week, the supermarket said: “After a lot of hard work we’ve finally perfected a 100% vegetarian Percy – something our customers have been asking us for, for a while.
“We have worked to keep Percy’s taste and texture as close as possible to the original recipe. With gelatine phased out, Percy can be enjoyed by even more people whilst reducing the carbon footprint from making them.
“We haven’t changed any of the really important things that people love about Percy; the flavour is the same, he still has real fruit juice and never has artificial colours or flavour. ”
However, fans of the sweet have been quick to express their upset at the decision to remove all animal traces.
@marksandspencer have ruined percy pigs they was my fave till they changed them ???
— Jade Lee (@Jadeylee94) May 1, 2019
@marksandspencer I love Percy Pigs. However, I think there might have been something wrong with the last packet that I bought. They taste the same at first but they have an unpleasant after-taste. Have you changed the recipe?
— Hanna #QueueJumper (@HanneAJ1) April 30, 2019
Well @marksandspencer I suspect your sales of original Percy pigs are about to flat line. You had a vegetarian version, no need to mess with the others. You sell meat in store so there is no need to remove gelatin from the real Percy Pigs.
— ingleton ian (@Ingleton_ian) May 1, 2019
