Oh, snap!
A British bakery came under fire this week for selling “non-binary gingerbread people,” with some culinary critics slamming the sugary store’s “woke agenda.”
“Really? A non-binary gingerbread people?” read the viral Facebook post that spurred the online battering of the Cottage Bakery in Blackpool, England. “What it’s really come to?”
But bakery boss Paul Cook told SWNS the labeling “wasn’t done to be politically correct,” but rather “as a bit of a laugh.”
Cook explained the sweet shop has been selling gingerbread for 20 years and only relabeled the cookies as non-binary because of Natasha’s Law, which requires complete ingredient and allergen labeling on food pre-packaged for direct sale.
The rule is named for Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, a teenager who died in 2016 after suffering an allergic reaction to a Pret a Manger baguette that contained traces of sesame.
“We began putting labels on [the gingerbread cookies] before COVID, but we had people coming in and saying it was wrong — and they were not men,” Cook said.
“So I had a chat with my printer about it, and he said, ‘Why don’t you call them non-binary?’ I thought that’d be funny, and that’s how it came about — but it’s taken three years for someone to make a big deal of it.”
The Facebook post that sparked the frosting fracas drew more than 450 comments.
“Absolute madness. Won’t even be able call it gingerbread soon in case it offends gingers,” one person groaned.
Others mocked the outrage, with one social media user wondering, “What is worse: A gingerbread that doesn’t have a gender or people getting angry about a gingerbread that doesn’t have a gender? Who cares?”
Cook explained that the label is on the back of the cookie, so workers can easily grab it when customers ask for a “gingerbread man” at the counter.
“It wasn’t until the labels were on [display] that people started making silly comments,” he claimed. “It wasn’t done to be politically correct… and some people have thankfully taken it as a joke.”