A bakery owner has responded to backlash for selling non-binary gingerbread people, claiming that they were never intended to 'upset or be offensive to anyone'.
The Cottage Bakery in Blackpool became the centre of a social media storm earlier this week when someone shared a picture of their gingerbread people on Facebook.
The post, which has now been shared more than 1,000 times, prompted a slew of criticism, with people branding the name 'ridiculous' and 'outrageous'.
But bakery owner Paul Cook has hit back at critics, claiming that it's taken years for anyone to even take notice of the new name.
He told the Daily Star : "We've sold them for 20 years here and we re-labelled them about three years ago and it's only the last week that it's just got mental as somebody posted it on Facebook and everyone started going on about it."
Paul said that a law change which meant they needed to start labelling all their packaged products led to their decision to change the name of the gingerbread.
Natasha's Law was laid in Parliament in 2019 following the tragic death of teenager Natasha Ednan-Laperouse — who died after suffering an allergic reaction to a Pret a Manger baguette.
As part of the change to better protect those with allergies, Paul went to get new labels for the biscuits but was inspired by the print worker to rename them as 'non-binary gingerbread people' as a joke.
He explained: "Because we wrap the cakes we had to label them and because of a lot of people making comments that we couldn't call them gingerbread men, we called them gingerbread person
"When I went to get the labels printed, the printer guy said to me 'why don't you call them non-binary' just joking around. I said 'right just do it then.'"
He added: "It's just gingerbread, it's not a man or a woman then is it? It's nothing".
Paul said that despite the criticism they've faced, some customers have seen the funny side, he added: "A lot of people have been saying that it's quite funny and then a lot of people have been saying making comments saying it's wrong to do that, it's 50/50ish".
While customers have had a mostly positive response, the bakery has still received a substantial amount of backlash on social media.
One person commented on the Facebook post: "Absolute madness. Won't even be able call it gingerbread soon in case it offends gingers".
While another added: "Always was and always will be a gingerbreadMAN".
Responding to critics, Paul said: "It wasn't meant to upset or be offensive to anyone it was just a little bit of a joke really".
The Facebook post has also received some positive comments from people who believe the move to gingerbread people is a good idea.
One wrote: "Tbh, should have always had this option or a ‘Gingerbread Person’ so everyone feels included. Little lasses may have wanted a gingerbread woman/girl, so this is good."
While others questioned why people even cared about the name, with another commenter adding: "Y'all so mad for what? it’s a damn cookie. either eat it or don’t."
