Chocolatiers are rebranding Easter eggs, and not using the word Easter to avoid offending non-Christians, an industry figure has claimed.
Confectionary makers Cadbury, Nestle and Green and Blacks have all been accused of changing their branding to avoid offense, while the supermarket Sainsbury’s has been accused of selling “milk chocolate eggs” instead of Easter eggs.
It’s proven too much for some in the industry.
David Marshall, who set up the Meaningful Chocolate Company, told the International Business Times on Wednesday that it was “deeply disappointing and shameful that some of the biggest companies in the country are censoring the centuries' old tradition.”
“It shows they're insensitive and uncomfortable with the Christian faith," he said.
In a blog on the firm’s website, the Meaningful Easter Company claims to be the only firm to sell eggs bearing the name of Jesus.
When challenged on this policy some of the firms denied that an active process of rebranding had taken place.
A spokesperson from Nestle told the Daily Star: “There has been no deliberate decision to drop the word Easter from our products."
"A Cadburys spokesperson told the paper the company did “not have a policy to drop Easter from our eggs."
The Meaningful Chocolate Company recently carried out a poll on the issue and claims 79 percent of the 2,000 people they asked preferred Easter-branded eggs.
Church figures have also supported the inclusion of religious sentiments in branding with the Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Revd Nicholas Roderick Holtam, telling the IBT that "there seems to be a real resistance by the public to remove the word Easter from these gifts.”
“Perhaps people understand that the festival is religious and do not want to see it turned into something secular," he said.