Haribo Pulls Skipper Mix After Racism Accusations

Haribo has decided to stop selling some of its licorice gummy candies in Sweden and Denmark after complaints that some of the shapes found in Haribo's Skipper Mix packages were racist.

According to The Telegraph, the Skipper Mix blend is a bag of salty black licorice designed to look like what "a sailor who traveled the world" would have encountered in olden days, according to Haribo Sweden director Ola Dagliden, but several of the candies were shaped like facial caricatures and African, Asian, and Native American masks. The cartoonish black face-shaped candies did not go over well with all Haribo's customers, so the company decided to stop making them after some customers complained.

"I understand the criticism and think it's important to listen to the customers," Dagliden said.

The salty black licorice candies will not cease to exist, however. Only the offending shapes will go away, but most of the gummy shapes will remain.

"We decided that we could keep the product while removing the parts that certain consumers found offensive," Dagliden said.