'Definitely our mistake': Whole Foods pulls pre-peeled oranges from the shelves after being hammered on Twitter 

Whole Foods has decided to remove its pre-peeled oranges packed in plastic containers from its stores after the market received backlash from furious Twitter users. 

It all started with one tweet, sent by London shopper Nathalie Gordon, who picked up the most traffic with her dry observation: 'If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn't need to waste so much plastic on them.'  

About three hours later, Whole Foods responded to Gordon: 'Definitely our mistake. These have been pulled. We hear you, and we will leave them in their natural packaging: the peel.' 

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Upmarket supermarket Whole Foods has decided to pull the pre-peeled oranges (pictured) packaged in plastic containers from the stores' shelves after the company came under fire for selling the items

The upmarket supermarket, Whole Foods, came under fire for selling the ready-peeled oranges packaged up in plastic containers when the packaging faux pas was spotted at a store in California and posted to Reddit with the caption: 'Are people really that lazy nowadays?'

Shortly after it created an Internet frenzy with thousands taking to social media to question the store's misuse of packaging. 

Gordon's message prompted a Twitter furore and was retweeted more than 80,000 times, mainly by outraged customers. The tweet also generated nearly 80,000 likes. 

Some people agreed with Gordon, but others brought up an issue around accessibility for the disabled. 

The packaging faux pas was picked up by shopper Nathalie Gordon while she was in a store in California

Users like Skye Pascall tweeted out that they would consider buying the pre-peeled oranges because they 'despise peeling them' 

Other users brought up the issue around accessibility for those who cannot peel oranges themselves

While Whole Foods prides itself on sustainable and organic products and encourages shoppers to bring along their own bags or use paper bags in a bid to help the environment, this product appears to be at odds with this policy.

One person responded: 'That makes me unbelievably angry actually. Talk about necessarily contributing to plastic taking over the planet.'

Another said: 'I guess people are too busy to peel an orange!'. Another user said: 'Pre-peeled oranges are actually a thing?! Wow. Just. Wow...; 

While one user wrote: 'The irony of this being Whole Foods too.'

But other users suggested it could be for disabled or elderly people who are unable to peel the fruit. 

Others took to Twitter to ridicule Whole Foods, highlighting that the packaging was not only bad for the environment but a complete waste of time

However, others pointed out that the pre-peeled oranges were helpful for those with disabilities, who were not able to peel them themselves  

Following the outrage, Whole Foods said it would pull the product from the shelves yesterday.

A spokeswoman added that many customers want convenience but that this experiment wasn't 'fully thought through'.

They said: 'We're glad some customers pointed it out so we could take a closer look.'

Following the backlash, Whole Foods responded with this tweet saying that it was 'their mistake' and that the item would be pulled from stores 

But it seems there is one rule for oranges, and another for pineapples.

While the outrage over #Orangegate was visceral, it seems that people aren't too bothered about pre-packaged pineapples or bananas.

One Twitter account posted a photo of chopped up pineapple and said: 'Gosh Whole Foods, if only pineapples had a natural container that...Oh, that's not silly either? Oranges are okay'

While another user tweeted a picture from European supermarket chain BILLA with a picture of pre-peeled bananas packaged up that also seems to have gone unnoticed.  

It's not just oranges that are being presented in the store pre-cut, pineapples have been sold like this for some time, but hasn't seemed to illicit the same outcry

Meanwhile, in Europe, superstore BILLA is selling peeled bananas 

But last year, Whole Foods caused another storm when a customer took a photo on Instagram which showed 'asparagus water' - consisting of some aspargus stalks floating in bottled water - on sale for $5.99 (about £4.20), in a store in Los Angeles.

This also prompted ridicule online, one tweeter said: '$6.00 for Asparagus water? Umm no! I can take some asparagus and put it some water my darn self! But why would I, that sounds gross!' 

Whole Foods then pulled the product from its shelf, saying that it had been 'mislabeled'  

Following its removal, one tweeter commented: 'Good for getting asparagus water taken out of Whole Foods, but that's really like the 297th most ridiculous and overpriced thing they carry.'

Asparagusgate: After a backlash on social media last year, Whole Foods decided to pull the asparagus water from the store, describing it as a mistake