Waitrose has removed coffee tins showing slaves working on plantations from its shelves following a backlash from customers. The illustrations appeared on the sides of packaging sold by Italian coffee company Saquella 1856 and were spotted by customer Patriic Gayle. The pictures show black slaves harvesting beans in Guatemala and in one image a white plantation manager watches a black mother carrying a child. Patriic approached staff in the branch of the supermarket in the Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury, central London, to complain, and he and friend Annette Saunders also contacted Waitrose head office to demand that the product was withdrawn. Mr Gayle, 56, said: It looks like the kind of thing you see at Christmas, but when I looked closer I was horrified. I have to take my hat off to Waitrose staff locally, who tried repeatedly to take the stock off the shelves. We found it had been replaced the next day, but all in all I think it was a good result in a week. A Waitrose spokesman said: We are sorry for any offence caused by the images that were shown on these products. We've spoken to the supplier who has explained that the images were intended to depict how coffee was historically harvested and traded. However, we fully understand how these could be interpreted and removed both products from sale in December until the supplier has had the opportunity to redesign the packaging. A statement from Saquella 1856 said: We apologise to anyone that was offended by the images. As a Fairtrade accredited and EFSIS ethical standard approved business, we were shocked to learn they had been interpreted in this way and the products were removed from sale in December. Source: telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/11/waitrose-stops-selling-coffee-tins-showing-slaves-working-plantations/