Whole Foods has been forced to reaffirm its support for its new Halal food line after a branch manager sent an email suggesting stores downplay links to the Ramadan holiday.
In an email obtained by the Houston Press, the unidentified manager said that, in light of controversy about a blog post promoting Ramadan staffers should distance Whole Foods from the Muslim holy month.
“It is probably best that we don’t specifically call out or ‘promote’ Ramadan...We should not highlight Ramadan in signage in our stores as that could be considered ‘Celebrating or promoting’ Ramadan,” the email read.
Company officials quickly noted that the email came from just one manager and that Whole Foods was still promoting Ramadan as well as its Saffron Road products.
“We have 12 different operating regions and unfortunately, one region reacted to some negative online comments by sending out directions to promote halal-certified foods and not specifically the holiday of Ramadan,” Bobby Hawley, a company spokesman, said on the store’s blog.
“We’re extremely excited about offering a selection of halal products for our shoppers and we stand behind them AND our promotion of them.”
The store routinely promotes holidays, including Easter and Passover.