TESCO will be sticking with the Saltire after backtracking on a tweet announcing it would be replaced with the Union Jack.
The supermarket chain attracted criticism on Twitter after being asked if they could confirm that Scottish produce would now feature the British flag instead of the Saltire.
Tesco responded to the tweet, stating "We are removing the Scottish Saltire and replacing it with the United Kingdom flag."
However, the tweet was deleted after whipping up a storm of anger online at the erasure of produces Scottish origins. They claimed that the tweet had been made "in error" and that Tesco would use Scottish flags "wherever possible".
They added: "We make clear the farm, grower and country of origin on all packaging.
"To maintain supply to our customers we will sometimes stock British produce in our Scottish stores to avoid disappointing customers."
Despie the backtrack however, many still stated they would no longer be shopping at Tesco.
Rachel MacNeill told Tesco: "Scottish products must have a Saltire. We do not wish to support a store eradicating Scottish identity."
The announcement follows a similar online backlash facing M&S after they refused to classify Scottish whisky as from Scotland on their online store.
Ruth Watson has been promoting the #KeepScotlandtheBrand campaign after noticing an increase in Scottish products being packed with a Union Jack, and has been raising these incidents for a while now.
For example, last year Tesco removed the Saltire from Scottish-grown fruit following complainst from English customers.
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We are extremely proud to be Scottish agricultures biggest customer, as any customer visiting our stores or buying our products in Scotland will see. There has been no recent change to how we use the Saltire to celebrate Scottish food and drink.”
Tesco indicated that the mistake appeared to relate to the belief the customer was talking about changes made to strawberries a year ago.
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