Haribo in 'carnal' sweet wrapper complaint

The complaint stems from the letter to the Daily Mail from Simon Simpkins from Pontefract, West Yorks about the "lurid" illustrations used on the wrappers. It has been run as a story in The Sun.

In the letter Simpkins said he had a "heated exchange" with the shop manager when he saw the German brand's wrappers.

All Maoam wrappers feature a lime character close to, or holding, different items of fruit depending on the sweet's flavour.

Simpkins said: "The lemon and lime are locked in what appears to be a carnal encounter. The lime, who I assume to be the gentleman in this coupling, has a particularly lurid expression on his face."

According to Haribo the wrapper design was introduced in 2002 and was an attempt to make the wrappers "more lively". It denied there were any sexual connotations intended in the illustrations.

Regardless of Simpkins views the controversial wrappers could become a lot more familiar to UK consumers as Maoam prepares to hand out 600,000 of the chewy sweets around UK cities this month.

Last year Maoam launched promotions around kids' activities with a skateboard-themed prize draw and 'Maoam Dance Mayhem', a dance competition.

UPDATE: Haribo confirms complaint was genuine