Bugs disappear from Pirka’s classic products. The background is STM’s new guidelines.
Pirka’s bug popsicles have been familiar to Finns for a long time. Emmi Niiniaho
Bugs have disappeared from the packages of Pirka’s classic ice creams with the least noise.
The matter was noticed last week by Meta in the Threads messaging service. The change has not been met with joy.
– Boring! one user writes.
– The appeal is going, writes another.
Kesko’s director of purchasing and sales Carita Rissanen confirms to Iltalehti that the images of bugs will be removed from all Pirka bug series products.
– When the old packages run out, they are replaced with new ones. This has already been implemented in two ice creams, he says.
Bugs disappear from Pirka’s classic ice creams. Screenshot/ K-food
Here’s the reason
According to Rissanen, the reason behind the change is the guidelines on food marketing to children under 18 created jointly by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM) and the University of Helsinki.
Instructions by unhealthy products, such as ice creams and popsicles, should not be marketed with features that especially appeal to children, such as cartoon characters.
– For this reason, we have gone through our packaging, and now we will change them according to the instructions. We understand the background of the instructions very well.
Rissanen says that so far Kesko has not received feedback from consumers about the change.
The bug series includes popsicles Amppari, Murkku, Leppis, Koppis, Kukkis and Toukkis. In addition to ice creams, the product line includes, among other things, soft drinks, sweets and xylitol lozenges.
Pirkka Amppari popsicle was already launched in the early 1990s. Kesko told Iltalehte in January 2021 that in 2020 alone, more than a million Amppars were sold.