Nestle says it has withdrawn KitKat packs with Lord Jagannath image after backlash

Facing backlash on social media over KitKat packs with image of Lord Jagannath, Nestle India on Thursday said it has "already withdrawn" the packs from the market. The chocolate packs in question depicted images of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Mata Subhadra on wrappers.

Nestle India had to face consumers' wrath on social media, who accused the company of hurting religious sentiments by using the sacred images on KitKat wrappers.

The company expressed regret and said that as a pre-emptive action, it withdrew those packs from the market last year.

According to the company, these were travel packs meant to celebrate beautiful local destinations. Nestle said it wanted to celebrate the culture of Odisha with designs on packs representing 'Pattachitra', which is an ancient Odisha-based artworks of cloth-based scroll painting.

Nestle India is the Indian subsidiary of the Swiss multinational FMCG giant Nestle, also owns brands such as Maggi, Nescafe, Milkmaid, Munch and Milkibar.