Whole Foods Will No Longer Sell Prison Labor Goat Cheese

Tilapia, too.

That log of pricey goat cheese you recently bought at Whole Foods might have been made by an incarcerated American who was paid meager wages. However, the grocer has declared it will now no longer carry such products.

The company "said it has sold tilapia and goat cheese produced through a Colorado inmate program at some stores since at least 2011," reports the Chicago Tribune. Following pressure from a prisoner advocacy group in Texas, Whole Foods says it will stop carrying the products by April 2016.

Prison reform advocate Michael Allen, who helped organize last weekend's protest that took place outside a Houston Whole Foods, tells the Tribune, "Although other companies sell products made by inmates, he thought it was hypocritical of Whole Foods to do so, given the image it tries to cultivate." Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Whole Foods says the intention behind carrying such products was to to "help people get back on their feet and eventually become contributing members of society," but "decided to end the practice because some customers were uncomfortable with it."

It's no surprise that Whole Foods is trying to stay in its customers' good graces right now: The asparagus water hawker's sales started to decline following a long-running overcharging scandal in New York, which it's now facing legal action for. The grocer was also recently hit with a lawsuit for allegedly deceiving shareholders about the value of its stock, as well as one from PETA accusing Whole Foods of misleading customers about humanely-raised meat.

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