Guardian Claims Jackfruit is Smelly and Ugly, Invites Wrath of Indians

Guardian columnist, Zoe Williams, has angered not only vegans everywhere, but citizens of India and South East Asia, for their beloved and well enjoyed jackfruit.

As the culturally insensitive piece continued, the writer explains her first encounter with the food was in a Starbucks wrap. Showing that unless it is approved in Western Society, it apparently doesn’t exist, or couldn’t possibly be a well used dish elsewhere.

“ Jackfruit was just a spectacularly ugly, smelly, unfarmed, unharvested pest-plant native to India. Some people ate it, but only if they had nothing better to eat.

Zoe Williams, The Guardian Newspaper

Twitter Users Express Frustration Over Jackfruit Description

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As Twitter user @castnuri pointed out, not only is the write up offensive to natives of where the fruit is grown, it is culturally unaware of how popular jackfruit actually is.

With Susmita Bhattacharya pointing out that it took the food becoming popular in Western society for it to be considered ‘fashionable’.

While others questioned if the writer has been to India before, casting doubt on the visit.

As Huffpost stated, the article — which called the fruit “gross-looking lump of fibre” with “no taste to speak of” — had everyone suitably horrified, but particularly Malayalis. Kerala produces, consumes and sells crores of jackfruit every year. It’s so widely used, Kerala declared it the state’s official fruit last year.

Guardian suggests there are three ways to eat jackfruit, while Twitter users pointed out, that there are entire festivals dedicated creations by it. Further cementing, that hiring a more culturally diverse team who won’t insult entire nations with limited knowledge could be avoided.