AT a pastry shop in Rio de Janeiro, customers are waiting in line to buy waffles – but the chocolate-covered treats come with a twist that is causing controversy in Brazil: they are shaped like penises.

Since La Putaria opened in upscale beach neighbourhood Ipanema last month, it has drawn a steady stream of titillated customers, but also disapproval from neighbours, who have called in the authorities.

The Justice Ministry’s consumer protection agency this week ordered the shop and similar businesses across the country to suspend sales of “all products reproducing or suggesting the shape of human genitalia and/or body parts with a sexual, erotic or pornographic connotation” to minors.

It also barred them from displaying the products in shop windows and ordered them to take down any sign with words or pictures referring to them.

La Putaria already has a policy against selling to minors, anyway, said co-owner Juliana Lopes, who also has franchises in Belo Horizonte and Lisbon.

But having to cover up the sign outside the shop came as an “unpleasant surprise”, she added.

“It made me sad. I know some people may not like us – as with any business. But I did not think it would reach this point.”

The shop has placed pink cloth over its sign – matching the décor inside – but does not appear to have lost customers over the kerfuffle.

Inside, clients laughed and snapped pictures with the waffles of their choice – phalluses or vulva – against a backdrop of neon signs with phrases such as “Tastier than your ex”.

“I do not agree with the decision. It is a business like any other,” said Neusa, an elderly woman, holding a freshly purchased penis shape. – AFP, June 4, 2022.