Trader Joe is planning to change few names and packaging of its ethnic food brands, but doesn’t believe the names are racist

The company says it has been labeling some of its ethnic foods with variations of "Joe" for decades, including Trader Ming’s, which is used to brand the chain’s Chinese foods, Trader José's for Mexican foods, "Arabian Joe” for Middle Eastern foods, “Trader Giotto’s” for Italian foods and “Trader Joe San” for Japanese cuisine.

Trader Joe's rebuffed reports that a small Change.org petition calling on the company to "removing racist packaging" was what prompted officials to take action.

"We want to be clear: we disagree that any of these labels are racist," the company said a new statement shared with USA TODAY on Tuesday. "We do not make decisions based on petitions. ... If we feel there is need for change, we do not hesitate to take action."

The company said that it "made the decision several years ago to use only the Trader Joe's name on our products moving forward," but it didn't have an exact date for when the change would happen.