Why the controversy? One of the key ingredients in Nutella is palm oil, a controversial commodity mainly produced in Malaysia and Indonesia that is celebrated for its crop efficiency and low cost of production but also criticized for its contribution to deforestation and pollution.
In the United States, Ferrero, maker of Nutella, was sued in a class action lawsuit for false advertising that led some to believe that Nutella carries nutritional and health benefits, being touted as 'part of a nutritious breakfast'.
However, within the past few decades, the manufacturing of Nutella has had a detrimental effect on the environment and atmosphere due to the production of one of its main ingredients: palm oil.
The palm oil in Nutella® is carefully treated during processing, making it perfectly safe to ingest. The palm oil we use in Nutella® is 100% RSPO certified sustainable palm oil and can be traced back to the mills, guaranteeing that it does not come from plantations subject to deforestation.
Last year Athena Hohenberg, a San Diego mother of a four-year-old girl, filed a class-action lawsuit against Ferrero USA, the makers of Nutella for false advertising. Nutella is a sweet chocolate spread that is full of sugar and palm oil.
The company has been widely criticized for using palm oil in products, which continues to fuel the demand for palm oil plantations. In 2015, France's minister of the environment made a bold statement, declaring that consumers should stop eating Nutella if they want to help save the rainforest.
Around 70 per cent of the world's hazelnuts are farmed in Turkey, but according to a new investigation, those nuts are farmed by Syrian refugees in dangerous working conditions and for less than a living wage.
Nutella is not allowed in nut-free schools because it contains hazelnuts. Nut-free schools don't allow nut products on campus so they can protect students who are allergic to nuts. Hazelnuts fall under the nut-allergy umbrella, although the most common nut allergy is peanuts.
Bottom Line: Without hesitation, Peanut Butter is the 'healthier' alternative to Nutella. Peanut Butter is lower in sugar, higher in protein and often lower in your unhealthy fats. The Centre of Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) describes Nutella as “more sugar and modified palm oil than hazlenut“.
We consider Nutella to be unhealthy. It's definitely not the worst snack product out there, and it's good that the majority of the ingredients are whole foods. However, Nutella contains a relatively large amount of added sugar, and the milk appears to be sourced from conventionally-raised animals.
No. Nutella is not vegan. According to the brand's website, the ingredients are as follows: sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, skim milk, cocoa, soy lecithin as emulsifier, vanillin (an artificial flavor). So it's the the skim milk (skim milk powder to be precise), that makes this spread non-vegan.
The Nutella® jar is made with PET a lightweight type of plastic. It is widely used to preserve the safety and quality of food and beverage products.
Palm oil is found in hundreds of household name food brands including Cadbury's chocolate, Clover and even Ben & Jerry's, but Nutella has so far faced the brunt of a consumer backlash. Several retailers in Italy, including the country's biggest supermarket chain, Coop, have boycotted the spread as a precaution.
One of the big reasons that why Italian's love Nutella is the ease of eating it – no matter where you are in Italy you will be able to find it in every cafe & shop! Italian's start their morning a little different to how Americans start their morning.
Ferrero had to keep the letter N in black due to trademark issues. There was another brand that used the name Nutella. So, to keep it different, he changed the colour of the letter 'N'. This was the year (1964) when our beloved Nutella came into existence.
With its iconic design, Nutella® was launched in Germany.
Back in 2015 a court in Valenciennes, France, decided that a couple would not be allowed to name their daughter 'Nutella'. The judge ruled that it wouldn't be in the child's best interest to be named after a chocolate spread.
Its addictiveness lies in its ingredients. Apart from sugar and fats, Nutella is rich in chocolate. Chocolate contains addictive substances; one of these substances is tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid that is a precursor to serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in regulating moods.
Ferrero uses 25 percent of the global supply of hazelnuts, though not all of this is used exclusively in Nutella.
The hazelnuts used in Nutella® come from hazelnut orchards, which are mainly found in Mediterranean type climates. Our hazelnuts come from different parts of the world, our main origins are Turkey, Italy, Chile and the USA.
Founded in 1946 in Alba, a picturesque town in the north of Italy, by brothers Pietro and Giovanni Ferrero, the Ferrero Group is now one of the world's largest sweet-packaged food companies with more than 35 much-loved brands such as Kinder, Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, and Tic Tac, sold in more than 170 countries.
But is Nutella vegan? Sorry to be the ones to break it to you, but no, Nutella is not vegan. This is because it contains skimmed milk powder which is an animal-derived ingredient, so is therefore not made solely from plants.
Palm oil is the vegetable oil, a semi-solid fat that gives Nutella its spreadable texture. The company used hydrogenated oil until a few years ago but converted to palm oil in 2006 to reduce trans-fat.
With this considered, any Nutella news is big news – especially when it's news which could threaten the future of our beloved chocolate spread. According to a new report by Ozy, the world's hazelnut supply is facing an unprecedented threat from climate change – which could put Nutella's supply chain in jeopardy.