Mmmm. The creamy deliciousness of Nutella. Some people like to eat it on bread with marshmallow cream. Others love to bake it in croissants. Still others just eat it by the spoonful right out of the jar. If you haven’t eaten Nutella yet, you will soon. Here are thirteen facts about Nutella you might not know:
1 An Italian Pastry Maker Created Nutella after WWII
Rationing was a very hard thing during World War II. Times were even more lean in Italy after the war ended. Can you imagine being a pastry maker without having enough chocolate? Luckily for us, Mr. Pietro Ferrero had that problem. And, he was a creative guy. He took hazelnuts, which happen to be very abundant in the Piedmont region of Italy, where he lived, and combined them with his allotted chocolate.
2 Twenty-five percent of the world’s hazelnut crop is used to make Nutella each year
Each 13-ounce jar of Nutella has more than 50 hazelnuts in it. With over 180 million kg of Nutella being made every year, that’s a lot of nuts. In fact, Nutella uses 25 percent of the entire world’s hazelnuts grown each year.
3 Count 2.5 seconds and another jar of Nutella will be sold.
Somewhere in the world, a Nutella jar is sold every 2.5 seconds. That meant the company sold 360 tons of Nutella last year alone. Nutella is sold in 160 countries and believe it or not, Nutella’s Facebook page has 26 million fans.
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4 American and European Nutellas are not the same.
The ingredients in both the European version and the American version of Nutella may be comparable, but they are certainly not identical. Vegetable oil is used in the European kind and palm oil is used in the American kind. Europeans use fat-reduced cocoa powder, skimmed milk poser and whey powder. The American version has cocoa, skim milk and reduced minerals whey.
When compared side-by-side, the European version is certainly more viscous and taste far less oily than the American one. Additionally, there is a definite nut taste in the European version, whereas the American version lacks that. The European version also has a stronger chocolate taste.
5 France wanted to pass a ‘Nutella Tax.’
Not only is palm oil a health risk, but the wide-spread use of it has lead to major deforestation in Borneo, Sumatra and Indonesia. This has displaced and killed endangered orangutans populations. For this reason, senators in France called for a large tax hike on palm oil. The average French citizen consumes about 2 kg of palm oil each year. That’s 126,000 tons consumed by all of France.
6 False nutrition claims resulted in a $3 Million Loss for Ferrero.
Imagine that…eating everything dipped in Nutella is not good for you. Who knew? Apparently the company should have known. Ferrero, the makers of the spread, has agreed to a $3 million settlement that says they did know it was not healthy and should not have been claiming that. Not only do they have to pay the $3 million, but they also have to change the label and stop any advertising that claims Nutella is healthy.
