Lawyers have filed a class action lawsuit against Ferrero, the makers of Nutella, on the grounds that the chocolate hazelnut spread is falsely advertised as being “nutritious” and part of a “healthy breakfast.”
The lead plaintiff in the class action, a mom from San Diego, claims she was misled by the picture of milk, bread and fruit on the front of the jar, and was “shocked” to discover that the product in fact contains about 70% saturated fat and 55% processed sugar by weight.
Cause, you know, it’s not like they disclose the ingredients or nutritional information on the label or anything.
[Hat tip: The Wall Street Journal]
Donna says
Ha! Just bought a jar in honor of Nat’l Nutella Day (no joke) because it’s my daughter’s favorite treat. Both girls were laughing at the label, especially where it claims to be part of a balanced breakfast when served on ww bread!
Quips Travails says
In the Mom’s defense (though, yes, why are you buying something chocolate for breakfast anyway) the Nutella website actually STATES it’s “part of a healthy breakfast” and goes on about how it offers “carbs” “skim milk powder” and “30 hazelnuts per jar.” In fact, the whole website is a real exercise in commercial spin and misleading advertising (e.g. “no trans-fats or hydrogenated oils” but palm oil is the 2nd ingredient.) http://www.nutellausa.com/tips-for-moms.htm
I like Nutella and use it – but I’m under no illusions that it’s anything other than frosting in a jar; however, the company is doing its level best to present itself as “healthy.”
bettina elias siegel says
Quips (and other commenters):
I confess I was in a Monday morning rush and put this up on the blog without actually visiting Nutella’s site. My bad. The marketing you describe reminds me of a funny cereal ad parody from the 70’s where the little leprechaun touts the sugary cereal by saying, “When served with toast, juice and milk, it has all the nutrition of toast, juice and milk!” The marketing is definitely problematic, yet this lawsuit still smells trumped up to me. Like, “I’m shocked, shocked, to discover that a chocolatey, sugary spread has lots of fat and sugar!”
What do others think?
Christina @ Spoonfed says
Lawsuits like this drive me crazy. I’m all for corporations being held accountable, but in the warped world of the USDA dietary guidelines, Nutella probably is “nutritious.” And calling it “part of” a healthy breakfast is all the loophole the company needs. So while I loathe this kind of food marketing, I also think people need to use their brains and read the ingredients. In fact, I may just have to send her this: http://spoonfedblog.net/2011/01/29/stop-reading-labels-and-start-reading-ingredients/
Dana Woldow says
That claim to be “part of a balanced breakfast” reminds me of the opposition we faced back in 2003 when we first got the sodas and junk out of our school vending machines in San Francisco. Believe it or not, banning junk from vending machines was a radical notion way back then, before child obesity made it to the covers of all the national magazines. Opponents trotted out the motto of the American Dietetic Association, that “all foods can fit into a healthy diet” as a way to justify why schools should continue to peddle junk food to kids. Hmmm, “all” foods? Really? The 16 oz sodas which at that time were being sold in school vending machines contained 200 calories; a sixth grade girl who started her day with a Coke (more common than you might think) would have taken in more than 10% of her daily caloric needs (1845 calories) before she had met any of her nutritional needs, since soda contains no nutrients apart from its calories. A serving of Nutella also has 200 calories, and it does provide 3 grams of protein, making it just slightly more nutritious than a 16 oz Coke, but really, you have to be pretty careful how you spend the remaining calories in a child’s daily diet to be able to throw away 200 of them right at the start of the day for so little nutritional return.
P Reis says
I’m all for truth in advertising, but this is ridiculous. It’s one thing to ask the manufacturer to stop making this claim, but there should be no damages rewarded because everything you need to know is right there on the label.
Also, is Nutella really much worse than peanut butter? If you’re not buying natural PB, then the jar in your cupboard probably has hydrogenated oil and added sugar. Nutella probably has more sugar but no hydrogenated oil. And even though it’s a lot of sugar, there IS some nutritional value from the hazelnuts. This is definitely a food you can use — as a treat, in moderation — in a balanced diet. It’s better than eating a store-bought cookie or a candy bar.
Quips Travails says
Actually, yes – Nutella’s first ingredient is sugar, the second is palm oil – hazelnuts are the third ingredient, and then cocoa, skim milk, whey, and flavorings/stabilizers. It IS right up there with a store-bought cookie or a candy bar, and is comparable to canned frosting.
I’m not a fan of litigation, but your post proves the point that many people believe Nutella is similar to peanut butter…go to nutritiondata.com and compare – while it is slightly lower in fat, it’s also lower in protein and has about 5 times the sugar. Even in regular peanut butter with added sugars and fats, peanuts are the first ingredient.
P Reis says
Well, I’m glad I could help you prove your point. 🙂 It’s true, I admit, that I tended to think Nutella had more nutritional value than it really does. It wasn’t from the advertising, though. I had eaten/known about Nutella for many, many years before I ever saw an ad for it. I think it was just thinking of it as more of a nut butter or spread than a sweet…but to be fair I had never really eaten all that much of it, and probably hadn’t given it that much thought because I already considered it a treat, back from the days when you could really only find it at European/specialty food shops.
Jen says
LOL. I appreciate this even more now that I live in Israel where chocolate spread sandwiches are a very popular breakfast and lunch choice. Nutella (and even more processed versions) are sold everywhere including in the little kibbutz convenience store.
We did buy carob spread recently as an alternative to jam. it has carob and sugar basically.
Shira says
I was thinking about this too. My mom is from Israel, and I spent a lot of time there growing up, and chocolate spread was always available for breakfast (or chocolate pudding, seriously). Back then childhood obesity was not a problem in Israel, but now (with the influx of american fast food chains, and large American style mega-supermarkets) it is. So is the chocolate spread really to blame, or everything else?
Mara ~ Kosher on a Budget says
I was thinking the same thing about Israel and obesity, Shira. I give my daughter peanut butter and nutella and although I don’t think it’s a health food, I feel better about that than say, straight up sugar cereal.
That said, it’s CHOCOLATE, so obviously I don’t think I’m feeding her flax seeds for breakfast or something.
Renee says
The frustrating thing about lawsuits like these is that their publicity can harm the very real work of trying to get decent public health laws passed. People say “See, throw the laws out and just make it about personal responsibility –people are just trying to make money.” But truthfully, there are people out there who are very under-educated about food and can benefit from laws that stop tobacco being sold to minors and keep junk out of tax-funded public school lunches.
Alyce Eyster says
Agree with the P Reis about the peanut butter. Nutella has less total fat (11g) (and sodium) than my all natural peanut butter (16g). It also has a ton more sugar and less protein, but no trans fat. (This made me feel considerably less guilty about my kindergardner’s Nutella habit. 🙂
Quips Travails says
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090502084827.htm
Palm oil is essentially a naturally occurring trans-fat. The nutritional effects are about the same.
I won’t stop eating Nutella – we do Nutella/banana sandwiches as an alternative to PB&J…but we’re under no illusions; the Nutella is a treat (for that matter, so is jelly.)
Christina @ Spoonfed says
There’s a lot of conflicting health information about palm oil, but in fact it’s a saturated fat, not a trans fat, and saturated fat is vital for growth and brain development. Saturated fat has been demonized over the years by food marketers riding the low-fat wave, but now even mainstream science has come around to realizing that was wrong:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=carbs-against-cardio
http://special.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/living/healthandfitness/25195380-41/fat-fats-disease-butter-eating.csp
There is reason to avoid palm oil, however, and that’s because its production destroys rainforests. Some companies (including Ferrero) claim to use sustainably grown and harvested palm oil, but apparently it’s questionable how legit that is. (I’m still researching that myself.) The palm oil is one of the reasons a lot of people have problems with Girl Scout cookies.
It’s also worth noting that the study in the Science Daily citation above was funded by the Agricultural Research Service, which is an arm of the USDA, which has a vested interest in promoting heavily subsidized vegetable oils like soybean and canola. And *those* are the fats we should be avoiding. Industrial vegetable oils are heavily processed, so they contribute as much to disease and ill health as other highly processed foods. (Plus they’re almost always genetically modified.)
But back to Nutella: Aside from palm oil (for eco reasons), its main problem ingredients are refined sugar, GMO soy lecithin and artificial vanilla.
bettina elias siegel says
Thanks for that info, Chris, and I’ll just add for those interested that Whole Foods makes its own version of a chocolate-hazelnut spread sans GMO and artificial flavor.
Mara ~ Kosher on a Budget says
That’s good to know about WF’s version of Nutella. I will definitely look for it the next time I’m there. Is it the 365 brand?
bettina elias siegel says
Mara – First, great to see you here! Second, I don’t have it in my pantry at the moment but my recollection is that it’s NOT a 365 brand but instead just a vendor that sells to WF. In my WF it’s sold not with the peanut butter but nearby, with the jams and thinks like caramel dessert topping. (Given who I’m talking to, I’m all of a sudden worried that it’s like $10 a jar or something and you’ll deeply disapprove of my food spending habits! 🙂 )
Sharon McMillin says
Nutella says on its website that there are no GMO’s in its products.
Christina @ Spoonfed says
Sharon, that’s good to know, thanks. (Wonder if that’s new?) But the ingredients still leave a lot to be desired!