February 5th: World Nutella Day

Nutella is the brand name of an Italian sweetened Hazelnut cocoa spread. Manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero, it was introduced to the market in 1964. It was been in the news recently when the price dropped in France and caused riots in the supermarkets. Here are ten facts about it.

1. Nutella came about thanks to wars. In 1806, the price of Chocolate soared thanks to blockades during the Napoleonic wars. Chocolatiers in Turin responded by adding chopped hazelnuts to chocolate to make it go farther. They called the resulting substance gianduja, after a mythical figure, a Piedmontese peasant who rides on a Donkey carrying a type of container called a duja, which was said to be full of Wine. Perhaps that accounts for the smile on his face. His image would later be used in early adverts for Nutella.
2. Nutella as we know it came out of another war - World War II, when the price of chocolate soared again thanks to rationing in Europe. It was an Italian pastry maker who again thought of adding hazelnuts to chocolate. His name was Pietro Ferrero. At first, his Nutella was made in the form of a loaf which was sliced like Cheese, but he altered the recipe to make a spread. He called it “Supercrema”. It was his son, Michele Ferrero, who modified the recipe yet again for the international market and came up with the name Nutella.
3. The main ingredients of Nutella are sugar and palm oil, followed by hazelnut, Cocoa solids, and skimmed Milk. Two tablespoons of Nutella contain 200 calories, 11 grams of fat, 21 grams of sugar. It also contains 15 mg of sodium and 2g of protein. It's basically full of all the stuff that's supposed to be bad for you, yet Ferrero still advertised it as ‘part of a nutritious breakfast’, which led to the company being sued in America. Nutella is, however, totally gluten-free and Kosher.
4. You're probably pronouncing it wrong. It should be pronounced “new-tell-uh” not “nuh-tell-uh.”
5. Nutella is sold in 160 countries, and is extremely popular. All the Nutella sold in a year could be spread over more than 1,000 Football pitches. Approximately 1.35 million pounds of Nutella are produced every day, and a jar is sold every two and a half seconds. That makes it even more popular than having babies - a baby is only born every eight seconds. In terms of Facebook likes, it's the second most popular food brand after Oreo.
6. About a quarter of the world's supply of hazelnuts is bought by the Ferrero company. That’s more than 100,000 tons, enough to half fill the Roman Colosseum. Whether they all go into jars of Nutella is debatable as they do produce other chocolate products, such as Ferrero Rocher - but a 14 ounce jar contains 52 hazelnuts - about 13% of the product.
7. In 2015, a couple in France wanted to call their daughter Nutella, but the French authorities deemed it an unsuitable name and ordered that the child be called Ella instead.
8. The first jar of Nutella left the Ferrero factory in Alba on 20 April 1964. On its 50th anniversary in 2014 a jar of Nutella appeared on an Italian Postage stamp.
9. In Germany in 2013 there was a great Nutella robbery. Thieves stole 5 metric tons of it from a parked truck, worth $20,000.
10. Nutella doesn't need to be kept in the fridge. There's enough sugar in it to bind all the water in it and stop microorganisms from growing. It's fine stored at room temperature and won't go off before its use by date (though it's unlikely to be around until its use by date, I suspect). In fact, putting it in the fridge will harden the fats in the nut oil and make it impossible to spread.

See Also:

Hazelnuts

Chocolate

I Write Fiction, Too!

More details about my books. Follow this link if you like Superheroes, Psychics and/or quirky short stories.

Like my author page on Facebook for news on new books and blog posts.

Follow me on Twitter and Pinterest

Check out my Writing blog