Fererro USA Settles Nutella Lawsuits
Here’s ABC News’ report:
No surprises here… as I noted last year:
When I was asked about Nutella on the “Bodybuilding Revealed” forum some years ago, I referred to it as “greasy sugar spread,” which is basically what it is. The primary ingredients are sugar and palm oil… the “nut” part runs a very distant third. The Nutella web site claims there are “over 50 hazelnuts per 13 oz. jar.” According to NutritionData.com, there are 21 hazelnuts to one ounce; so 50 hazelnuts works out to 2.4 oz.
That’s 18%… but to be generous (and to account for the “over 50?), we’ll call it 20% (although other estimates put it at a measley 13%). By contrast, your typical commercial peanut butter, like Peter Pan or Skippy, is over 90% peanuts.
Like I said: greasy sugar spread. I’ve never eaten the stuff for that reason: I can’t look at it without “seeing” chocolate-and-nut flavored Crisco.
In other words, it’s junk. Tasty junk, I guess (I still haven’t tried it), but still junk. Kudos to the plaintiffs for holding Fererro accountable and making them drop their “healthy” claims.
May 4, 2012
Well first off I’m glad she was able to hold them responsible for the false advertising. Good for her.
But…. I really think she misses the boat on the fact she dosen’t read product labels. Her comment about “not having time to read them”, is foolish. It’s her responsibility to her family to make sure what she feeds them is healthy, no matter what the manufacturer says.
Just my 2 cents.
May 4, 2012
It’s a valid point. I always give products I’ve never purchased before a once-over – that’s part of the process of deciding whether I’m going to buy it or not. But I don’t have to do this with every single item I buy, since most of them are staple items I’ve purchased before. They’ve already been evaluated, so it’s not necessary to repeat the process every time I put them in my cart (good thing too, since I’m getting far-sighted with age – I’d be whipping out my glasses constantly, since I can’t read the fine print on many labels without them).
Not coincidentally, that’s how I learned about Nutella. I typically ignored it every time I walked past the shelf, until I heard various people rave about how they loved the stuff. So, one day at the store, I picked up a container to check it out. My immediate reaction was “Ewwww….gross!” and I put it right back on the shelf. The entire process took less than a minute.
In addition, I don’t buy that many packaged products to begin with, which also reduces the number of labels I might need to read. If the interviewed woman really believes that it would take her hours to read the labels of all the products she buys, then she’s probably buying a LOT of packaged, highly processed stuff – not a good habit for someone concerned about her family’s nutrition.
Unfortunately, the sad truth is that label reading is necessary since the food industry cannot be relied on to produce honest ads or front-of-package labels. Food advertising is basically a con job, and the extent to which lying/spinning has been normalized makes it easier to blame the victim for failing to do due diligence. Thus, I support various efforts (lawsuits or regulatory action) that singles out the most egregious offenders… like Fererro USA.
May 4, 2012
Any parent that doesn’t take the time to read a label deserves what they feed their kids. But I’m still happy whenever the big food manufacturers take one in the jewels from the consumers for trying to screw them over.