The most anticipated day of the year: July 4th? Christmas? Thanksgiving? The first night of Hanukkah? Arbor Day? NO! World Nutella Day.
Every February 5th, World Nutella Day graces the world with its presence. It’s a day to celebrate the love we all share for Nutella, to appreciate the diversity of the chocolatey spread, and to dig out the biggest spoon from the drawer and scoop a mound of nutty goodness into our salivating mouths. No day in the world is more unifying and celebrated than World Nutella Day (probably).
In preparation for World Nutella Day, Frenchly has prepared all the facts–including those about this dastardly rumor that Nutella causes cancer. We’ve got the informative facts, the recipes, the fun facts, and a quiz on it all to test your knowledge.
In the words of World Nutella Day founder Sara Rosso, “We had a dream. And a spoon.” Now dig in.
RUMOR HAS IT NUTELLA CAUSES CANCER…
There’s a recent debate about Nutella causing cancer, but does it really? The report fueling the fear was released in May 2016, but thanks to a viral Reddit photo recently posted, the study is getting more attention. The study states that palm oil was more likely to have carcinogenic components than other vegetable oils when heated above 392 degrees Fahrenheit. Ferraro commented that Nutella never reaches that temperature during production, and most people don’t consume it at that temperature. If you’re really that worried, don’t use a recipe with Nutella that requires an oven temperature higher than 392 degrees. The study did not recommend stopping eating Nutella.
As for the claims of environmental harm, Ferraro assures that they only use sustainably certified palm plantations. Don’t panic about palm oil, because guess what? You consume it all the time in lipstick, pizza dough, packaged noodles, ice cream, chocolate, cookies, and packaged bread. If you’re reading Frenchly, you’re fine. Keep eating Nutella (at under 392 degrees).
ORIGINS OF WORLD NUTELLA DAY
World Nutella Day (WND) like all great thing was founded by the people for the people. American blogger Sara Rosso founded WND in 2007 after realizing the severe lack of love for Nutella in the world. Sure, jars were sold around the world, but where was the community? The Ferraro company (makers of Nutella) only had an Italian website, leaving all the chocolate-hungry Americans out in the cold world wide web with no where to go for Nutella knowledge. So Rosso collaborated with a fellow blogger, built a website for the celebration, and went from there! They got on Facebook and Twitter early, and launched their meme game in the late 2000s. WND has been growing ever since!
Except for a tiny blip in 2013: Ferraro, SpA sent Rosso a “cease and desist” letter for using the Nutella name without proper licensing. Rosso was shocked, and said she had only ever done WND as a fan. Rosso said she never made any money from WND, but agreed to shut down the website and all related accounts. The disagreement got a lot of publicity, and ultimately resulted in Ferraro reversing its decision, leaving the website and related accounts under her control, under the condition that she add a disclaimer that the site is not affiliated with Ferraro, SpA.
Ultimately, Rosso passed WND off to Ferraro. She didn’t take any money for the transfer, instead requesting a direction donation to the World Food Programme.
NUTELLA RECIPES
Some people claim that you can add Nutella to everything. Hamburgers, grilled cheeses, bacon… thanks, but no thanks. The best Nutella recipes result in the consumption of Nutella the way it was made to be: with ample carbs and sugar.
Ferraro offers their own recipes, but there are a myriad of others just waiting to be made and eaten in one sitting. Nutella mocha lattes, milkshakes, brownie fruit pizza (it’s really a pie), strawberry-Nutella French toast roll-ups, salted caramel brownies, pop-tarts, berry crepes, no-bake cheesecake, and three-ingredient Nutella brownies.
Or, if you don’t want to cook with the blessing of all of NYC at your fingertips, head over to Eataly where they have a Nutella bar.
FUN FACTS
1) You can’t name your baby “Nutella” in France. In 2014, a French court found that the name could “be the cause of mockery” and that it “could have a negative impact on the child”. Show your love through the stock of jars in your cabinet, not your kid.
2) Ferraro uses about 25% of the world’s hazelnut supplies to make Nutella. That’s more than 100,000 tons every year. Fortunately for the hazelnut market, the demand has also allowed them to raise prices.
3) Making Nutella requires efforts on six continents! The main ingredients come from Turkey (hazelnuts), Nigeria (cocoa), France (vanilla), Brazil (sugar), and Malaysia (palm oil). Most factories aren’t even in those countries, so your Nutella was probably in at least one other country.
4) Ferraro hosted the largest ever continental breakfast. In 2005, Ferraro served 27,854 people breakfast in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The breakfast included two bread rolls, a carton of orange juice, two slabs of butter, two slabs of cream cheese, a carton of yoghurt “drink” (whatever that is), and two portions of Nutella.
5) Each jar of Nutella has 20 grams of protein! That’s so healthy!
6) Oh wait nevermind…Each jar of Nutella is also 57% sugar…
7) The amount of Nutella produced in a year is mind-blowing. All of the chocolatey spread produced globally in one year would circle the globe 1.8 times, weigh as much as the Empire State building, and fill the physical volume of Big Ben 22,000 times. The jars themselves would cover the Great Wall of China 8 times!
8) Nutella is sold in more than 160 countries. For comparison, there are 164 countries in the World Trade Organization.
9) Even Royalty loves Nutella. American Royalty Lady Gaga loves Nutella, she said so on Twitter. British Royalty (by sister) Pippa Middleton used Nutella in a recipe in her 2012 cookbook “Celebrate”. About her Nutella Madeleines, she says, “‘These are irresistible to both adults and children and so easy to make. Nutella isn’t just for spreading on toast! You can also try using white or plain chocolate spread instead.” No, Pippa, you can’t use white or plain chocolate spread. Nutella only.
10) The recession may have stopped the housing market, Wall Street, and economic growth in its tracks, but it didn’t stop global Nutella sales. Sales slowed, but they never decreased or even flat-lined. The trend is upwards, ever upwards.
11) The modern-day “Coke or Pepsi?” debate is; is European Nutella different from American Nutella? The ingredients are the same, leading one to believe their flavors are the same, but most people who try both insist there’s a difference. BuzzFeed did a blind taste-taste of Italian and American Nutella with Americans and Italian taste-testers that largely resulted in ½ of the taste-testers correctly determining which Nutella was which. In another effort to discover the difference, a Washington Post reporter and a chef mused over the different flavors and attempted to figure out what caused the difference.
NUTELLA QUIZ
How much do you love Nutella? If you know it well, then we know you love it a lot. Take our Nutella quiz to find out how much of a true Nutellaphile you are.
