Taking Nutella to Court Over Nutritional Claims

“Every jar has wholesome quality ingredients like hazelnuts, skim milk and a hint of delicious cocoa. And Nutella has no artificial ingredients or preservatives.“

This is the refrain of the mother in a frequently aired Nutella commercial currently appearing across Canada and the United States. It is not a surprise that kids love having Nutella for breakfast — it tastes just like chocolate icing. But is it truly part of a healthy breakfast like the advertisements claim?

I’m a mom and I didn’t believe the hype. Although my kids love Nutella and get to eat it for breakfast when we are on vacation, I wasn’t ready to start making part of a “nutritious breakfast” in our home and I didn’t think Nutella’s claims could be accurate. So when I was out grocery shopping, I read the label, and sent out a tweet with my findings: “Nutella ads brag about nutritious ingredients like nuts, skim milk, touch of cocoa. But – 1st ingredients listed are sugar + palm oil” [January 9 - @phdinparenting via twitter].

It seems I’m not the only one who was upset about these claims. Athena Hohenberg, a San Diego mother of a four year-old, took her complaints further than twitter. She filed a class action lawsuit against Ferrero International, the makers of Nutella, in U.S. District Court in California this week.

According to the Globe and Mail, Hohenberg was “shocked to learn from friends that Nutella was in fact not a ‘healthy’, ‘nutritious’ food, but was instead the next best thing to a candy bar.” According to her lawsuit, Nutella “contains dangerous levels of saturated fat” and “over 55% processed sugar.” Hohenberg is demanding, among other things, that Ferrero be forbidden from advertising Nutella as healthy or nutritious and that it launch a corrective advertising campaign.

quick poll

vote now!

Loading poll...

no!
leaning no
leaning yes
yes!

no!
leaning no
leaning yes
yes!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Carole R.

8:09PM PST on Dec 2, 2011

I'm not surprised. It is hard to imagine this could be healthy.

send a green star

Laura P.

9:06AM PDT on Oct 19, 2011

Boycott Nutella! They use palm oil, (why!?!?!) and it's destroying orangutan's habitats! It's awful!!! Also whoever would believe that chocolate based and sugar pumped spread would ever be part of a nutritious breakfast or any meal. Get some FRUIT! :D:D:D

Leigh E.

7:13AM PDT on May 31, 2011

Courtney Bliss and Elizabeth M

Bread isn't healthy for you either by the way. Bread manufacturers are allowed to say 'whole wheat' if there is bran present in their bread but they don't have to put much in for them to claim this . It's also a rip off advertising sceme so be careful with that. Bread is basically carbs (refined sugar) so try going for a more healthy approach like sprouted grain breads. They are a bit closer to being healthy.

Jute W.

6:32AM PST on Feb 22, 2011

Advertising can be so deceptive. Thanks for the reminder. I think I will pass on this item.

Gabriela B.

2:31PM PST on Feb 17, 2011

I'm not eating it, since I don't like chocolate, and nutella is almost pure chocolate. It's too sweet to be healthy by the way.

Barbara E.

4:10PM PST on Feb 15, 2011

I love it for baking
:-)

6:48PM PST on Feb 14, 2011

Actually I considered this healthy breakfast stuff, what was in it I wondered? Low and behold the "natural"? health store had a display, My child there, we read the label.....Sugar,Palm oil, First two ingredients! First two? ingredients?!?Needless to say, we did NOT try it.

I am trying to make our palm oil intake to be 0% actually said F!!k it and started eating lamo donuts sometimes instead of Organic oreos which use the Palm oil.

Is there a certification standard for sourcing the palm oil? Anyone know please link to me. Thx.

6:43PM PST on Feb 14, 2011

not saying anything bad about my mom, heck even santa Claus gave her advice, theres no one better than him!

6:40PM PST on Feb 14, 2011

well the next ad I saw after The Nutella plaid shirt happy mom lady was Pop Tarts, the coolset breakfast ever, happy kids off to school in a hurry ad.
Whats the difference? I barley survived off canned frosting,5 lb's of ground beef and a jug of coke at age 10 for snacks of course! now they have better commercials that make it look cool and healthy. Jeez, my mom didn't wanna do it(make me a good meal/snack) now these commercials are like bad moms on crack promoting more crack-heads

Lika S.

3:15AM PST on Feb 13, 2011

If it looks like chocolate, tastes like chocolate... it just has a hint of nuts, right? Stick to natural peanut butter. It's better for you, and real.