Nutella is one of a small group of products in which I have been unable to find the actual ingredients listed on their website. According to food law ingredients must be listed in descending order from first (largest ingredients from weight) to last ingredient. The ingredients are listed on the website as follows:
Hazelnuts, cocoa powder, skim milk powder, vegetable oil, sugar, soy lecithin and vanillin
Yes these ingredients are in nutella but not in that order. Nutella would like you to believe that it is composed mainly of hazelnuts and cocoa so they rearrange the true order to make a better impression and fail to list the actual percentage and the correct additive names.
To find the true ingredients you have to look at the genuine product. The ingredients are as follows:
Sugar, vegetable oil, hazelnuts (13%), cocoa powder (7.4%), non-fat milk solids, emulsifier (soy lecithin), flavor (vanillin).
So now we know that the first (read main) ingredient is sugar (not hazelnuts), followed by “vegetable oil” (not cocoa), then hazelnuts, then cocoa solids, followed by non-fat milk solids, soy lecithin and vanilla flavour.
Don’t be fooled by cleaver advertising. Here is what I have uncovered about nutella.
- Sugar is the first ingredient. In fact Nutella is 55 per cent sugar! That puts Nutella on a par with chocolate.
- The vegetable oil is palm oil, a semi-solid fat that’s needed to give Nutella its spreadable texture. At least this was disclosed on the website (see below). The manufacturer says they were using hydrogenated oil until a couple of years ago but switched to palm oil to cut back on the trans-fat in 2006. Palm oil is free of Tran’s fat but is still high in saturated fat so it’s not good for you. It’s a no-win oil choice that many manufacturers face.
- Cocoa solids (or powder) gives Nutella its chocolaty taste.
- Soy lecithin – a common emulsifier that keeps the sugar, oil, nuts and cocoa nicely blended and stops them separating out during the months on the shelves. Nothing sinister about it.
- Flavour (vanillin)This is not vanilla or vanilla extract such as you use at home. Vanillin, which is most likely the synthetic form identical to the natural vanillin, but much less expensive is the largest flavour component of the vanilla bean but much less interesting.
I would like you to think of Nutella as chocolate in spreadable form. With 30 per cent fat and almost 55 per cent sugar, Nutella almost mirrors chocolate in its composition. In fact, Cadbury hazelnut chocolate contains 23% hazelnuts as opposed to 13% in nutella and has 19% less sugar. Would you serve you kids chocolate for breakfast?
What would you like to see review? Email me your suggestion courtney@vitalianaturalhealth.com.au
No comments:
Post a Comment