Vegan Nutella, made with chickpeas and rice syrup, to hit shelves
Vegan Nutella, made with chickpeas and rice syrup, to hit shelves
Food giant Ferrero on Tuesday announced the imminent launch of a vegan version of its popular hazelnut spread Nutella in Italy, France and Belgium, saying the move was in response to changing consumer tastes.
As noted in the article, Nutella is made with palm oil, whose farming often results in habitat loss for animals such the Bornean orangutan, which is critically endangered. Ferrero claims they have a chain for palm oil such that it doesn't come from devastating monoculture plantations, but whether that's enough or even if it's true at all isn't my call to make for you. I don't personally take palm oil as part of my diet as I see it as something I can practicably cut out to reduce harm, but whether this is vegan or just plant-based is something you'll have to decide.
Ugh, that sounds horrible (there are alternatives that don't use palm oil already, and they taste great)
As someone out-of-the-loop here, do tell. I was hoping they might be out there, and I might give them a shot if they're vegan.
Edit: found one thanks to JubilantJaguar below.
yea Nocciolata is my goto brand when I can't find Rapunzel, which is rarer https://www.rapunzel.de/en/spreads-nut-butters.html Their spreads usually have palm oil, though.
Some are really good (and some are awful - looking at you, "Flora Plant"). If they sell Bionella where you live, try it, it's vegan, organic and fair trade and it tastes just as good as Nutella.
But why chickpeas and rice syrup? There's lots of vegan hazelnut spreads which taste better than Nutella and don't need such rather exotic ingredients...
There’s nothing exotic about garbanzo or rice.
Well, here in Germany, chickpea is relatively exotic. And I've never seen rice syrup as an ingredient in anything that wasn't specifically made for vegans.
It just feels like they created a product specifically for the vegan market, which means they're alienating parts of the non-vegan market. And yeah, I just don't feel like that's necessary.
Today I learned chickpeas and rice are exotic
Even if they have the 'good' palm oil production, them using it means some other food producer can't buy it. So indirectly it leads to higher priced in the overall palm oil market, which leads to illicit production.
Also, nutella is horrible for you. You're better off with adding chocolate syrup to a peanut butter. https://www.mic.com/articles/165970/what-s-in-a-jar-of-nutella-a-viral-image-shows-the-hazelnut-spread-is-mostly-sugarI've always wondered what Nutella tasted like! My kids love it
It's the taste of betrayal often marketed as chocolate.
It's sweet but not overly sweet and very rich. It's like if you took fudge, made it creamier, and spread it on something. It's been quite a few years since I've had it. Because it's one of those foods that, like bacon, everyone seems to treat as literal perfection as almost a meme, I'm sure it has an air of intrigue to it. Like bacon, I feel, it's pretty good but unexceptional.
It's basically chocolate frosting that for some bizarre reason people have convinced themselves is healthy, I guess because there's a tiny amount of hazelnut in it?
Nutella marketed it as healthy as it contained milk (powder) and hazelnuts. It was never healthy due to the amount of sugar.
It was originally made with hazelnuts to make a cheaper chocolate alternative. But hazelnuts are still expensive so they bulk it with palm oil. It’s basically chocolate mayo now.
There is no chocolate in nutella
Like palm oil and diabetes
I assume this will be more expensive even though it's made with cheaper ingredients.
As this is in Europe, I'd mention https://www.valsoia.com/us/products/creamy-hazelnut-cocoa-spread/ which is superior in qualities and has been around for years.
I’d try this
