CHOCOLATE AND CANDY
MAY 16, 2022
The Sweet Origin Of Nutella
The origin of Nutella was coming from a long experiment and endless innovation from Ferrero, an Italian sweet company.
Nutella is a sweet hazelnut chocolate spread produced by the Italian company Ferrero. Nutella was first launched in 1964. Nutella is one of the most popular chocolate jam products in the world.
Nutella was first made by Pietro Ferrero, a baker in Italy in the 1920s. Ferrero made Nutella based on seeing workers in a factory near his home eating a lunch of bread, cheese, tomatoes and olive oil on the outside of the bread.
With a bakery background, Pietro experimented with his desire to make an exclusive chocolate with a mixture of hazelnuts. At that time, hazelnuts were used because they were cheap and very abundant in their home, Alba, Italy.
Pietro’s creations are known as ‘gianduja’ and are sold in squares, thinly sliced and eaten with bread. The chocolate got a very good response in the market.
Gianduja or gianduiotto was invented in the 1860s in Turin by Caffarel to reduce the price of chocolate and make it available to the general public. In gianduja, part of the cocoa is substituted for hazelnuts, a nut that is abundant in Piedmont and throughout Italy.
The main ingredient, hazelnuts, is a specialty plant product from Langhe, the Piedmont region where the Ferrero family belongs (Pietro owns a patisserie in Alba, Cuneo Province).
When World War II broke out, many governments imposed rations on some food and other supplies to prioritize military needs, including chocolate. Due to such an emergency, Ferrero returned to his experiments with the gianduja.
After the war, the Pietro era was replaced by his son, Michele, who took over his father’s company in 1957. From this time, the history of Nutella began. After joining, Michele innovated by adding sugar and named it “Nutella”.
Since the main ingredient of the spread is hazelnuts, Ferrero simply attaches the Latin suffix “-ella” to the word “nut”. Incidentally, the Latin suffix “-ella” can be interpreted as “sweet”, “beloved”, hence the name Nutella.
From Michelle’s hands also came famous products, such as Kinder, Ferrero Rocher, and Tic Tacs. In his employees’ memories, he is described as ‘the one who sits at the desk and watches the many white-coated technicians sample his latest invention’.
Although Nutella was first marketed in 1964, its predecessor, a bread spread called “Supercrema”, has been marketed by Ferrero since 1951. In turn it is a derivative from “gianduja”.
Within a few years, Ferrero had launched Nutella across Europe. The Ferrero company only started importing Nutella into the US in 1983 because they were initially hindered by marketing challenges to America.
Michele’s Nutella, Kinder and Tic Tac products were all created in the 1960s. However, there are also products that are dim in the market and eventually discontinued production, such as Pico Rico Tico, Il Budino Baba, and Negrita.
In 1980, Ferrero Rocher was launched. This product is made by placing hazelnuts into a circle made of wafers and wrapped in chocolate mixed with hazelnut flakes.
According to Wikipedia, Nutella contains 10.4 percent saturated fat and 58% refined sugar by weight. A two-tablespoon (37-gram) serving of Nutella contains 200 calories, including 99 calories from 11 grams of fat (3.5 g of which is saturated) and 80 calories from 21 grams of sugar.
The spread also contains 15 mg sodium and 2 g protein per serving (for Canadian serving size reference it is 1 tablespoon or 19 grams).
Today, almost a quarter of hazelnuts worldwide are used by Ferrero as a raw material. The largest Nutella factory is located in Normandy, France, and produces about 600,000 jars of Nutella chocolate spread per day or about a quarter of Nutella’s supply worldwide.
Michele’s youngest son, Giovanni, is now head of the company in place of his deceased father and brother.
On February 5, 2007, all Nutella lovers were invited to gather by Italian-American blogger, Sara Rosso. Since then, World Nutella Day has been celebrated every year.
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