French minister Segolene Royal declared that consumers should avoid their favorite Italian chocolate spread Nutella if they want to help save the environment.
People's obsession with Nutella resulted to one jar being sold every 2.5 seconds in the UK alone. Nutella has even surpassed marmite in terms of sales figures. A quarter of all hazelnuts grown around the world are used to make the spread.
“We have to replant a lot of trees because there is massive deforestation that also leads to global warming. We should stop eating Nutella, for example, because it’s made with palm oil,” Royal told television channel Canal+.
“Oil palms have replaced trees, and therefore caused considerable damage to the environment,” she added.
She also appealed to Ferrero, the company behind Nutella, to make the spread with "other ingredients."
The company refused to comment directly on Royal's comments, but released a statement saying: "Ferrero sources approximately 170,000 metric tons of palm oil, out of a worldwide production of 60 million metric tons, meaning that Ferrero's impact on the palm oil supply chain represents less than 0.3 percent," the company said.
"All Ferrero products sold everywhere in the world, are produced with palm fruit oil that is 100 percent certified as sustainable according to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)."
Royal's comments are part of a growing backlash against palm oil, whose explosive growth in recent years has been blamed for loss of forests in Malaysia, Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia.
Ferrero defendeded itself: "Palm oil cultivation can go hand in hand with respect for the environment and populations. No forests or other valued conservancy spaces have been sacrificed to make Nutella."
David Wilcove, Princeton University professor of public affairs and ecology and evolutionary biology believed that boycotting Nutella will not automatically help the environment as hazelnut is also used in other products like shampoo and cookies.
French senators attempted to introduce a 300 percent tax on palm oil back in 2012.
