‘We should stop eating Nutella’ because of global warming, says French ecology minister Segolene Royal
The French ecology minister has made a suggestion which may be highly unlikely for many chocolate lovers – stop eating Nutella to save the planet.
Segolene Royal has urged people to push aside the hazelnut chocolate spread because palm oil – one of its key components – leads to deforestation.
In an interview with a French television station, Royal explained,
“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. Oil palms have replaced trees, and therefore caused considerable damage to the environment.”
If the French public were to listen to Royal’s plea, Nutella will suffer, as 26% of the world’s nutty spread is eaten there. Nutella, an Italian brand, is also one of Italy’s more successful exports. The Italian environment minister has responded to Royal’s comments by telling her to “leave Italian products alone”.
Nutella’s makers, Ferrero, also waded into the debate by stating that it was committed to responsibly sourcing the palm oil it uses. The company uses only 100% sustainable palm oil; this means that the oil can be traced back from certified sustainable plantations.
The majority of the world’s palm oil, which is made from the palm fruit, is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, where forests are destroyed to make way for plantations. Palm oil is an ingredient in thousands of processed food items, and is also used to make biodiesel.
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