Nutella

• 1. Introduction

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  Nutella, the hazelnut cocoa spread made by the Italian company Ferrero, drew viral attention on the 7th of April 2026. The occasion was a live stream of the crewed Artemis II Moon flyby. Viewers spotted a jar of the spread floating around the crew space of the Integrity vehicle.

  That one jar in the Integrity cabin raises a few questions. Where did a spread so closely tied to one Italian town begin? What is really inside the jar, and why does Italian law refuse to let it carry a certain label? And how does a handful of ingredients become something that sits on breakfast tables in dozens of countries?

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• 2. A Baker in Alba

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  Alba, an Italian town known for producing hazelnuts, was home to the bakery owned by Pietro Ferrero. The region around it, Piedmont, already had a traditional hazelnut and chocolate recipe called gianduja. That recipe mixes roughly 71.5% hazelnut paste with about 19.5% chocolate. Cocoa beans were scarce after post-war rationing, and that shortage is the reason Nutella took shape in Piedmont.

  In 1946, Pietro Ferrero sold an initial batch of 300 kg of a product called Pasta Gianduja, derived from gianduja. It was sold as a solid block. Only in 1951 did Ferrero begin selling a creamy, spreadable version, under the name Supercrema gianduja.

  Supercrema gianduja kept that name until 1963.

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• 3. A Name for Europe

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  Michele Ferrero, the son of Pietro, teamed up with Francesco Rivella in 1963 to revamp the old spread. Their goal was to sell it throughout Europe. They modified its composition and gave it the new name Nutella.

  The first jar of Nutella left the factory in Alba on the 20th of April 1964. The product was an instant success. Its spread around the world took place during Italy's post-war economic boom, called the Italian economic miracle.

  Children and adults alike enjoyed it. Leftists held it in particular esteem, seeing it as the Italian answer to American peanut butter.

  It took until 1983 for Nutella to be released in America for the first time, nearly two decades after that first jar left Alba.

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• 4. Inside the Jar

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  Sugar and palm oil together make up more than 50% of Nutella, which sits oddly beside its description as a cocoa and hazelnut spread. Hazelnuts account for 13%. The other main ingredients are fat-reduced cocoa powder and skimmed milk. In the United States and the United Kingdom, the recipe also contains soy products.

  Italian law does not permit Nutella to be labelled a chocolate cream, because it falls short of the minimum concentration of cocoa solids. In many countries it is marketed as hazelnut cream instead.

  Each 220g jar uses approximately 50 hazelnuts. Ferrero as a company uses 25 percent of the global hazelnut supply, although not all of that goes into Nutella.

  A two-tablespoon serving of 37 grams delivers 200 calories. Of those, 99 come from 11 grams of fat, 3.5 g of it saturated, and 80 come from 21 grams of sugar. The serving also holds 15 mg of sodium and 2 g of protein. By weight, the spread is 58% processed sugar and 10.4 percent saturated fat.

  In November 2017, the company modified the recipe slightly, raising the sugar and skimmed milk powder content. The colour became lighter, and the Hamburg Consumer Protection Center estimated that the cocoa content had been reduced as well.

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• 5. From Bean to Spread

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  Cocoa beans are left to dry for about ten days before being shipped for processing. A bean typically holds approximately 50 percent cocoa butter, so roasting turns it into a liquid. That alone does not give a spread, because the paste would harden at room temperature. The liquid is therefore sent to presses that squeeze out the butter, leaving round discs of pure compressed cocoa. The butter goes elsewhere to be used in other products.

  Hazelnuts follow a separate path that begins with a guillotine. At the processing plant, it chops the nuts open so inspectors can check the interior. The nuts are then cleaned and roasted. A computer-controlled blast of air serves as a second quality check and removes the bad nuts, so every jar looks and tastes the same.

  Sugar, vanillin and skim milk join the cocoa powder and hazelnuts in a large tank. They are mixed until the batch becomes a paste-like spread. Modified palm oil then goes in to keep the spread solid at room temperature, taking the place of the butter pressed out of the bean.

  Whey powder acts as a binder, and it stabilizes the fat emulsions so the product does not coagulate. Lecithin, a fatty substance found in animal and plant tissues, helps the ingredients blend evenly and keeps the cocoa powder from separating. The last addition is vanillin, which enhances the sweetness of the chocolate.

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• 6. Factories Worldwide

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  Brantford, Ontario, in Canada, supplies the North American market, and more recently San José Iturbide, in Guanajuato, Mexico, has joined it. Australia and New Zealand are served from Lithgow, New South Wales, where Nutella has been made since the late 1970s.

  Two of the four Ferrero plants in Italy make Nutella, one in Alba, Piedmont, and one in Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, in Campania. France has a facility in Villers-Écalles. Warsaw and Manisa supply Eastern Europe, including Southeast Europe, Poland, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, along with South Africa.

  The Ferrero plant in Stadtallendorf, which has existed since 1956, serves Germany and northern Europe. Russia has its own production plant in Vladimir. In Brazil, a plant in Poços de Caldas supplies the local market, and part of its output is exported overseas. Turkish production is exported to countries such as India.

  Global production in 2013 was about 350,000 tonnes. By 2015, the spread was on sale in 75 countries.

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• 7. At the Table

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  In Italy, a slice of filone, a typical Italian loaf, is among the most common bases for a layer of Nutella. Another favorite is pancarrè e Nutella, where the spread goes between two or more slices of sandwich bread. Both are classic afternoon snacks for Italian children, and they also turn up at school recess.

  Italian kitchens use it as a filling in cornetti, bomboloni and crepes. It also appears in recipes such as sbriciolona alla Nutella and nutellotti, soft cookies with a warm Nutella center.

  In Ireland, children favor Nutella as a pancake topping. Croatia fills its peach-shaped breskvice cookies with it, replacing the traditional jam. French breakfasts feature it spread atop baguettes, making open sandwiches eaten with coffee.

  In Senegal, Nutella fills sandwiches that are eaten as an afternoon snack.

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• 8. Headlines and Anniversaries

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  In 2012, French senator Yves Daudigny proposed raising the tax on palm oil from €100 to €400 per tonne. Palm oil makes up 20 percent of Nutella, so the media dubbed the measure the Nutella tax.

  That same year, Ferrero settled a class action lawsuit in the US. The suit alleged that its advertisements misrepresented the healthiness of the spread. The company paid $3 million and removed the advertising that carried the health claims.

  On the 14th of May 2014, Poste Italiane issued a Nutella commemorative stamp for the 50th anniversary. The Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato designed the 70 Euro cent stamp, which shows a jar of Nutella on a golden background. Ferrero held a Nutella Day on the 17th and the 18th of May to celebrate.

  On the 15th of April 2026, eight days after the floating jar, Nutella announced a flavor called Nutella Peanut. It is the brand's first new flavor since its debut.

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