How the world went nuts for a spread the health police HATE: Addicts devour a ­staggering 365,000 tonnes in 160 countries each year



Nutella has 26 million fans on Facebook and sells 11million jars annually



In Britain alone sales of the spread are up by 22 per cent year-on-year



But experts are warning that despite its popularity the spread is unhealthy



All in the taste: The world appears to have developed an almost ­insatiable appetite for Nutella

Devotees will tell you that it is delicious smeared over toast, sensational oozing out of pancakes, and the secret ingredient in one of the most delicious chocolate cakes known to man.

Half a century after it was invented in the back room of an Italian bakery, the world appears to have an almost ­insatiable appetite for Nutella, the hazelnut chocolate spread.

Last year addicts devoured a ­staggering 365,000 tonnes of the stuff in 160 countries. Nutella’s Facebook page has more than 26 million fans.



In Britain sales have overtaken ­Marmite. With more than 11 million jars bought each year, it is now the most popular branded spread in the UK.

If you’ve never been that impressed with the sickly sweetness or high calorie count, the appeal of Nutella can be hard to fathom.

But for fans, the distinctive glass jar and plastic white lid instil the kind of brand loyalty that Pepsi, McDonald’s and M&S can only dream about.

So why does this sugary brown gloop, which this month celebrates its 50th birthday, inspire such devotion? And how did such an unhealthy product become such a massive brand?

Nutella may have been launched in 1964, but it only began to make serious inroads into the British breakfast in the Eighties. Before then chocolate spreads were runny, rather than thick and creamy, and flavoured overwhelmingly with cocoa.



For those like me, raised in the ­Seventies, chocolate spread — ­particularly Cadbury’s Chocolate Spread — was a very occasional treat, saved for holidays or birthdays.

But then came Nutella. Many of us assumed that, like most such sugar-laden indulgences, it hailed from ­America. In fact, the U.S., like Britain, was late to the party.

Success: It wasn't until Michele Ferrero (pictured) took over the running of the company that Nutella took off internationally. His estimated wealth of $26billion makes him the 20th richest person in the world

For the Nutella story had started ­decades before, in the lean months after the end of the World War II when a young pastry maker from Piedmont, in the north of Italy, was looking for a way to compensate for a shortage of cocoa.

Pietro Ferrero - heir to the Nutella empire - died after suffering an apparent heart attack in 2011

His name was Pietro Ferrero and he began to experiment. The region specialised in ­growing hazelnuts and Ferrero realised he could bulk out the cocoa with nut paste.

His first contribution came in 1946 with a hard cocoa and hazelnut brick that had to be sliced with a knife. He named it Giandujot after a famous ­carnival figure of the time.



A few years later, he found a way to add vegetable oil to the mix, creating a spreadable v­ersion called SuperCrema — the forerunner of Nutella.

Making the nut and chocolate combination soft was key. Now a little chocolate spread could go a long way. And crucially it could be spread on bread, a vital staple of the Italian diet.

You might not have been able to afford chocolates in postwar Italy, but you could afford a taste of SuperCrema.

In 1964 SuperCrema turned into Nutella, thanks to Pietro’s son, Michele, who improved the recipe and developed the ­distinctive glass jar.



The new name was an attempt to appeal to an international audience — nuts for an Anglo-America coolness, and ‘ella’ to give it a soft, Italian ending.

By 1966 it was on sale in France and Germany — and by 1977 production began in Australia.

Today, around a quarter of all hazelnuts grown in the world end up in the spread.

‘They made such a blend, ­people became crazy about it almost immediately,’ says ­Ferrero President Francesco Paolo Fulci. ‘It is something absolutely ­fantastic because every time we enter a new market there is an immediate wave of interest for this product. We almost don’t need to do anything.’

A jar is sold every 2.5 seconds globally. The company produces enough Nutella each year to create a smear of spread that would circle the world 1.4 times. Stacked up, the jars would build 22,000 Big Bens.



In the UK alone sales are worth nearly £30 million a year — and rose last year by more than 22 per cent.

Part of its success is down to the way that the middle classes have embraced the product despite it being so obviously unhealthy.

A German advert for Nutella hazelnut spread from circa 1970. Last year addicts devoured a ­staggering 365,000 tonnes of the stuff in 160 countries. Nutella's Facebook page has more than 26 million fans

Nigella Lawson, the epitome of middle-class cooking, uses it in recipes for cheesecake and chocolate cake, a treat she describes as ‘one of the most delicious cakes’ she makes.



Meanwhile clever marketing means it was promoted from the very start as an everyday luxury, an affordable guilty pleasure.



Ferrero also talked up Nutella’s naturalness and has suggested it can be part of a balanced breakfast, sometimes to the irritation of consumer groups.

It’s certainly true that it is mostly natural. A 750g jar ­contains 97 hazelnuts, along with sugar, vegetable oil, cocoa and skimmed milk powder. It also has whey powder and soya lecithin to keep it glossy and creamy, along with a drop of vanilla flavouring.

But healthy it isn’t.

HOW NUTELLA MADE THE FERREROS ITALY'S RICHEST FAMILY

Nutella was created in 1946 by Pietro Ferrero in the back room of his bakery in the small town of Alba in Piedmont, Italy. With the help of his brother Giovanni, Pietro initially sold the product locally in solid loaves that had to be sliced like bread. Famed for the quality of the local chocolate and hazelnuts, residents in Alba quickly developed a taste for the product.

But it wasn't until Pietro's eldest son Michele took over the running of Ferrero SpA that the Nutella product took off internationally.

Relaunching his father's 'secret recipe' in 1964 in its easy-to-spread form, Nutella quickly changed the Italian thinking that chocolate was only to be eaten at Christmas and Easter. Michele's new recipe was fiercely guarded, with the company never holding a press conference or allowing media to visit a factory. However Nutella marketing push has been far more out in the open - its sponsorship of the Italian national football team in the late 1990s helping to cement the link between Nutella and Italian national pride. Now, 50 years after it first created Nutella, Ferrero SpA produces a number of different products, including Ferrero Rocher and Kinder. One in four hazelnuts produced worldwide now end up in a Ferrero product. In 2008 Michele Ferrero surpassed Silvio Berlusconi as Italy's richest man, and his estimated wealth of $26billion also makes him the 20th richest person in the world. Tragedy struck, however, when Michele's son Pietro - who had taken over as Ferrero SpA's CEO - died after suffering an apparent heart attack in South Africa 2011. The current heir of the dynasty is Giovanni Ferrero - Michele's second son - the company's acting CEO.



More than half of Nutella (56.7 per cent) is pure sugar, while 30 per cent is fat. Some of that is the fat found in hazelnuts, but around 20 per cent of the spread is semi-solid palm oil. Just 13 per cent is hazelnuts.



Its makeup — in terms of cocoa, sugar and fat — is almost identical to chocolate. Despite the hazelnuts, there aren’t many healthy nutrients. ­Claiming it’s good for you is like arguing that you get some of your five a day by eating ­Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut.

In comparison with other breakfast spreads it does badly, too. Peanut butter has more protein, less unhealthy fat and more vitamins. And while jam and honey are 60 to 70 per cent pure sugar, they don’t have the fat. Eating Nutella is comparable to having a layer of golden syrup topped with peanut butter.

And there are 100 calories in one tablespoon. You’d need to walk briskly for half an hour to burn that one spoonful off.

Nutella got into trouble with the Advertising Standards Agency a few years ago after claiming ‘we want all our kids to have a balanced breakfast’ and implying that each 400g jar ­contained 52 hazelnuts, skimmed milk, cocoa powder — and nothing else. The ASA ruled that the advert exaggerated the health benefits.

But those criticisms have been shrugged off by fans and by the parent company Ferrero SpA, the world’s fourth largest chocolate maker which also sells Kinder, Tic Tacs and those Ferrero Rocher truffles supposedly so beloved of ambassadors.

For them Nutella is big ­business — sales make up a fifth of Ferrero’s annual £6.5 billion turnover.

Today the company employs 30,000 people and has 20 ­factories around the world. Its reclusive 89-year-old owner, Michele Ferrero, is worth £15 billion — making him the richest person in Italy and, according to Forbes, the 21st richest man in the world.



The Nutella bandwagon shows no signs of slowing. Ferrero has opened Nutella Cafes in ­Chicago and New York selling pastries and treats featuring the spread. Such is the ­popularity and pride in its home country that the Italian postal service issued a Nutella stamp earlier this month to mark the 50th anniversary.



The company also celebrated the day with street parties throughout Europe and a pop concert in Naples.

