France's environment minister Ségolène Royal has irked his Italian counterpart - and the product's legion of fans - by urging the public to stop eating Nutella because it was destroying the environment.
"We should stop eating Nutella, for example, because it’s made with palm oil," Royal said in an interview on Monday night on Canal+. She said the product ought to be made with “other ingredients”.
Her call to stop eating the chocolate-hazelnut spread was because it was made with palm oil, a product whose growers have come under fire from environmentalists for contributing to deforestation and destroying rare habitats.
Since the claim, Luca Galletti, the Italian environment minister, has rushed to Nutella’s defence, telling Royal to "leave Italian products along".
According to the UK's The Guardian newspaper, Galletti retorted, "Ségolène Royal is worrying. Leave Italian products alone. For dinner tonight … it’s bread with Nutella", while another senior Italian politician, Michele Anzaldi, demanded an apology from Royal, saying on Twitter that France had committed a “serious and ugly” slight against “Italian excellence”.
Since the backlash, Royal has backtracked, taking to Twitter to post: “A thousand excuses for the controversy over #Nutella", before adding, "Agreed, progress made should be recognised."
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news.
