Nutella Quietly Changed Its Recipe, And We Feel Betrayed

@nutella

When it comes to Nutella, we eat it by the spoonful. Scratch that — by the jar. But we just caught wind of a surprising development in the hazelnut spread’s recipe: it’s not what it once was. Nutella underwent some changes without an announcement from the company.

Thrillist reports that a German watchdog group posted new and old Nutella jars side-by-side in a Facebook post. The group found that the new Nutella jar label showed a 16 percent increase in powdered skim milk. Also, the sugar content increased from 55.9 percent per jar to 56.3 percent per jar.

Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg

Interestingly enough, the group also mentions that the newer Nutella is lighter in color, and it speculates that the color difference is a result of using less cacao.

Thrillist notes that technically, Ferrero, Nutella’s parent company, legally does not have to announce ingredient changes to its products, and that when reached out to for comment, a Ferrero spokesperson said “We have recently carried out a fine-tuning in line with the evolution of consumers’ tastes. The quality, safety, sourcing and all other characteristics of the Nutella ingredients remain the same. The ingredient list can always be found on the jar and on the Nutella website. From a nutritional point of view, all relevant aspects remain similar.”

A post shared by Nutella (@nutella) on Mar 16, 2017 at 7:25am PDT

Of course we’ll still indulge in the hazelnut treat, but we’re not super thrilled that the brand is potentially skimping on cacao and upping the sugar content. Either way, it’s good to know. You bet we’ll be trying a new jar soon, and if we’re not satisfied, we’ll be making some calls.

[h/t Thrillist]