Introduction

For weeks now, Nutella ice cream has been on sale in the shops. The Hamburg Consumer Centre tried it, analyzed the ingredients and the price, and now delivers the verdict: it is a catastrophe, according to experts. Too much sugar and fat, no real Nutella inside, too much air in it, too expensive!

Ferrero touts its Nutella ice cream as ‘delicately whipped hazelnut ice cream with delicious layers of Nutella’ that are combined with ‘swirls of Nutella’. Consumer advocate and deceptive packaging expert Armin Valet says: ‘We assume it is rather a hazelnut nougat cream, just another recipe. This could mislead consumers.

Does it really contain Nutella?

Valet: There is no palm oil in the list of ingredients. Instead, the billion-dollar company uses coconut oil and sunflower oil Not necessarily worse, but not the original Nutella. On its website, Ferrero also emphasizes ‘how important palm oil is for Nutella’.
Other Ferrero foods filled with Nutella, such as croissants or biscuits, contain palm oil and all the other ingredients of Nutella. The ingredient list is absolutely the same as it is in the original hazelnut praliné, states the expert.

Lots of fat, lots of sugar, few hazelnuts

Per 100 grams of ice cream, there are 29 grams of sugar and 23 grams of fat. These levels are almost unprecedented among equivalent flavours of ice cream. Valet: ‘On the other hand, we believe there is too little hazelnut in this. According to the guidelines for ice cream, hazelnut ice cream needs to contain a minimum of five percent hazelnut per 100 grams of ice cream.’.

The nutritional values in a glance: 29 grams sugar and 23 grams fat per 100 grams of ice cream. Such high amounts are not found, for example, in comparable ice creams, criticized the consumer advice centre.

Too much air

While there may be an amount of air that’s needed in any ice cream, with Häagen Dazs or Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, they get about 400 grams of ice cream from the same volume of 470 millilitres! Here, at 470 millilitres, consumers only get 230 grams of ice cream.

Extreme price

What’s more, Nutella ice cream is simply too dear. Current price on shelves—not on special offer—at Rewe: 5.49 euros. Consumer Advocate: Basically, at first glance, compared with other brands of ice cream brands available on the market, this does not seem to be the most costly.
If one takes some air out of the price, then the trick comes into light. The bottom line: Nutella ice cream is 24 euros per kilo. That’s about 40 percent more than high-end ice cream brands like Häagen Dazs or Ben & Jerry’s.

What the manufacturer says to BILD

The criticism has now been put to Ferrero. They wrote: ‘To get the right consistency and creaminess of Nutella into the ice cream at freezing temperatures, we have chosen sunflower oil in our recipe. Consumer tests confirm that our ice cream recipe delivers the authentic taste experience of Nutella and appeals to all senses.’.