Nutella Processing Facility Shuts Down After Ingredient Quality Issue

The largest Nutella factory has shut down after a 'quality issue' was identified in one of the ingredients. Ferrero, the parent company, stated that product in the marketplace is good. The facility is said to produce 600.000 jars of Nutella a day.  The facility also produces Kinder Bueno candy bars.

One of the primary ingredients in both the Nutella and the Kinder Bueno bars is hazelnut, which is primarily sourced from the middle east. In addition to hazelnuts, Nutella also contains sugar, palm oil, cocoa solids, and milk powder.

Evidently, the French love their Nutella.  A lot of people I know prefer peanut butter.

http://fortune.com/2019/02/21/worlds-biggest-nutella-factory-shut-down/
World's Biggest Nutella Factory Shut Down Over 'Quality Issues'
By Grace Dobush
February 21, 2019


A Nutella factory in Normandy has been shut down as a precaution after “quality issues” were found in samples of the chocolate-hazelnut spread and Kinder Bueno candy bars, Italian parent company Ferrero reported Wednesday.

The factory in Villers-Ecalles, France, produces about one-quarter of the world’s Nutella, about 600,000 jars a day. After the unspecified quality issue was discovered, production was temporarily halted for investigations, which should conclude by the end of this week.

“For now, we can say that no product currently on the market is affected by the situation and that the supply of our customers continues uninterrupted,” Ferrero said in a statement.

People are very serious about their Nutella. The Local reports people in France consume about 100 million jars each year. Ferrero has 22 factories employing 30,000 people worldwide, and has doubled its sales in the past years to more than €10 billion ($11.4 billion). Last January, a 70% discount on the price of Nutella led to riots in French supermarkets.

The Telegraph

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/21/worlds-biggest-nutella-factory-halts-production-quality-defect/

World's biggest Nutella factory halts production over 'quality defect'

The world’s biggest Nutella factory in Normandy has halted production after “quality defects” were found in the one of the ingredients of the famed chocolate and hazelnut spread.

Ferrero, the Italian chocolate and confectionery giant, announced on Wednesday it had decided to suspend production at its Villers-Ecalles factory in northern France, which produces a quarter of all global volumes of the spread, “as a precaution”. 

The company insisted no jars of the popular spread already sold were affected and assured there would be no dearth for aficionados of the gooey paste.

"For now, we can say that no product currently on the market is affected by the situation and that the supply to our customers continues uninterrupted," said its French subsidiary.

The plant in the northern Seine-Maritime department, which produces 600,000 jars of Nutella a day, was temporarily shut to conduct investigations, whose results are due by the end of the week, it said.

The suspension came after quality control agents detected a problem with one of the ingredients used in Nutella spreads and Kinder Bueno chocolate bars.

"This defect doesn't meet our quality standards, so we've made the decision to temporarily suspend production at the factory."

The French have a veritable love affair with chocolate spread, regularly slathered on bread at children’s breakfast. They consume around 100 million pots every year. 

Last year, a minor riot broke out in supermarkets that launched a limited run of discounted pots. But the French courts have drawn the line at children being called Nutella, after a judge in 2016 ruled it could prove a cause of mockery for the girl given the name.

A growing number of organic alternatives to the chocolate spread are now available amid concerns in some quarters at its use of palm oil, which the company insists is sustainable.