No one can resist Nutella. Not even in France, and not even if the bill to increase the tax on palm oil by 300%, which is one of the "magic" ingredients of the most widely spread hazelnut cream in the world, had a more than noble objective after all .
The Social Affairs Commission of the Assemblée Nationale in Paris (corresponding to our Chamber of Deputies) has in fact rejected the amendment presented by the transalpine ecologists headed by Jean-Louis Roumegas and nominated for simplicity “Nutella amendment” (but in reality it applies to all products, not a few, made up of palm oil), despite the fact that the same text had initially been approved by the Senate, albeit with a thousand hesitations.
The objective, although excessive (it was a matter of taxing an extra 300 euros on each ton of vegetable oil) and aborted at this point, was however not in itself wrong: as has already happened for carbonated drinks (a crusade won in France), Also palm oil, increasingly used by the agri-food industry thanks to its very low cost, is considered harmful to health and the environment according to many recent studies. It would in fact be a proven cause of obesity, cardiovascular risks and, as regards the impact on nature, deforestation as its production is linked to the conversion of rainforests. The tax, according to estimates by French ecologists, would have yielded at least 40 million euros.
Nutella can therefore breathe a sigh of relief even on the (very rich) market beyond the Alps: for its part, it has absolutely confirmed the winning recipe, and, especially concerned about the damage to its image, it explained on its website how to use the so-called vegetable fat, denying all charges. In France, however, despite the rejection in the legislative framework, the debate is more open than ever: read the site nutellaparlonsen.fr (“Nutella, let's talk about it”) to believe.
