FDA Tracks Nutella Consumption, US Government Considering Smaller Serving Size

The US Food and Drug Administration is in a quandary as Ferrero, the maker of Nutella, is pushing to reclassify its product from a dessert to a breakfast spread.

According to Boston Globe, Americans are using Nutella on their toast rather than on their ice cream as a desset. Because of this, the FDA is considering Ferrero's petition in 2014 to reduce Nutella's recommended serving to one tablespoon instead of two, cutting in half the calories that Americans consume per serving.

If the FDA do agree with the petition, this will lead to the reclassification of Nutella as a spread and will be on par with other breakfast spreads such as jam and jelly. This means that the label will only show half of the nutritional data currently indicated on a Nutella jar.

The one-tablespoon serving of Nutella has ben implemented in the U.K., Australia and France. In the US though, Nutella is currently classified as a dessert topping with a two-tablespoon recommended serving size, which is about 200 calories, BBC reports.

The petition from Ferrero stems from the prevelance of using Nutella as a toast rather than a dessert. The serving size of two tablespoon was based in the 1990s when people still used the chocolate spread as an ice cream topping.

The petition indicated that in 1991, 8 percent Americans use Nutella on bread and 27 percent on ice cream. However, come 2012, 74 percent of Americans use it on bread while only 2 percent use it on ice cream.

‘‘Because Nutella is used in the same manner as jams and jellies, uniformity in RACC values among Nutella, jams, and jellies would enable consumers to make informed nutritional comparisons of these similar products,’’ said Ferrero on its petition.

However, BBC says that even after it's reclassified, Nutella will still have double the calorie amount as most jams, which only has 50 calories per tablespoon. Nutella's ingredients are sugar, palm oil, cocoa, milk, hazelnuts, lecithin and vanillin.