I think we are all familiar with the world renown, creamy, smooth, chocolate spread, Nutella. The Nutella is manufactured in many Nutella factories around Europe and America. In fact, they have factories in more than 75 different countries. Every Year, Nutella factories produce about 250, 000 tons of Nutella. From the commercials that we usually see on the TV and hear on the radio, we would probably think that Nutella is a healthy product. I have done a lot of research on Nutella, and I have found some ugly facts about the morning must have that not a lot of people know about. I am going to be explaining all about how Nutella is created. From raw material, all the way to the finished product.
The first thing we need to look at is the ingredients for Nutella. One regular sized jar of Nutella is 25.574 oz. The ingredients that go into Nutella are: Sugar, vegetable oil, hazelnuts (13%), cocoa powder (7.4%), non-fat milk solids (skimmed milk powder), emulsifier (soy lecithin), flavour (vanillin). Now that we know what the ingredients are, we have to think about how each and every ingredient got to be a part of the Nutella story and how it was produced.
Here is a short summary of how Nutella is made ino the creamy, smooth spread:
Cocoa is probably the main ingredient in any chocolate, so let's start with cocoa. The cocoa beans are harvested and left to dry in the sun for about 2 days. They are then sent to a Nutella factory where they are roasted to allow the cocoa butter to come out. When they are finished roasting, the beans are pressed to release any remaining cocoa butter. This cocoa butter will be used to make other chocolate products. The original cocoa bean is about 55% cocoa butter, that’s why the butter needs to be released. Once the cocoa butter is released, the roasted beans are crushed into a powder, to allow easy mixing. The next Ingredient to be put into the Nutella mixture is hazelnuts. There are about 50 hazelnuts in each regular sized jar of Nutella. Before the hazelnuts are actually used into the Nutella, workers have to cut the nuts in half to ensure that the nuts are up to Nutella standards. After the nuts are checked, they are sent to the ovens to be roasted. Once the batch of nuts are roasted, a computerized machine blows away all the nuts that are not useful. These nuts will be sent away to other places for other types of chocolate. The useful hazelnuts are sent to be mixed with the rest of the ingredients (sugar, vanilla, skimmed milk, and pure cocoa solids powder). To mix all the ingredients, a huge electric machine is used to properly mix the mixture to insure that the spread will always look the same.
Obviously, the Nutella needs to be put into a jar. The question is, how and where do they get these jars? Well, Nutella used to be put into glass jars made of recycled glass. Huge machines melted the chunks of glass into a hot liquid, which were then sent to another machine which used the melted glass to form the containers. Once the glass is molded into shape, a machine is used to make sure that the screw for the lid is put on the bottle. The Nutella mixture is then put into the jars, and is left in 30 degrees Celsius to cool for 2 days. Now, Nutella is put into jars made out of plastic. These plastic jars are made from Polyethylene Terephthalate. This substance is recyclable, and Nutella switched from glass to plastic jars because Polyethylene Terephthalate is more water resistant than glass. This substance goes through almost the exact same process as glass did when Nutella still used glass.
When it is time for disposal, the glass Nutella jars can be reused or sent to the recycling bin. When the glass is put in the recycling bin, they are taken to a glass treatment facility, where the glass is separated by color, cleaned of any bacteria that may exist, melted, and then molded into new products. The Nutella factories use this kind of recycled glass to create the jars. Today, Nutella uses plastic jars, rather than glass jars. These plastic jars can be disposed of at local disposal stations, or can be put in the recycling bin. The jar lids are made of a polypropylene material, which can also be recycled. Before recycling, the label on the jar should be taken off before disposal.
