Nutella Inventor Francesco Rivella Has Died
The Italian Francesco Rivella was formerly employed as a food chemist at the Ferrero company in the northern Italian town of Alba in Piedmont. Together with the then company head Michele Ferrero, whose right-hand man he was for decades, Rivella developed the composition of the hazelnut-chocolate spread. The first jar under this name rolled off the production line in 1964. It became a global success.
Nutella Inventor Francesco Rivella Also Worked on "Mon chéri" and "Kinder Chocolate"
As Technical Director, he was also involved in the development of other products such as "Mon chéri" or "Kinder Chocolate". Throughout his life, he never worked for another company. Rivella retired in 1993. He is survived by a daughter and three sons. In northern Italy, people had already started in the 19th century to use ground hazelnuts instead of cocoa powder in the production of confectionery. This resulted in brown nougat cream, for example in the form of Gianduiotti pralines. The raw mass was also available in stores as a spread. Together with Ferrero, Rivella further developed this approach. The founder's son then came up with the idea of packaging it in jars.
500,000 Tons of Nutella Produced Annually
In the early years, it was still called "Supercrema". The breakthrough came with the forced renaming in the 1960s, because in Italy nothing could be sold with the label Super anymore. Nut- stands for nut, -ella is one of the classic Italian endings. Today, Ferrero is a huge company with an annual turnover of more than 18 billion euros, selling its products in almost every country in the world. 500,000 tons of Nutella are produced annually.
Nutella has long since become a synonym for all kinds of hazelnut-chocolate spreads. In Italian delicatessens, but even in many supermarkets in other countries, the various varieties are available by the dozen: the more nuts (Nutella: 13 percent, others up to 51 percent) and the less palm oil, the more expensive. The market is large enough. Nutritionists, on the other hand, point out that a 400-gram jar contains 72 sugar cubes.
Nutella Recipe is Secret
Ferrero claims, after years of much criticism, to use only palm oil from certified sustainable production. However, environmentalists continue to make accusations - also because entire regions in Italy are being devastated by hazelnut monocultures. It is estimated that about a quarter of the world's hazelnut production is used for Nutella. The company has always remained silent about the exact composition. Meanwhile, there are also many recipes on the internet for homemade production.
(APA/Red)
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