Say It Ain’t So, Nutella May Cause Cancer
I hate to bring this news to you, but Nutella may cause cancer.
USA Today published an article early Thursday morning citing the European Food Safety Authority claiming an ingredient in Nutella is genotoxic and carcinogenic.
In May, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) warned that contaminants in palm oil raise potential health concerns across the board. The EFSA panel found that the major cancer concern is over glycidyl fatty acid esters or GE, which form during food processing, or when palm oil is refined at temperatures over 393 Fahrenheit.
The research shows that GE poses a cancer risk, Helle Knutsen, Chair of EFSA’s expert Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain, said in a May statement.
“There is sufficient evidence that glycidol is genotoxic and carcinogenic. Therefore the CONTAM Panel did not set a safe level for GE,” Knutsen said.
In summary, palm oil refined at a very high-temperature can really mess you up and may cause cancer.
You may be asking, well why doesn’t Nutella just make their product without the palm oil.
Well.
“Making Nutella without palm oil would produce an inferior substitute for the real product, it would be a step backward,” Ferrero’s purchasing manager Vincenzo Tapella told Reuters.
We do NOT want Nutella to take a step back. Nutella is a product that has never taken a step back. It hit the shelves a 10 out of 10 and it has never looked back. It is a ruler of all spreads right up there with peanut butter itself.
The World Health Organization and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization have acknowledged the worrisome prospects of GE, but haven’t advised people to stop eating products with the oil.
I don’t know about you, but if the World Health Organization hasn’t said to stop eating it, I’m still going to eat the addicting hazelnut spread.
