Nutella spat: French minister says sorry over call to stop eating spread

France’s environment minister Ségolène Royal has offered “a thousand apologies” after urging the public to stop eating Nutella because it was destroying the environment.

Royal’s Italian counterpart told her to “leave Italian products alone” after she criticised the use of palm oil in the hazelnut spread, which is made by Italian confectionery company Ferrero.

The spat over one of Italy’s most important products came at an already tense moment in Italian-French relations, with a bitter standoff over hundreds of migrants stranded in the Italian border city of Ventimiglia after being denied entry into France.

The migrant issue is likely to be raised in a meeting on Sunday between the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, and François Hollande, the French president, who will be visiting his country’s pavilion at the Milan Expo, where Ferrero is a “major partner”.

Luca Galletti, the Italian environment minister, rushed to Nutella’s defence after Royal said in a television interview that the use of palm oil in the product was leading to “massive deforestation”, which was a cause of global warming.

The edible oil derived from palm fruit is grown throughout Africa, Asia, North America, and South America, though 85% of all palm oil is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, where swaths of forest have been cleared for plantations. It is used in a wide range of products, from shampoo to ice cream.

“We should stop eating Nutella, for example, because it’s made with palm oil,” Royal said in an interview on Monday night on Canal+. She said the product ought to be made with “other ingredients”.

Galletti retorted: “Ségolène Royal is worrying. Leave Italian products alone. For dinner tonight … it’s bread with Nutella.”

Another senior Italian politician, Michele Anzaldi, demanded an apology from Royal, saying on Twitter that France had committed a “serious and ugly” slight against “Italian excellence”.

The French comments also prompted a quick response from Ferrero, which said in a statement on Tuesday that it was committed to sourcing the palm oil it uses in a responsible manner.

Royal backtracked on Wednesday afternoon with a tweet offering “one thousand apologies”. She also said she had agreed to flag up the “progress” made by the brand, which has vowed to use palm oil only from certified sustainable sources.

The vast majority of the palm oil the company uses is sourced from Malaysia. It also uses palm oil from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Brazil.

It is not the first time that Ferrero has faced criticism in France. In 2012, a “Nutella amendment” that would have imposed a 300% tax on palm oil was defeated in parliament, despite arguments from some French senators that the ingredient was harming the environment and making children fat.

The same year, Nutella reportedly settled a class action lawsuit for $3m in the US, after a mother from California sued the company for misleading advertising. She claimed that she had been swayed by ads that claimed Nutella was “healthy” and part of a balanced diet, and was surprised to hear from friends that the chocolate spread she was feeding her four-year-old was in fact “the next best thing to a candy bar”.