Dubai: The latest food controversy has touched down in Dubai, now attacking one of the most childhood loved chocolate spreads – Nutella.
Dubai Municipality has issued a statement in response, denying that Nutella contains carcinogens.
How did the big scare start?
A number of international media reports published last week claimed that the processed palm oil used in the production of the hazelnut spread might be carcinogenic.
The reports then circulated across social media, claiming that Nutella can give you cancer.
The findings came from a study, released by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in May 2016, which said that palm oil – an ingredient in Nutella – releases potentially carcinogenic chemicals when refined at high temperatures.
Palm oil, derived from the fruit of palm trees, is used in plenty of food. When refined at around 200 degrees Celsius, the study says, palm oil releases a contaminant known as glycidyl fatty esters (GE) in higher levels than other vegetable oils.
"Making Nutella without palm oil would produce an inferior substitute for the real product, it would be a step backward," Vincenzo Tapella, Ferrero’s purchasing manager, told Reuters earlier last week.
According to Nutella’s website, palm oil is the best ingredient for “guaranteeing its special spreadability and, above all, avoiding the hydrogenation process that would produce otherwise unhealthy trans fats.”
