World Nutella Day celebrates what happens when hazelnuts and chocolate collide. For example, millions of people celebrate on February 5th each year! 2024 is the 60th anniversary.
- 1800s – In the northern Italian city of Piedmont, they made a paste of chocolate and hazelnuts when hazelnuts were abundant but cocoa was scarce.
- 1926 – Pietro Ferrero is a candy maker, and when he moves to Alba, he finds hazelnuts in abundance. Noticing that local workers are often eating sandwiches made of tomatoes, cheese, and olive oil on bread, Ferrero gets creative and comes up with a thick spread made from chopped hazelnuts
- 1946 – At the end of World War II, cocoa was once again difficult to come by. Pastry maker Pietro Ferrero made loaves of this sweet paste and called them Giandujot. Soon after, the Ferrero Company was founded on May 14, 1946.
- Coming from an Italian town known for hazelnut production, Ferrero began producing a hazelnut and cocoa paste. It comes in a loaf and is meant to be sliced and placed on bread.
- The name Giandujot honors a carnival character local to the area.
- 1951 – Ferrero made the paste into a spreadable form. We wouldn’t even recognize the spread by name until 1964, when Ferrero’s son Michele gave the jar of creamy hazelnut and cocoa the name Nutella.
- 1964 – The recipe was improved, resulting in the first-ever jar of hazelnut and cocoa cream. Nutella® was officially born.
- 1965 – The company’s founder’s son created the first-ever jar of a new hazelnut cream, named Nutella.
- 1966 – Oh la la! – Nutella® launched in France and was a great success
- 1978 – Nutella launched in Australia and opened its first plant outside Europe — in Sydney.
- 1983 – While most of Europe had experienced Nutella by now, it only arrived in the United States after it hit Australia. In the US, it is originally marketed as a delicious addition to a healthy breakfast. It became super popular and continues to be to this day.
- 2005 – Nearly 28,000 Nutella enthusiasts gathered in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, to participate in the world’s largest continental breakfast.
- 2007 – On February 5, 2007, Italian-American blogger Sara Russo mobilized all Nutella® lovers to celebrate the beloved and iconic breakfast hazelnut spread. Since then, World Nutella® Day has been celebrated every year.
- 2011 – The global Facebook page dedicated to Nutella® reached 10 million fans in one year.
- 2014 – Nutella marked its 50th anniversary with celebrations in 10 countries worldwide.
- 2015 – At the start of the day, Nutella® wishes ‘Good Morning’ to millions of people at the breakfast table, as well as to its 30 million fans on Facebook!
- 2017 – The first Nutella Cafe opened at Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.
- 2020 – The Nutella® Muffin. When fluffy dough meets a creamy and delicious Nutella® heart, it’s the perfect match. First launched in Italy and available in Europe and the Gulf.
- 2023 – Since its launch, it has delighted European consumers with its flaky pastry and its tasty Nutella® filling. Say hello to the Nutella® croissant.
- 2024 – It’s Nutella®’s 60th anniversary and we want to celebrate the power of spreading smiles around the world. #GiveANutellaSmile and celebrate with us: the more we smile, the more they spread.
- Nutella, a chocolate & hazelnut spread, outsells ALL brands of peanut butter worldwide.
- Hazelnuts were originally used as an inexpensive filler. Sales increased and soon became its trademark flavor.
- In the aftermath of World War 2 Italian stores offered a service called “smearing”, which allowed local children to bring in a slice of bread on which they could have some Nutella spread.
- There is a website (nutelladay.com) to stay current on all holiday plans. You can even sign up for a chance to become the Chief Nutella Ambassador!
- One jar of Nutella is sold every 2.5 seconds worldwide. Approximately 1,440 jars per hour. Roughly 34,560+ jars per day.
- You could cover the Great Wall of China 8 times with the number of jars of Nutella® sold worldwide in a year.
- There are so many jars of Nutella® made each year that they would line the banks of the Danube 26 times over. That’s a river so long, it flows through 10 different countries!
- You could circle the world 1.8 times with the amount of Nutella® produced in one year.
- The amount of Nutella® produced in one year weighs the same as the Empire State Building.
- Approximately 1.35 million pounds of Nutella are produced every day
- There are more than five million Instagram posts with a #Nutella hashtag. However, the split between photos of real Nutella-relevant content and boobs seems to be about 50/50. The brand’s account @nutellausa is pretty on point, though.
- Nutella is gluten-free and Kosher
- The chocolate layer that surrounds the hazelnut in the middle of each Ferrero Rocher is Nutella.
- Ferrero uses 25% of the global hazelnut supply
- Ferrero originally made his chocolate-hazelnut paste into a loaf designed to be sliced and spread on bread, kind of like a chocolatey version of American cheese slices.
- Nutella is available for purchase and consumption in 160 countries.
- All the Nutella sold in a year could be spread over more than 1000 soccer fields. That’s 365,000 tons
- There are 52 hazelnuts in every 14-ounce jar of Nutella. Hazelnuts make up about 13 percent of the product.
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