From Food Politics:
Not to worry. This is just a proposal.
A French Senator wants the country to impose a 300% increase in the
tax on palm oil imports, thereby raising the price of products
containing it—like Nutella, the chocolate-hazelnut spread beloved by
European children (and adults).
Of course they love it. The first ingredient is sugar.
But the second ingredient is palm oil, high in saturated fats. Palm oil production, again alas, is strongly linked to deforestation and other environmental problems in Malasia and Indonesia.
The proposed tax distresses Malasian palm oil producers:
The action…to propose onerous new burdens on palm oil
producers, is irresponsible, badly-informed and ignores the primary
source of saturated fats in the French diet [referring to trans fats].
The proposed tax also distresses the makers of Nutella, as well it
should. Most Nutella eaters probably think they are eating hazelnuts
and chocolate. It must come as an unpleasant surprise to learn that the
first two ingredients are sugar and palm oil.
At a meeting in Boston this week, Joe O’Toole, the president of Lucullus, a French specialty food company, brought me the November 16 edition of Le Figaro. He knew I’d want to see the two-page ad defending Nutella’s use of palm oil....MORE
See also "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me":
...SAGAL: Here is your next limerick.
KASELL:
It sounds like a plan by Cruella, worse than measles and mumps and
rubella. My hazelnut spread will be priced past my head. They are
raising the tax on?
CREE: Nutella.
(LAUGHTER)
...
SAGAL:
Yes, Nutella. A new French tax on fattening palm oil products is
quadrupling the price of a jar of Nutella, the chocolate hazelnut
spread. We all know that it is pure and good and should be a basic human
right like air or water.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL:
They're treating Nutella the way we Americans treat cigarettes. The
next thing they're taxing it to make it more expensive to keep people
away from it. The next thing you know they'll be Surgeon General
warnings on the package: "May cause happiness in pregnant women."
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: "Do not eat with bananas unless you want something awesome."...
-
transcript Nov. 17, 2012
