Nutella, the only chocolate spread that has its own world celebration day, has lost a $3 million class action lawsuit filed by a California mother shocked to discover it wasn’t healthy.
Ferrero, makers of the chocolate and hazelnut spread, has agreed to pay $4 per jar to each consumer who applies for a refund under terms of the settlement. The refund only applies in the U.S., not Canada.
All of the Nutella sold in the U.S. comes from a plant in Brantford, Ont., which expanded in 2010 because of growing sales of the spread. Californians, per capital, are the biggest consumers of Nutella in the U.S.
In her original lawsuit last year, San Diego mother Athena Hohenberg said she was “shocked” to learn in December 2010, from friends that the chocolate spread she was feeding her husband and 4-year-old daughter was full of sugar and fat.
“Ms. Hohenberg felt betrayed” when she learned the healthiest part of a Nutella breakfast wasn’t the Nutella, it was the bread and milk that children ate with it, the lawsuit said.
Veteran class action lawyer Ron Marron characterized Ferrero’s advertising as misleading for claiming Nutella could be part of a “healthy breakfast.”
The much-mocked lawsuit quickly became a lightning rod for critics of the litigious U.S. society. But legal analyst Justine Flaherty said a change in California law in 2009 allowed class action lawsuits easier certification.
“There’s no way to escape noticing that sugar is a major component of the product,” Flaherty said in her critique of the California law. “Anyone capable of reading should know how to check the food’s label for its ingredients,” which specify lots of sugar and fat.
Hohenberg, reached by the Star on Friday, declined to comment.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss this.”
The North American headquarters of Ferrero, located in North York, also declined to comment. All of the decisions about the Nutella formula and advertising come out of the Toronto office, the lawsuit said.
The preliminary decision in the Nutella ruling will be followed by a “fairness hearing” July 9.
Ferrero has also agreed as part of the lawsuit to “corrective labelling, advertising and marketing.”
Marron is also involved in a lawsuit against Quaker Oats and its nutritional claims.
Nutella Canada, which is a sponsor of the Canadian Soccer Association, calls the spread, advocates eating a balanced breakfast on its website, but without directly saying the spread should be part of it.
World Nutella Day is Feb. 5 each year.
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