As noted in the article, Nutella is made with palm oil, whose farming often results in habitat loss for animals such the Bornean orangutan, which is critically endangered. Ferrero claims they have a chain for palm oil such that it doesn’t come from devastating monoculture plantations, but whether that’s enough or even if it’s true at all isn’t my call to make for you. I don’t personally take palm oil as part of my diet as I see it as something I can practicably cut out to reduce harm, but whether this is vegan or just plant-based is something you’ll have to decide.
The honest answer might be that the V-word is just off-putting to quite a few omnivores.
To be fair, this is a forum where people express opinions, and opinions tend to be based on personal experience.
In this case I agree with them. In northern Europe at least, there are already vegan Nutella clones that are widely available and tastier than Nutella (which is tasty). For instance Nocciolata, which has a “dairy free” variant, i.e. vegan. Very delicious indeed but also quite expensive.
The discussion was about the ingredients being too exotic, not the labeling, but regarding the labeling, I don’t understand how a vegan product marketed toward vegans by indicating it’s vegan is a bad decision. Nocciolata puts up the label “vegan” too (it’s also palm oil-free, which is cool). Again, I’m sure Ferrero understands what their target audience is for this and have accounted for the extremely-close-minded-omni demographic.
Difficult to argue with that.
Hey, though, you’re the first person in this thread to actually mention by name a vegan Nutella alternative that doesn’t use palm oil, so you win first prize. 🏆🥳