Why All the Vegans Are So Excited About This New Peanut Nutella

You might say they’re “nuts” about it, but you don’t have to.

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Nutella, that deliciously addicting hazelnut spread, just released their first new flavor in over 60 years. Nutella Peanut combines that smooth spread of chocolate and hazelnuts with the taste of roasted peanuts. And while more Nutella is always cause for celebration, this new flavor is great news for any vegan Nutella fans. Here’s why:

Nutella Peanut is entirely plant based.

New fans of Nutella are often surprised to find that the stuff isn’t entirely vegan, as it contains powdered skim milk. Now, Nutella does offer a plant-based alternative that adds other ingredients to replace that milk fat, including chickpeas, powder rice syrup and soy. But fans have been clamoring for an alternative that’s closer to the original recipe, and this Nutella Peanut fills that need as it’s an entirely plant-based product. In fact, the only listed ingredients are “Sugar, Peanuts, Palm Oil, Peanut Flour, Cocoa, Hazelnuts, Lecithin as Emulsifier, Salt, Vanillin: An Artificial Flavor.”

And those are the same ingredients as the classic Nutella, just without the milk and adding some peanuts and salt. So this new version is closer approximation than the other plant-based option. (And if you’d like to learn more about what regular Nutella is made of, we’ve covered that here.)

Does this mean that Nutella is now peanut contaminated?

With peanut allergies being a danger to many, you might ask: do we need to worry about regular Nutella being cross-contaminated with peanuts, since they might share a production plant? And the answer is no, as the Nutella Peanut site includes this information on their FAQ section: “To ensure no cross contaminations occur, Nutella^® Peanut is produced in different facilities to the existing Nutella^® products.” It goes on to specify that Nutella Peanut will be produced in their park in Chicago Illinois, which also produces their peanut  brands Butterfinger and Baby Ruth are made. 

So, fans can continue to eat regular Nutella without worrying about peanuts, and vegans can eat Nutella Peanut without worrying about milk.