Segolene Royal, the French Ecology Minister, has outraged Italy by suggesting that Nutella should be boycotted because it leads to deforestation in the tropics.
Royal urged consumers to stop eating the hazelnut and chocolate spread because it is made from palm oil, which comes from vast plantations in Southeast Asia.
"We have to replant a lot of trees because there is massive deforestation that also leads to global warming. We should stop eating Nutella, for example, because it's made with palm oil," she said on the French television network Canal+.
"Oil palms have replaced trees, and therefore caused considerable damage to the environment," she said.
Ferrero, the Italian chocolate firm which makes the spread, should use alternative products to make Nutella, said Royal, who is rumoured to have rekindled a relationship with Francois Hollande, the French President.
