Legal Eagle: Is Nutella false advertising? ...

...Or are Americans just idiots?

Nutella is my guilty pleasure, I don't enjoy eating chocolate bars or ice cream, I'm normally a savoury cheese board kind of girl or a citrus tangy cheese cake for after dinner. However, I have been known to eat Nutella straight from the jar on a spoon. Just one spoon, perhaps two, when I'm needing a sugar hit. I'm no fool, I'm fully aware it's about 100 calories a table spoon. After all, it is a chocolate spread, spread implies "fat" like butter or margarine, and everyone knows chocolate is unhealthy, only a complete moron would genuinely believe consumption of nutella can be part of a healthy diet. 

Only one mother did. An American mother of course, this is the sort of story that would only happen in the jurisdiction of the US of A. The Californian "Mom" (or Mum as we correctly say in this country) Athena Hohenberg is genuinely suing Nutella for misleading advertising that led her to believe Nutella was a healthy breakfast option for her daughter. 

Nutella advertises its product as being enriched in Hazelnuts and wholegrain. Which is true, it's just also full of saturated fats and sugars. The crazy mother has kindly asked that any monetary judgment be divided among "all persons who purchased on or after January 2000 one or more Nutella products in the United States for their own or household use." Assuming this case isn't laughed out of court... but then again, this is America we're talking about. 

We have to be serious, what are the boundaries between free speech and false advertising? The most prominent case illustrating this question is Nike v Kasky. Any law or business student that has studied Corporate Governance will be familiar with this case. Acting on behalf of the public, Kasky filed a lawsuit in California regarding Nike newspaper advertisements. The plaintiff brought this action seeking monetary and injunctive relief in the hope to curb false advertising and unfair competition. Plaintiff alleged that defendant corporation (Nike)  made false statements of fact about its labour practices and its working conditions in it's factories,  this was to induce consumers to continue buying products after public complaints about Nike's corporate responsibility. Kasky claimed that these representations by Nike constituted false advertising. Nike responded that the representations were merely an expression of opinion; they were not intended to be an advertisement and therefore, were entitled to First Amendment protection (protection of free speech). Although the local court agreed with Nike's lawyers, the California Supreme Court overturned this ruling, claiming that the corporation's communications were commercial speech and therefore subject to false advertising laws. Although there was going to be a review of the case, the parties settled out of court before any accuracy of Nike's statements was found or proven, subsequently leaving the California Supreme Court's denial of Nike's immunity claim as precedent. This basically illustrates the flummoxing and delicate line between a right to free speech, and false advertisement.

The point I’m trying to make here, is that if we are to claim Nutella is falsely advertising, then surely all advertisements must be reviewed? Are Mcdonald’s guilty of false advertisement? Do we really believe that their “whole chicken breast burgers” are good for our children? Or that just because a cheese string contains a “whole glass of milk” it is a super healthy snack for our children? It is after all cheese. Should we sue Cravendale for claiming milk is a good source of calcium but neglecting to mention in the advert the calorific content of it’s full fat milk? Surely this contradicts the point of advertising, the purpose of which is to highlight to good points to consumers? Not to manifest the negatives along side. So should we sue every company that has ever advertised for “stretching the truth” a little, or do companies have the right to assume their consumers have a little common sense? You as an adult consumer have the responsibility to use your own brain when shopping.

To conclude, Athena has no leg to stand on. Yes Nutella advertises itself as rich in calcium and whole grain, because it is. The company has no obligation to broadcast every nutritional fact on it’s commercials. KFC don’t should about their calorific content on the adverts yet they do rave about it being “fresh, on the bone, chicken.” What the company IS obliged to do, is print all nutritional information on its label, which is does. If you were to turn the jar over and read the label, you’d clearly see the calorie, sugar and saturated fat content. Then it’s up to you to make an informed decision regarding it’s purchase. I say the plaintiff has no leg to stand on, but we have to remember this case is being tried in America, stranger things have happened over seas. Only in America would someone claim to be “shocked” at the high fat and sugar content of a chocolate spread. Athena, I’m sorry, but Nutella isn’t the reason your daughter is fat, it’s because you are too lazy to read the label and have no common sense.  

Man Vs Food.

This is, undoubtedly, the greatest show on television. Adam Richmond, a white, rather lardy, self-educated food expert and trained sushi chef, yank eating his way through America's food hot spots, devouring whole cows and phall chillies for sheer entertainment. "i'm just a regular guy, with a serious appetite" and takes on some of his countries greatest gluttony challenges. He has me salivating over meaty goodness- something that as a peskatarian I should NOT be doing! You can see the pure joy Adam experiences as he eats the most delicious looking foods. There's no etiquette spared for the camera, he literally shoves it down his throat as if he'd never eaten before, then rolls his eyes and head in Ecstasy and groans in an almost sexually suggestive way.

It's not just greasy foods, although this does make up the majority of the foods, there is much emphasis on quality. One memorable meal I witnessed was crab cakes, made with literally just crab. There was no potatoes or vegetables filling out the cake, just crab, crab, crab and some seasoning. Adam makes an effort to go behind the scenes and find out exactly how the food is prepared and cooked and the history behind the dishes and restaurants. He's not visiting commercial, fast food, microwave filled kitchens, these are REAL kitchens with unique methods, family recipes and proper ingredients. Often the diners look like run down shacks, not the sort of place I would visit, but it proves that my preconceptions are wrong. It goes to prove  there is more to america than corporate, mainstream, processed food. Okay, none of it is healthy, but it sure looks delicious. There's no avante gard or a la carte menus. It's all about size, layers, fillings and mightiness rather than delicate, small portions like we prefer over in England. We can't pretend that these foods won't give you a chronary heart attack, i'm surprised Adam isn't fatter than he is! Although research tells me Richman exercises twice a day while he is on the road. and When the schedule permits, he does not eat the day before a challenge and he tries to stay hydrated by drinking lots of water or club soda and forgoing coffee or soft drinks. It's quite sad that in america, the healthy option is probably subway. 

The highlight of the show is the challenge at the end where he attempts to eat either a ridiculous quantity of food or something unbearably hot withing a time limit, it's barbarically and highly entertaining to watch Richmond intensely struggle with  food. Examples include 13 pound pizzas, where one slice alone is the size of a baby, a 72 pound steak and curries where the chef has to wear hazard protection when cooking, with the heat of 70 phall chillies. He doesn't always win, but the crowd is always freverently cheering him on in a way that only America could. The boyfriend and I have decided to have Man v Food days, we are going to attempt to re create some of the challenges and will be posting photos online just to brag. Going to make giant burgers and ridiculously hot burritos. I will be starting with the crab with extra crab cakes...

Cheltenham food and drink festival.

An early morning, a train journey and a mile walk, a quick (not so quick) stop in the promenade, a long stay in Jack Wills and eventually we made it to Montpellier gardens for the Cheltenham food and drink festival. It's basically a fat, rich mans reading festival. Free samples of food and booze whilst strolling round to some soft jazz music. Luckily the weather just about held out. I am now also officially a member of the Cotswold's foodie club. I shall list the stalls which particularly stood out for us and some links :)

The Fluffle

http://www.fudgeheaven.co.uk/

the fluffle is a mixture of truffle and fudge. It's a melt in your mouth creamy texture with no grittiness that you normally find in fudge. As someone who usually prefers savouries to chocolate this was such a winner for me. Flavours include, baileys, vanilla, tia maria, coffee etc. 

The Fluffle, is it a truffle or fudge?

Black mountain smokery

http://www.smoked-foods.co.uk/

Traditionally smoked salmon, gourmet food hampers and gift baskets, all locally made, this includes the Finest traditionally smoked salmon. You can have gourmet smoked food hampers of fish, meats, poultry and cheese delivered directly to your door. The smoked salmon was beautiful. I also managed to scoff some smoked makeral- a few handfuls actually. I went back a fair few times for free fish. We are thinking of getting some lovely smoked salmon delivered to our door. If it weren't for the fact I had to train it back I would have bought some there and then. But I didn't want to stink out first great western. 

Fish in a box

http://www.fishinabox.co.uk/

This stall didn't do free samples. But I am 100% ordering their shellfish box at some point this summer, 350g fresh langoustines, 350g fresh uncooked King Prawns, 200g King Scallops, 1 Whitby Dressed Crab. YUM YUM. 

Fishy in a box

Bread Tree co. 

http://www.breadtree.co.uk/

A specialist in bruschetta toppings. They did an exquisite wild chicories and porcini mushroom spread. 

The Fabulous Vodka Company

http://www.fabulousvodka.co.uk/

We loved the Caramel vodka. Few too many shots of this. 

Hinton Marsh Farm

http://www.hintonmarshfarm.co.uk/

Hinton Marsh Farm is situated at the foot of the Wiltshire Chalkdownlands and has been a family run farm since 1956. They offer award-winning free range beef, pork, chicken and lamb to you online. My carnivorous friend fell in love with their Beef sausages which use lean, matured slow growing beef. There was many samples of the variations of sausages

Jimmy's farm 

http://www.jimmysfarm.com/

And talking of sausages, Anyone who watched the BBC TV series will be familiar with Jimmy’s ethos: using traditional farming methods to rear several breeds of rare pigs and produce quality pork for farmers’ markets.

Perfect Tipple

http://www.perfecttipple.com/

Sparkling Gold Cuvee this unique drink is produced with the finest Pinot grapes and infused with real, edible 23 carat gold flakes. 

Champers with real gold.

Smokehouse kippers- the winning stall!

http://www.polsco.co.uk

my personal favourite of the whole show was the smoked kippers. Yes I had seconds, thirds, fourths... possibly more. I took slight liberty of the free "samples". People need to give kippers a chance. As we are running low on Cod, tuna etc we should all be embracing these smokey bad boys. I loved how they were all hung like bats in some sort of wooden cupboard. I guess that's how they are mass cooked. But boy they smelt good. Proper fresh fish doesn't have a nasty odour, contrary to anti fish myths. God damn they were good.  

Fishy Fishy, look how happy is to have his face deep in fish. 

Pyman Pâtés

- link to website not working. it's a google jobby. 

These were gluten free, In fact, a lot of the foods here were gluten free, which is great because I'm not actually supposed to eat wheat. Then again the dipping breads were too good to resist so I deserve any crippling stomach pains. I also do not eat Pate. Anyone who knows about the immoral or unethical method used to make pate will understand why. But there was a trout pate and a salmon one which I sampled. I'm hoping the creation of seafood pate doesn't involve barbaric methods of feeding/torture as I'm sorely tempted to buy some. 

Snowdonia Cheese Co.

http://www.snowdoniacheese.co.uk/

I was already familiar with this brand of cheese. There was a vast variety of cheese stalls, and as a cheese connoisseur I sampled every type of cheese there- twice at least. Without a doubt I ate my own body weight in cheese, there's wasn't a single cheese I didn't like, which is why I'm not going to bother listing every cheese stall, I give them all the highest of accolades. But as my all time favourite cheese I'll give the Snowdonia Cheese company some golden prime time on this riveting blog with my millions of readers :p The Black Bomber truckle is something every one should buy at some point in their life if they like strong Cheddar's with a bite. I have actually bought this cheese when drunk before, that is how good it is. In 2010 it won the Silver Medal at the Nantwich International Cheese Show, 2007 World Cheese Award Bronze winner, It is Creamy & smooth and has a unique- almost crunchy- texture & taste that will entice.

Black bomber. Not racist. Not deadly. Damn Good.

Other highlights.

My friend was desperate to try one of the Kangaroo, Ostrich, Wild Boar, Zebra or Angus burgers. Me, not so much. But another highlight was all the fabulous chutneys to try. We steered clear of the overly spicy ones but there was many gorgeous caramelised onion chutneys, red pepper relishes, money and mustard chutney's etc. There was also another stall with sachets filled with goodness that turned normal mayonnaise into creamy garlic dips, but I cannot find the link to the stall. But they were genius. 

So that's my overview of the food and drink festival. It shall certainly be an annual thing now. Perhaps next year we will make the most of being in the beautiful town of Cheltenham Spa and go to a few bars in the night and get a hotel. I'd recommend in a heartbeat going if you are at all passionate about good quality, local foods. All the meats are organic and as ethically produced as possible (without being vegetarian). In a society where we care more about where our food is from and what goes into it, festivals like these will without a doubt be on the increase, and that's jolly good. :)