Fats and oils

Butryospermum parkii , commonly known as the shea tree, is a native of Africa. It grows wild in the Sahel region of West Africa, where the local population hand-picks the fruits that fall to the ground when ripened. It grows very slowly and begins to produce fruits after around 15 years, reaching the maximum productivity after around 50 years and sometimes living more than 300 years. The fruit is green coloured and consists of a thin pulp that surrounds a big seed. After harvest the fruit treatment begins with removal of the skin and the pulp, boiling the seeds, which are rich in fats, and then drying in the sun. Once the seeds are dried, they are ground and the fat part is extracted. The fat obtained is then transformed into shea oil and butter. This precious raw material is then used in the food industry and, in smaller quantities, in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. In Kinder we use shea in Kinder Delice , Kinder Happy Hippo , Kinder hollow figures, Kinder Joy and in Kinder Surprise to give the products the right texture and consistency. Shea tree growing does not require irrigation or agronomic techniques that would be rarely available in these poor areas of the world. The presence of the “Shea Belt”, moreover, contributes to slowing down the desertification of the sub-Saharan area. Shea and the other products obtained from this plant represent an important income source for the rural families in this part of Africa, that offers few employment opportunities and where agriculture is often practised with difficulty and with very low yields. Women are usually involved in harvesting the fruit.

Shorea robusta is a plant also known with the common name sal or salwood, and has an exotic origin. It is, indeed, a forest tree native of the Indian sub-continent, widespread mainly in India. It is a tall tree and from its seeds it is possible to obtain an oil that is suitable for food consumption. Sal fruit is from reddish to green-yellow in colour, with green sepals that become brown at fruit ripening. Ripe fruits fall to the ground, where they are collected by the local population. The plants spontaneous growth does not require irrigation or other agronomic techniques. After the harvest, the treatment process begins, with the first step that consists of the separation of the inedible part (shell) from the edible one (kernel). The kernel is afterwards ground, extracting the fat part, that is transformed into sal oil and butter. This raw material is widely used in food industry; Kinder uses it in Kinder Delice . Sal plants have a strong social value, since their harvest involves local populations, representing an important income source. For more than 30 years the sal fruits harvest has provided the subsistence of hundreds of thousands of people living in the rural areas, keeping them from being forced to move to the urban slums. For its social and economic importance the sal harvest/management is under strict control by the Indian Government.

Sunflower oil is a type of oil extracted from sunflower seeds (even if according to the botanical classification they should be called fruits), coming from the annual plant ( Helianthus annus ), belonging to the Compositae family and native of the American continent, but largely widespread also in Europe. What we usually call the flower of the sunflower is actually an inflorescence, formed by a number of flowers grouped according to a precise scheme: yellow on the outside and, generally, grey-black on the inside. Each inflorescence can contain more than 1.000 fruits, the external shell (pericarp), strong and inedible, contains a seed that has a big industrial and food interest. From the sunflower seeds we extract an oil rich in unsaturated acid fats, especially oleic and linoleic. Moreover, in recent decades some varieties with high oleic acid content have been selected, which have opened new possibilities to the use of this crop. In Kinder we use this type of sunflower oil, rich in oleic acid, because it is more stable and particularly suitable for our recipes since it does not interfere with the other ingredients’ aromas, bringing the Kinder taste. The products that use sunflower oil are Kinder Brioss , Kinder Colazione Più , Kinder Pan e Cioc , Kinder Bueno White , Kinder Joy and Kinder Happy Hippo.

Hydrogenated fats are produced on an industrial scale using a chemical process called "hydrogenation". Unfortunately, this process can modify the structure of some fatty acids causing them to become what are known as "trans fats". Scientific literature has shown that this type of fat, once consumed, has the effect of raising levels of "bad cholesterol" in the blood.

There are many reasons why some companies use these fats. They have a texture that is similar to butter, they are easy to preserve over long periods of time and so increase a product's shelf-life and finally, they are more stable at high temperatures than other, more traditional, oils.

Kinder does not use hydrogenated fats due to the above health concerns. For this reason Kinder products are produced in a “hydrogenation-free” process.