hazelnuts. Roasted at the very last moment.

Hazelnuts are one of the high-quality ingredients used in Kinder to prepare some of our most loved products like Kinder Bueno & Kinder Choco-Bons. We start from whole hazelnuts and roast them at the very last moment when creating our products to retain their flavour inside our recipes.

Experts in roasting hazelnuts to enhance their flavour.

Over the years we have developed a deep expertise in selecting and in processing hazelnuts. We process & roast 100% of our hazelnuts ourselves, to guarantee that the best aroma and freshness is maintained in the taste of our products.

When the whole, raw, shelled, and calibrated hazelnuts arrive at our factories we first of all carry out quality checks, to make sure that they meet our strict standards. Every day the experts in our laboratories carry out tests to assess their aroma, taste and texture for every stage of the process.

Then we roast the hazelnuts and then grind them, next to the production lines, right before we mix them together with other ingredients. In each of our plants we have a "master roaster", who defines the parameters of the roaster depending on the origin of the hazelnuts, their moisture and size, in order to take out as much of the fragrance as possible.

We roast the hazelnuts in batches of the same calibre to ensure better sensory uniformity and we adopt low temperatures and slow timings. Even if it involves an increased investment in machinery, these techniques give us the best roasting for our recipes.

Where they come from

Our hazelnuts come from hazelnut orchards, which are mainly found in Mediterranean type climates. We source from different parts of the world, but mainly from Turkey and Italy where they are harvested between August and September.

To ensure the availability of quality and fresh hazelnuts throughout the year, we have also established hazelnut farms in countries from the Southern Hemisphere like Chile, Argentina, South Africa, and Australia. Through these “agri farms”, Ferrero is working with local farmers to develop a sustainable business model, sharing and promoting good agricultural practices through nurseries, training, agronomic assistance.

Responsible sourcing and traceability

Within the (FFV) program we work with farmers, mostly smallholders, to empower them with knowledge of good agricultural and social practices for hazelnuts. Within this program we have also developed a hazelnut Production Standard in collaboration with SCS (Scientific Certification Systems) a leading global certification and sustainability provider. The standard encompasses four major areas: Good Social Practices, Good Agricultural Practices, Post-Harvest Quality and Traceability. Every year SCS Global Services, together with local auditing firms, carries out specific audits of farmers chosen at random.

Our hazelnuts are already 100% traceable in some countries like Chile and USA, and our aim is to reach full traceability down to farm level of all our hazelnuts globally by 2023.

To achieve this goal, we are partnering with Sourcemap a leading provider of supply chain mapping and digital transparency.