Maybe I am going crazy, but I have noticed a difference about ice cream and its only been Maybe the last 8-10 years was when I first noticed it.
Ice cream from the supermarket doesn’t seem to melt properly, and is also way too soft. This seems most noticeable in novelties now, but also most hard ice cream as well.
Did they add some component to make it softer or less likely to freezer burn? Am I just going crazy?
(US, but I assume anywhere else where the same brands are sold have had the same issue.)
Yes on both accounts. It is frozen whipped topping. It had enough air to hold its shape when it melts.
One thing most have done is incorporate more air, as part of shrinkflation. That makes it more soft because it’s less actual product.
Yep. Cause they sell per volume, not weight
Yep - overrun.
You see this mostly in cheaper brands.
I like to pay extra for a good ice cream that has just natural ingredients in it and not a bunch of chemicals.
You’re not alone
Thank you, I knew I had seen this question before
I’m more annoyed with the shrinkflation of increasing the aeration and how almost every brand shrunk their standard size from 1.75qt to 1.5qt (1656mL to 1420mL)
Umpqua was the last holdout in my area before they caved.
And the 1.75 qt was from a previous shrinkflation from the 2 qt size that used to be standard. I just quit buying ice cream because I’m tired of the BS.
Make sure the words Ice Cream are on the container, otherwise it is only a frozen dairy dessert. You will be surprised how many are not really ice cream.
Freezers are far more efficient and able to compensate for the ambient temperatures. I appreciate the softer stuff. But remember having to de ice freezers in my youth.
Ice cream is always about churning air into cream. But nowadays the air ratio has definitely gone up. Seemingly across the board.
And that assumes that you’re not buying a brand that has gotten into the fakery.
No, but that’s also just after I lost my sweet tooth so you’re probably asking the wrong person here. If you’d asked me a decade earlier I’d probably have a much more cromulent answer
Haagen Daaz has been the only brand worth buying for at least a decade now.
Aren’t they owned by Nestle though?
Try Acme Valley ice cream. I just bought a pint and it’s great. No injected air!
Häagen-Dazs is always disappointing though because they use skim milk instead of full fat cream. Tillamook is so much better.
I recently started buying Tillamook, and it is sooo much better than the other brands. It kind of ruined the other brands for me now, I’ll buy them on sale and then be disappointed that I did when I eat it.
Depending, it could be your freezer, if you’re storing it there for a bit.
Gums like guar and xanth. In small amounts they make ice cream better and help keep ice crystals small. I use them in my homemade ice cream.
Used in larger amounts they replace fat at the cost of taste and mouth feel. That’s what makes the ice cream stay a gel at room temp.
The question has been answered, but How Stuff Works has a good article which goes into detail.
there is a segment on German public TV if that’s any help https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/zdfzeit/zdfzeit-tricks-der-lebensmittelindustrie-mit-sebastian-lege-104.html#xtor=CS5-95
(Starts at 13:15 min). from what i remember it shows the same pattern mentioned by other commenters. vegetable fats instead of milk, thickeners, stabilizers, artificial flavors.
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Big ice cream figured out churning is a pain in the ass. So now they just whip it and freeze it in bulk. It’s not the same product at all.
