What makes something classify as ice cream?
Asked by
axlekb (
58
)
November 27th, 2009
I just went to the local supermarket and went to the freezer aisle to pick up some ice cream. The selected flavor was peppermint and as I got to the checkout line I noticed that it only said “frozen dairy dessert” on the container and never mentioned ice cream. What makes something classify as ice cream?
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3 Answers
It’s all about the butterfat content.
Frozen desserts
ice cream contains at least 10% fat
lowfat ice cream, also called ice milk, contains not more than 2.6% fat
sherbet contains 1–2% fat
Source.
More information.
I bet your product was lower fat than regular ice cream.
“Frozen dairy dessert,” according to Dreyers Ice Cream in Oakland CA, has to do with the amount of whey used to make the product. Ice cream should have a certain amount of cream in it (as @laureth points out), and ice milk has less, but frozen dairy dessert doesn’t have to have any cream at all as long as it has whey or milk solids in it.
Cream doesn’t freeze into crystals like the sugar and water portion of the ice cream, so the greater the fat content, the smoother the ice cream will be.
Then there is also “frozen dessert” which reminds me of the current ad for Redi-Whip, where the waitress asks a series of “or” questions, ending with “Oil or Cream?” Frozen dessert is made from vegetable oil and may not have any dairy in it at all.
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