I was looking out the kitchen window. Whatever was on the patio table had been there for three days and it was not moving. I was confused because it looked like an Oreo cookie but we have not had cookies like that in our house in over a year.
What in the world is it?
My curiosity finally got the best of me and I went to look. What was this immovable, unmeltable thing?
Half an ice cream sandwich, left outside by one of the children days earlier. My immediate reaction was complete and total confusion.
If it is an ice cream sandwich, why didn’t it melt?
With one ice cream sandwich left in the freezer, I decided to do an experiment.
I removed an ice cream sandwich from the wrapper and placed it on the counter in our master bathroom so the children would not find it and eat it.
Over the next few hours, I kept an eye on the ice cream novelty. There was hardly any change.
I decided to leave it overnight.
The next day, the ice cream sandwich looked like it had deflated slightly but it was not the melted mess I had expected.
I mashed the top and the sides squished out but there was no milky liquid. In fact, the ice cream just looked… plastic.
So I grabbed the box and checked the ingredients.
I know that ice cream is made from milkfat. That ingredient was not a surprise. However, the rest of the list had me shaking my head. Half of the words I cannot even pronounce.
What’s in an Ice Cream Sandwich?
The two main ingredients in ice cream should be milkfat and air. The air is what creates the texture and the faster it is frozen, the better because the longer it takes for ice cream to freeze, the more ice particles accumulate. The ice particles adversely changed the texture of the ice cream. Likewise, if the ice cream is not kept at optimal temperatures, it will melt enough to allow ice crystals to form. If refrozen, the ice crystals can multiply resulting in a grainy texture.
Since ice cream is manufactured in one place and then transferred to another for sale, many companies look for options to keep the ice cream’s structure stabilized, even when the temperature fluxes.
Emulisifiers
Some manufacturers use emulisifiers to stabilize the structure of the ice cream so it can endure higher temperatures, keeping the fatty foam structure from breaking down. I wanted these ingredients explained just a little more.
Mono- and di-glycerides are derived from the partial hydrolysis of fats or oils of animal or vegetable origin.
Polysorbate 80 is a sorbitan ester consisting of a glucose alcohol (sorbitol) molecule bound to a fatty acid, oleic acid, with oxyethylene groups added for further water solubility.
Locust Bean Gum is a soluble fibre of plant material derived from the endosperm of beans of exotic trees grown mostly in Africa. (Note: Locust bean gum is a synonym for carob bean gum, the beans of which were used centuries ago for weighing precious metals, a system still in use today, the word carob and Karat having similar derivation.)
Guar Gum comes from the endosperm of the bean of the guar bush, a member of the legume family grown in India for centuries and now grown to a limited extent in Texas.
Xanthan gum is produced in culture broth media by the microorganism Xanthaomonas campestris as an exopolysaccharide, used to a lesser extent.
Carrageenan is an extract of Irish Moss or other red algae, originally harvested from the coast of Ireland, near the village of Carragheen but now most frequently obtained from Chile and the Phillipines.
Yeah, I don’t really know what all that means but what caught my attention was the fact that these emulisifiers have received the “generally recognized as safe” or GRAS status. Pardon me for wanting a little more security than “generally recognized as safe.”
So, let’s review these ingedients… in English…
- Animal and/or vegetable oil
- An oil & water molecule frequently found in cosmetics
- Bean extract
- More bean extract
- Something grown in a petrie dish
- Algae extract
In ice cream?!?!?!
Why would all of these things be in ice cream? For one reason… so that if the ice cream reaches a temperature where it would normally melt, the ice cream will retain its shape and can be refrozen without forming ice crystals.
And just one more thing…
One more thing to note… Corn syrup is close to the top of the ingredients list. Why is it used? Well, aside from it being less expensive than a real sweetener (sucrose), corn syrup gives firmer product and longer shelf life.
So, about 90% of the ingredients listed on this package actually have NOTHING to do with ice cream and everything to do with keeping an ice cream-like substance on the shelf longer.
Anyone want ice cream? I suggest making your own.
We bought an ice cream maker just yesterday. The recipe called for milk, cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla. Yes you have to do a little cooking on the stove but it was the absolute hands down best ice cream we have ever tasted! Can’t wait to try it with fresh-picked peaches!
I really need to make some homemade ice cream. We have yet to do that this year and I think the children would love it. Thanks so much for the idea. 🙂
That’s really a bit disturbing. We started making our own ice cream sandwiches this year using store-bought ice cream and homemade cookies…so easy to do, but after reading this, I am sure that we won’t be buying ice cream sandwiches again!
I’ve made homemade ice cream sandwiches before… but I am lazy. We even have a little tool I picked up when I was a Pampered Chef consultant. I need to pull it out as a reminder. 😉
So stinkin’ way! That is DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Isn’t it?!? I was so freaked out. The petrie dish thing is the WORST.
That is totally disgusting! Scary too…no wonder the world is so sick these days…it’s all this extra ‘junk’ we’re eating in our foods that doesn’t help us one bit. Thanks for sharing your discovery….
I will definitely be looking twice at the ingredients of what I buy. It’s no wonder that cancer and developmental illnesses are on the rise with all the fake food we are eating in our country.
Now thats just gross. We dont normally buy ice cream sandwiches and such. We normally buy Breyers ice cream or make it at home. Now we definately wont be buying them!
Breyers is an all-natural ice cream, isn’t it? I think it was that company who used to have the commercials where the children were reading the ingredients list. I kept thinking about that commercial while doing my research.
Wow! That was really informative. I appreciate you posting this. It really makes you wonder what we really put into our bodies.
We try not to eat many packaged things now as a result of something similar. Before moving to Europe we used to lead groups of students on 6 week campaigns to teach English in Poland. One year the day we left our 3 year old had a piece of cheese. The yellow cheese in a grilled cheese sandwich…she set it on our wooden window seal. We returned 6 weeks later to find the cheese there with the perfect color, shape and size. It was hard like plastic, and had made an impression in our wood that remained there until we moved!!!! In that moment I decided I would never buy that cheese again! YUCK!
I am so glad you mentioned this, Tamika. Those processed slices of cheese have made me wonder more than once. I might have more research ahead.
Oh. My. Word. 🙁
We started making our own ice cream a while back, but that was honestly more about a taste preference than anything. That, and we were gifted an ice cream maker so that initial cost wasn’t a factor.
After reading this, I think I can safely assume that the only reason for buying ice cream sandwiches from now on, rather than making them ourselves, will be for science experiments. :/
*shudder*
Thanks so much for sharing! Looking forward to checking out more of your blog!
Katie
A computer junkie, workbook hating, TV watching, iGadget addicted, eclectic homeschooling, soccer mom of 2 boys. 🙂
Scary, right? UGH. How can this junk be legally in our food?
I’m not surprised about the ice cream! But you may have a lot more research on your hands, because the questions will start multiplying. My son was 6 months when he started having health and development issues. They thought he would be somewhere on the autistic spectrum. Luckily we had a pediatrician who practiced both western and holistic. She not only put us through a battery of medical tests but asked questions about our environment and eating habits. It opened my eyes! I realized the cleansers and food we were eating we’re killing us. I switched to all natural cleansers and my sons symptoms went away. We started eating natural and unprocessed foods and the health issues went away. Now I make my cleansers and our food is generally organic, made from scratch or we can pronounce every ingredient or know what it is. We are all healthier now!
Very true, Rosanne. Chemicals are truly everywhere and industry fails to test what happens when you have a variety of chemicals from different genres of products presented in the same environment. I am sure that years from now, if the Lord does not return first, they will discover several links.
Totally disgusting! You did a great job explaining these… ‘ingredients’.