There are a few videos gone viral on social media showing a Walmart Great Value ice cream sandwich not melting after a few hours in 80 degree temperature. Here is one of them.
How can this happen when it is called ice cream which is a technically category set by the USDA. For a product to be called ice cream it must contain at least 10% butterfat. When a pint of Haagen Dazs was placed next to the ice cream sandwich it was fully melted within 30 minutes. Why you ask? Let’s start by looking at the ingredient statement of both products:
Haagen Daz:
Cream, Skim Milk, Sugar, Egg Yolk, Ground Vanilla Beans, Vanilla Extract.
Assessment: 6 ingredients. Basically they are all natural, and the only component “holding things together” is the cream and freezing temperature.
Walmart Great Value Ice Cream Sandwich:
Ice Cream (Milk, Cream, Buttermilk, Sugar, Whey, Corn Syrup, Contains 1% Or Less of Mono-And Diglycerides, Vanilla Extract, Guar Gum, Calcium Sulfate, Carob Bean Gum, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan, Artificial Flavor, Annatto For Color), Wafers (Wheat Flour, Sugar, Soybean Oil, Palm Oil, Cocoa, Dextrose, Caramel Color, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Flour, Food Starch-Modified, Salt Soy Lecithin, Baking Soda, Artificial Flavor).
Assessment: 13 ingredients. The ingredient statement is divided into two sections, ice cream and wafer, so let’s just look at the ice cream portion. Contrary to the Haagen Daz product, temperature plays little part in holding this product together. The ingredients that are affecting its melt point include Guar Gum, Calcium Sulfate, Carob Bean Gum, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan, and the Corn syrup is contributing a bit.
My issue with this is that the Walmart marketing department is stretching the legal term category by using the term “ice cream” in the name. Including the term “ice cream” in the name suggests a quality product. Maybe they figure most people would not purchase the product if the name was something like Walmart Great Value Ice Milk Sandwich. Ice Milk is the category terminology used when butterfat is lower than 10%, such as “Dairy Queen,” which is 3-5% milk-fat.
Walmart is looking for the best of both worlds, charging little for a product perceived as quality. The sandwich may contain at least 10% butterfat to be called ice cream, but additionally it has a high percentage of stabilizers binding things together. It would be like calling a car a BMW, that comes with a 0.9L Yugo engine (basically Go Cart size), stretching the use of a brand — or in the case of Walmart, a food category.
At the end of the day, I tell people the rule of thumb when it comes to a dairy or non-dairy product, the least amount of ingredients listed the better.
Watch one of the many videos and read more about frozen treat categories at PreventDisease.com.
Contact Darryl to learn the magic of ice cream, melted or not.
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