What Do Those Ice Cream Labels Mean?

By Trisha Gedon, Oklahoma State University

07-07-2008

STILLWATER, Okla. – It has been 24 years since President Ronald Reagan designated July as national Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day. This year National Ice Cream Day will be celebrated July 20.

Since that time ice cream continues to be one of the nation’s favorite treats and is enjoyed by 90 percent of the population.

Today’s market offers many choices of ice cream to suit a wide variety of consumer tastes, said Janice Hermann, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Service nutrition education specialist.

There is plenty of nutritional information available on an ice cream container’s label, but do consumers really know what it all means?

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration set standards of identity for many foods so that consumers will get a consistent product no matter what type or brand they purchase,” Hermann said. “For ice cream, the FDA permits the use of nutrient descriptors such as ‘light,’ ‘reduced fat’ and ‘low fat’ so that consumers will be able to make their selections based on nutritional content.”

These FDA standards for ice cream follow the federal Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, which governs all food labeling.

Some of the terms consumers will see in the ice cream freezer at the supermarket include:

* Ice cream: A frozen food made from a mixture of dairy products and contains at least 10 percent milkfat.
* Reduced fat ice cream: A frozen food product that contains at least 25 percent less total fat than the referenced product.
* Light ice cream: This product contains at least 50 percent less total fat or 33 percent fewer calories than the referenced product.
* Low fat ice cream: It contains a maximum of 3 grams of total fat per ½ cup serving.
* Nonfat ice cream: This frozen product contains less than 0.5 grams of total fat per serving.

In addition to nutritional content working on the packaging, there are commonly used marketing phrases that describe ice cream products in terms of quality, including “super premium,” “premium” and “economy.”

Hermann said there are several factors that contribute to a products quality, such as price, brand positioning, product packaging, quality of ingredients and the amount of overrun (air) in the product.

“Overrun refers to the amount of aeration the ice cream undergoes during its manufacturing that keeps the mixture from becoming an inedible frozen mass,” she said. “Overrun is governed by federal standards in that the finished product cannot weigh less than 4.5 pounds per gallon.”

Super premium ice cream has very low overrun and high fat content and the manufacturer uses high quality ingredients.

Premium ice cream also has low overrun and is made with high quality ingredients.

Regular ice cream meets the overrun required for the federal ice cream standard.

Economy ice cream meets required overrun and usually sells for a lower price than regular ice cream.

“It’s not surprising that we eat more ice cream than any other country. In 2006, the United States produced about 1.55 billion gallons of ice cream and related frozen desserts. It’s definitely a sweet way to beat the summer heat,” Hermann said.