About Ice Cream

Ice cream is a processed frozen dairy product. Ice cream is made at dairy processing plants usually located in regions that have close access to dairy farms. Ice cream manufacturers will contract with local dairy farmers for their milk and can also contract with dairy suppliers to purchase bulk milk directly from a cooperative. Ice cream is made of milk, sugar, and cream and then blended and processed. To get different flavors, technicians will add different flavorings, fruits, candies, and ingredients. In the United States ice cream must contain 10% milk fat. The more milk fat ice cream has, the creamier and richer it will be.

To make ice cream, farmers first collect milk. Milk can be collected from many different animals to make different specialty ice creams, but cows' milk is preferred. When the milk is transported to a dairy processing plant the cream is separated leaving skim milk and cream. The cream is chilled and powdered milk, sweeteners, and emulsifiers are added to help stabilize the cream. This mixture is then cooked for a period to pasteurize the mixture and remove any harmful pathogens. Next, the mixture is homogenized.

Homogenization is when milk and cream are blended by turning the fat in the cream into smaller globules by forcing them through a small screen. Homogenization makes the blend more stable and the final product smoother. The final step is to whip and cool the mixture. At this point liquid flavorings are added. Once the product becomes semi-solid or ice cream, other ingredients are added such as berries, candies, or nuts. The final process is to fully freeze the ice cream and prepare it for shipping to distributors or stores.

Other frozen dessert products such as gelato, frozen custard, and frozen yogurt are made using similar manufacturing processes varying only in the base products used or by following a few different procedures.

Trip to the Factory

Take a trip to King Brothers Dairy, a real NY Ice Cream Producer, to learn about the process of making ice cream, food safety practices used in ice cream production, and how NY dairy becomes NY ice cream in the Empire state.

Fun Facts

• The first ice cream parlor in the US was in New York City.

Sources

• https://www.ice-cream.org/content/facts-about-ice-cream
• https://www.idfa.org/the-history-of-ice-cream
• http://milkfacts.info/