Experts in food law?

[resonant]

Anybody know what happened to the texture of ice cream in the past three years? (Probably US-specific)

Just out of nowhere it's frozen wrong. You buy a cone from a nice place and go to lick it and chunks break off. It's like getting the texture of a good Cheddar when you expect a smooth melter like Monterey jack.

I suspect a regulation got repealed. Maybe something to do with sweeteners?

(The kidlet will tell you not to get me started on ricotta, but that started much longer ago.)

Comments

[ride_4ever]

Considering how Turnbull feels about cheese, yes, I do want to "get you started" on ricotta.

[resonant]

It's much the same thing: 10-15 years ago I noticed that even nice brands of ricotta didn't melt any more no matter how warm you got them. I like a super-simple dish where you have pasta and spinach sauced with a scoop of ricotta and a bit of olive oil and parmesan, but suddenly the ricotta was less of a sauce and more of an unmelting lump.

So I checked the ingredient list (which had previously been like Cream, Milk, Salt, Rennet) and suddenly it had gelatin in it. And now the only way to avoid that is to buy a brand with an organic label.

Kidlet heard this rant so often during the period when they were the grocery shopper for the household that they can run it back word for word.

[ride_4ever]

I feel you on that -- I too noticed that gelatin thing with the ricotta a while ago.

[havocthecat]

Oh, is that what they did with ricotta? Huh. Organic it is, then!

[minoanmiss]

That definitely sounds like the ice cream has larger ice crystals in it and is thus not as finely textured as it should be. I wonder if it's a sweetener change or a slowdown in churning speed, or melting and refreezing due to carelessness with temperature in transport. Alsas, I don't have a source for food regulations anymore. But if I get a chance I'll try to research.

[resonant]

The cones never went through a state of matter where they were soft enough to be lickable; they were roughly what I imagine you'd get if you scooped the fat layer off a can of coconut milk and stuck it in the freezer overnight, and then they were melted and liquid.

I've had ice cream melt and refreeze and get those big ice crystals, and this was a lot like that but not precisely like that. If you bit off a piece and let it melt in your mouth, it wasn't gritty or grainy, and it didn't have those flat crystals that you can feel on your tongue.

The tubs of ice cream I've bought in the store haven't been like that (but I'm super picky and I will read the ingredients and reject anything weird).

Oddly, the one time I got ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery, it wasn't like this, either. I don't have the delusion that I would like the ingredients of Cold Stone if I looked them up, but maybe getting smooshed first is enough to improve the texture.

[killabeez]

I don't know! I haven't regularly eaten ice cream for 16 years or so, and only have eaten vegan ice cream from the best places in the last few years. But that's fascinating—I'm really curious.

[resonant]

When you say vegan ice cream, it occurs to me that I could probably make something at home using almond milk or something. I do eat dairy, obviously, but an almond-milk-based nut-butter ice cream sounds tasty.

[killabeez]

The best place in Seattle is Frankie & Jo's, and I believe they use a combo of nut milk (cashew) and coconut milk. I don't often go there, but their ice cream is amazing. At home, my treat is hot chocolate using canned coconut milk—also amazing.

[lemonsharks]

Peanut butter ice cream with a peanut milk base would possibly be too much peanut...but I don't know if there is such a thing as too much peanut

[desireearmfeldt]

I have not observed this. I don't eat ice cream from a huge variety of places, but I eat it somewhat regularly and I'll eat it in random places if I'm in random places (which, okay, has not happened in a year and half but it used to).

[dira]

I know there's been a problem with butter over the last year or so, to do with dairy herds being reduced and then needing to meet unexpectedly surging demand early in the lockdown, and the supplements they were fed to achieve that, but I haven't noticed problems with ice cream! Might be something similar, though?

[libitina]

Oh no! I've been craving ice cream, but I haven't actually gotten around to buying any yet this summer.

My first guess would be supply chain issues and that it sat too long in a spot where it thawed and refroze a few times. But that's based on absolutely zero data.

[writedragon]

The FDA has allowed "flexibility in food labeling"(which equals flexibility in ingredients) during the pandemic, and as far as I can tell from their web site that hasn't been rescinded yet. This chage along with supply chain issues and transportation problems is probably the culprit. I second the idea of seeking out some non-dairy ice creams or sorbettos. There's one in my neck of the woods called NadaMoo. It's made with coconut milk and is outstanding, but there are many on the market right now.

[lemonsharks]

I would bet that any truck capable of the cold needed for vaccine transport is on vaccine transport duty now as well