In reply to Desiree.

I feel like some manufactures are pretty close already, literally. One of my favorite ice creams happens to be a store brand. The last time I bought it, I thought maybe our freezer was malfunctioning because the ice cream was so soft and glossy. The mouthfeel was very fluffy, and the container seemed much lighter than it should be.

Remember that ice cream is sold by volume, not weight. I did some calculations and determined that my 48-ounce “half gallon” of ice cream contained 39.5% air. When I looked up the food identity standard for Ice Cream, guess what the maximum allowable amount of air is? 40%.

I fully expect the manufacturer, after a period of time so that consumers get used to the current version, to attempt to nudge the air content even past the allowable amounts. Because there’s practically no enforcement to begin with, and even if enough consumers knew how to calculate air content, and knew what agency to complain to (I would guess FDA for food identity criteria and maybe FTC), the fines are probably the same as 40 years ago, and meant to deter companies that were, on average, much smaller than the massive conglomerates we have today.