frozen dairy dessert

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First They Shrunk It, Now Turkey Hill Skimped on It

Two years ago, we reported that Turkey Hill practiced a bit of shrinkflation on their standard 48-ounce cartons of ice cream by reducing them to 46 ounces.

Now our reader Michael C. says they are pulling another fast one. Can you spot the change?

*MOUSE PRINT:

Turkey Hill ice cream changes

Turkey Hill cleverly deleted the words “ice cream” from the red band on the face of the container and substituted the word “quality.” This allowed the company to subtly turn many of their premium ice cream flavors into frozen dairy desserts — a less rich and cheaper to make product. The words “frozen dairy dessert” were added in minute type on the bottom left.

Under federal law, to be called “ice cream,” the product must contain at least 10% milk fat. Based on the nutrition labels of the old and new product, cream, which used to be the second ingredient in their real ice cream, moved near the end in their new version.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Nutrition Fact labels

We asked the company a number of questions including why they made this change and did so so inconspicuously. They did not reply to multiple inquiries.

Perhaps the company needs to rename this flavor:

Not Much Cream

Your comments are welcome. (Bug preventing comments being able to be posted is fixed.)

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Blue Bunny No Longer Real Ice Cream

Blue Bunny ice cream has been a rebel. When other brands downsized to 56 ounces, they stayed at half a gallon. Subsequently when the industry moved to a 48-ounce container, Blue Bunny didn’t follow. But ultimately, they did conform to the now standard 48-ounce size.

The company also saw other brands in the ice cream business like Breyer’s convert some of their real ice cream flavors to “frozen dairy desserts” — a product no longer allowed by federal law to be called “ice cream” because it has less than the required 10% milkfat. Back in 2016, Blue Bunny told Mouse Print*:

[other brands are] electing to stray from the true definition of ice cream and deliver frozen dairy dessert… the quality of our ice cream has not been ignored, in fact our ice cream is better than ever!

Fast forward a few years and so much for that noble stance. Our friend, the Ingredient Inspector, discovered a very inconspicuous change that Blue Bunny appears to have made three years ago. The words “ice cream” quietly disappeared from most of their 48-ounce containers, and “frozen dairy dessert” appeared next to the net weight.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Blue Bunny frozen dairy dessert

Even the best of us would not likely spot that change. But how does that wording change translate in the composition of the product?

*MOUSE PRINT:

Blue Bunny ingredients

Instead of milk and cream as the primary ingredients in the real ice cream product, now skim milk and whey powder predominate in the revised version, and they’ve added coconut oil.

I bet that most Blue Bunny customers never realized the product changed, making this an early example of skimpflation.

For more examples of the ingredients changes in Blue Bunny “frozen dairy dessert” please see the detailed story at the Ingredient Inspector.

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Breyers Converts Ice Creams to “Frozen Dairy Desserts”

When product manufacturers want to cut costs or increase their profits, they can do one of several things. Many don’t want to raise prices because of the consumer backlash and possible reduction in sales. So, many choose to downsize the product as we have demonstrated here. Others take a less conventional approach and reformulate their product so that it is cheaper to produce and distribute.

Breyers downsized their half-gallons of ice cream first to 56 ounces and then again to 48 ounces around 2008.

Breyers

Now they have taken a new tack. They are reformulating many of their flavors.

Take a look at “old” Breyer’s Vanilla Fudge Twirl ice cream:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Breyers Real Ice Cream

Now take a look at the new package of “Vanilla Fudge Twirl”:

Breyers dairy dessert

The new one is no longer even called “ice cream” but is now “frozen dairy dessert.” It is no longer “all natural” either. And the vanilla ice cream claim has been replaced with a “vanilla flavor claim.”

*MOUSE PRINT:

Under federal law, to be called “ice cream”, a product must meet a certain standard of identity, which in this case requires that there be at least 10% milk fat in the product. That generally would come from the cream in the product. If the product does not meet the federal “recipe” for ice cream, it has to be called something else. In this case, they are calling it frozen dairy dessert which has no federal definition (other than it does not meet the standards to be called ice cream.)

Here are the ingredients statements from both vanilla fudge twirl packages:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Breyers old ingredients

Breyers New Ingredients

The old real ice cream product has milk and cream as the first two ingredients. The new version has cream listed as fourth (with milk, sugar and corn syrup predominating over cream). The new product also has half the fat as the old. While dieters might rejoice, the calories are nearly the same, and the taste is not likely to match the original.

The Breyers’ website spins why they changed many of their ice cream flavors to “frozen dairy dessert”:

Since 1866, Breyers products have consistently delivered high-quality ingredients, great flavors and smooth creaminess that our fans love, and we remain committed to that Pledge. Our Ice Cream and new Frozen Dairy Dessert varieties continue to use fresh milk, cream and sugar. What distinguishes our Frozen Dairy Dessert from our Ice Cream is that it’s blended in a whole new way to create a smoother texture.

Hmmm. They seem to have left out the fact that using less cream saves the company a lot of money.