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:

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:

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.