Kiss goodbye to sticky fingers when scoffing an ice cream – the company behind Ben and Jerry’s and Magnum are plotting a revolutionary recipe to stop our favourite dessert melting.
Yup – in a bid to stop ice creams from melting at higher temperatures (we all know the race against time that is eating a frozen treat on holiday), British consumer giant Unilever are reformulating them.
It’s not just to keep us from melted ice creams either as the recipe redevelopment is actually part of the brand’s drive to save energy and slash its carbon footprint.
Although they have not yet revealed how they intend to create the new ice cream, experts reckon it will have something to do with either adding starch to the mix or cutting its sugar content.
But how to do this without compromising taste or texture? Researchers hope that they will find the perfect formula to retain the taste, firmness, and ‘mouth feel’ of every Ben and Jerry’s and Magnum product at higher temperatures.
If they make it work, the carbon footprint of its freezers in shops across the globe will be chopped as much as 30 per cent.
Currently, Unilever’s ice cream products are stored at -18C, but the hope is that a new formula will allow them to be stored at just -12C.
Can it be done? Professor Douglas Goff, who teaches courses on ice cream at the University of Guelph in Canada, told The Times: “Yes, it’s possible. Yes, it will affect texture, but therein lies the product development challenge: to balance the texture and sweetness with less overall sugars.
“It could be very significant in terms of energy savings overall, but it will certainly take some effort to readjust formulations accordingly and still deliver the desired texture, sweetness, etc, without affecting flavours, inclusions, cones, coatings.”
Who knows – non-melting ice cream could be coming to a freezer near you soon.