Vanilla Ice Cream Comparison – Which One To Choose?

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Ice cream is the perfect summer snack. Australians and New Zealanders are one of the leading ice cream consumers in the world. On average, they consume anywhere between 18 – 20 liters of ice cream per person per year. Seeing as we love ice cream so much, we thought we’d check what ingredients may be hidden in the compositions of our favourite ice creams. There are so many flavours out there on the market, but we’ll start with the most popular one – vanilla, which is liked by most of us.

The perfect composition of ice cream

A good ice cream should consist of only a few ingredients: cream, egg yolks (optional), and sugar. Of course, depending on the flavour, vanilla, chocolate, nuts or fruit are also added. However, more and more often you can find additives such as emulsifiers, thickeners or dyes in ice cream compositions.

What can you find in the composition of ice cream?

If you want to choose a good ice cream, pay attention to its composition as well as its taste. Ideally you should look for ice cream with as few ingredients as possible.

For our ranking, we selected 7 types of vanilla ice cream available in tubs, all of which you can find in Australia’s most popular supermarkets.

Only one ice cream deserves our recommendation – Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream. This one has a short composition, the listed cream content, and doesn’t contain any food additives. Good job!

The other ice creams we reviewed performed poorly as they contain too many types of sugar and food additives, some of them even gelatin.

What exactly did we find in those ice creams?

  • Emulsifier (471, 477). These are mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids and esters of fatty acids and glycol. They facilitate the aeration process, give a creamy consistency and extend the melting time of an ice cream.
  • Vegetable gums (401, 407, 410, 412, 415). These may also be known as stabilisers or thickeners. They are used to give a creamy consistency and prevent ice cream delamination. Thanks to such additives, it is possible to create a fluffy structure with a reduced degree of melting.
  • Colours (160a). Otherwise called carotenes, this is a natural dye obtained from carrots.
  • Colours (160b). This dye is obtained from the seeds of the Annatto tree.

Note that some of the ice creams were made not from cream but from milk or reconstructed milk fat and reconstructed milk (e.g. Streets Blue Ribbon Ice Cream Vanilla 2l tub, Peters Original Vanilla Ice Cream 2l).

Cream is more expensive than milk, therefore some producers use these kinds of mixtures to save money. Cheaper substitutes also mean the need to add thickeners, stabilisers and other food additives to obtain the desired consistency.

The worst results in the comparison are those which contained water and sugar. These are Essentials Vanilla Ice Cream 2l and Coles Vanilla Ice Cream Tub. We strongly advise against choosing such ice cream.

Summary

As you can see from our comparison, the composition of the same ice cream flavour can vary significantly. This is why we always encourage you to check the labels, because only then can you be sure what you buy and what you spend money on.

If you haven’t found your favorite ice cream in our list, write the brand name in the comment. We’ll be happy to check its composition for you and let you know if it’s worth continuing to buy in the future.

Vanilla Ice Cream Comparison checklabels.com.au

The Vanilla ice cream products that we have looked at and compared:

  • Streets Blue Ribbon Ice Cream Vanilla 2l tub
  • Haagen-dazs Vanilla Ice Cream 457ml
  • Essentials Vanilla Ice Cream 2l
  • Peters Original Vanilla Ice Cream 2l
  • Coles Vanilla Ice Cream Tub
  • Bulla Creamy Classics Ice Cream Vanilla 2l tub
  • Connoisseur Ice Cream Classic Vanilla 1l tub

 

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Your note:

  1. 5 stars
    You get your money’s worth, I say. Can you try Golden North’s vanilla ice cream? It’s gluten free, nut free, and palm oil free, but I’m not sure if they’re healthy enough just like the Haagen-Dazs version.

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