Numerous enquiries about ice cream have been directed to the Dairy Science and Food Technology website. These have been mainly related to ice cream mix calculations and to faults with the final product (e.g. curdy ice cream, "cooked" flavour)  and are probably a reflection of increasing numbers of people becoming involved in ice cream manufacture.

While some attempt has been made to address queries in the Forum I have decided to include some material on the science and technology of ice cream production. This material will be developed over time and will include contributions from external experts. Because of user interest priority has been given to including information and calculators on ice cream mix formulation.

There is a low cost booklet, ‘Ice Cream Making' by Dr James Rothwell that is recommended to readers interested in this area. This provides a good overview of ice cream generally, deals with the concept of a balanced ice cream mix and explains how to perform ice cream mix calculations. While the booklet was published in 1985 it is still relevant today. Copies are available from the Ice Cream Alliance. I am aware that some site users have had problems communicating with this organisation and regret that I cannot help.  Please see the list of other text books at the end of this article.

Production of balanced ice cream mixes

Manufacturers produce ice cream to meet the requirements of consumers as interpreted by the retailers or those selling directly to consumers.

In many situations the ice cream manufacturer will have a final product specification to meet. One element of this specification is related to the composition of the final product including legal requirements e.g. for fat and milk protein. In the UK ice cream must contain a minimum of 5% fat and a minimum of 2.5% milk protein. A compositional specification will typically specify the fat, milk solids not fat (MSNF), sugar, emulsifier and stabiliser concentrations in the final product. In this situation the manufacturer will select ingredients that can supply the above components, blend these and then process to produce a finished ice cream. Calculations will be required to ensure that the ingredients are correctly formulated to meet the final product specification.

In other situations the manufacturer may want to produce a new or improved product and will have to devise their own product compositional specification. This specification must be developed so that the fat, sugar and MSNF components are balanced.