A smooth, sweet, cold food prepared from a frozen mixture of milk products and flavorings, containing a minimum of 10 percent milk fat and eaten as a snack or dessert. . .
Ice cream is a sweet, flavored mixture based on dairy products that have turned solid through freezing. Traditional ice cream contains milk, cream, sugar, natural flavors and eggs (though not always). When it begins to freeze, the mixture is beaten to stop the formation of ice crystals, which results in a light and creamy product. For a product to be called “ice cream,” it must contain at least 10% fat, or 8% if there is added cocoa, chocolate syrup, fruits or nuts. If a product contains less fat, it is called a “dairy dessert.”
Industrially made ice cream is generally made from a mixture of cream, milk or evaporated milk (or both), to which nonfatty milk solids are added. It also contains sugar (14%-16%), emulsifiers, stabilizers, flavors and colorings, sometimes natural but most often artificial. The yield is the increase in volume of a frozen product by adding air, also known as the “overrun.” Ice cream with an overrun of 20%-50% would yield creamier ice cream; above 50% would yield mushy, liquidy ice cream that melts quickly.
Ice creams............. 