TV doctor reveals the shocking list of ingredients in your favourite cornet treat
Have you ever wondered why that scoop of ice cream takes so long to melt, even on a hot day?
Now scientist and television doctor Chris van Tulleken has found out – and the truth is hard to swallow.
Because he found that most ice creams are packed with cheap ultra-processed ingredients designed to give the industrially produced gloop the taste and texture of traditional ice cream made from real ingredients.
His curiosity was piqued when he took his daughters Sasha, one, and Lyra, three, for a treat on a trip to the park on a balmy day last fall and bought his eldest a pistachio-flavored ice cream.
After taking a few bites, she ran off to play with friends and gave her father the bath.
Scientist and television doctor Chris van Tulleken has discovered what’s in a lot of ice – and the truth is hard to swallow
Dr. van Tulleken met Paul Hart, a biochemist who worked for food giant Unilever for 20 years, who told him that the content of most commercially produced ice cream was “all about price and cost” (file image)
Dr. van Tulleken expanded his search to one brand of cheap ice cream, Tesco’s Ms Molly’s Vanilla, and found it contained an even longer list of processed and ultra-processed ingredients (file image)
Dr. Writing in The Mail on Sunday, van Tulleken recalled: ‘Her ice cream, I saw, was a glistening green ball of pistachio. It took me a while to realize that this was very strange. How was it still a ball?
‘The sun was shining and the outside of the bath felt warm. Something had obviously stopped the ice from melting.’
At home, he looked up the ingredients in commercially produced pistachio ice cream.
“Some were what you’d expect: fresh milk and whipped cream, sugar, salt, a little dash of pistachios.”
“However, others sounded alarm bells: soy protein, soy lecithin, coconut oil, sunflower oil, chlorophyll, glucose, dextrose, stabilizers (locust bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan), emulsifier (mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids).”
Dr. van Tulleken expanded his search to one brand of cheap ice cream, Tesco’s Ms Molly’s Vanilla, and found that it contained an even longer list of processed and ultra-processed ingredients: reconstituted skimmed milk concentrate, partially reconstituted whey powder (milk), glucose syrup, sugar, dextrose, palm stearin, palm oil, palm kernel oil, emulsifier (mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids), stabilizers (guar gum, sodium alginate), aroma and coloring agents (carotenes).
A naturally made ice cream, on the other hand, contains a limited number of ‘real’ ingredients: specifically, milk, cream, sugar, skimmed milk powder, egg yolk and vanilla essence – plus bits or purees of the flavour, such as pistachio or strawberry.
Dr. van Tulleken met Paul Hart, a biochemist who worked for food giant Unilever for 20 years, who told him that the content of most commercially produced ice cream is “all about price and cost – those ingredients save money.”
Many of these ingredients, such as the oils and emulsifiers, mimicked the role of milk fat and egg in traditional ice cream, Mr. Hart said.
But he explained that the gums, glycerins, and emulsifiers also stop ice crystals from forming, meaning the ice cream can be transported more easily without the need for very low temperatures — and slow down the melting process in the tub.