Ice creams on sale in UK supermarkets that don’t contain ANY cream – they’re made with a bizarre ingredient linked to bowel cancer

According to recent research, there is nothing vanilla about some vanilla ice creams on supermarket shelves.

A social media influencer popular for his health videos caused shock this week after revealing that more than half of supermarket versions of the classic flavor do not contain traditional ingredients such as vanilla, cream or even fresh milk.

He uncovered a resurfaced investigation from the UK’s consumer watchdog, telling viewers that several products instead contained seed oils such as palm, palm kernel and coconut.

Such oils have long been maligned for allegedly increasing the risk of heart disease, obesity and other diseases.

Cream and milk, meanwhile, were replaced by partially reconstituted dried skim milk or whey protein, with vanilla often replaced by a general flavoring.

In the viral videoYouTuber Evan Edinger, who has more than 800,000 subscribers, noted that the use of oils in ice creams is not strictly prohibited in the US.

However, most manufacturers opt for higher quality ingredients to meet stricter legal requirements that allow them to use the ‘coveted ice cream label’.

The research, carried out in 2018 by consumer association Which?, found that one in five products surveyed contained none of the three ingredients consumers could expect in vanilla ice cream.

Bringing to light the resurfaced investigation from Britain’s consumer watchdog, Mr Edinger told viewers that several vanilla ice creams use seed oils such as palm, palm kernel and coconut oils instead.

Only half of the 24 products surveyed contained all three traditional ingredients.

Until 2015, everything labeled ice cream had to contain at least five percent dairy fat and ‘no less than’ 2.5 percent milk protein.

However, since the introduction of the Food Information Regulation, UK manufacturers can now choose to use vegetable oils instead of cream due to their fat content.

There are currently no requirements for labeling a product ice cream.

Only products labeled ‘dairy ice cream’ may contain at least five percent dairy fat, some dairy protein and no vegetable fats.

The measure, the watchdog said, was to allow more flexibility for reformulation and product innovation.

This allowed vegan products or lower-fat substitutes – such as Halo Top or Ben and Jerry’s Moo-phoria Light Ice Cream – to be sold as ice cream.

In the video, a vanilla whiskey barrel chosen by Mr Edinger from Morrison’s own brand contained a combination of coconut, palstearin, palm and palm kernel oils.

The move will allow vegan products or lower-fat substitutes – such as Halo Top or Ben and Jerry’s Moo-phoria Light Ice Cream – to be sold as ice cream.

One vanilla chosen by Mr Edinger Morrison’s own soft scoop tub contained a combination of coconut, palstearin, palm and palm kernel oils

It also contained ‘partially reconstituted skimmed milk concentrate, glucose syrup, sugar, whey powder, dextrose, emulsifiers and flavourings’.

“It’s not bad, it’s just not ice cream,” he said.

“It just tastes like very low quality ice cream with my seed oil fill for the month.”

‘Ice cream with a higher milk fat percentage is generally considered creamier, smoother and subjectively much tastier.’

He added: “The US is also not immune to the use of these cheaper ingredients.

‘You can find ice creams in supermarkets that also use vegetable oils and other fillers.

‘But the catch is that if a product doesn’t contain at least 10 percent milk fat, they can’t legally call it ice cream.

‘So many companies choose to use higher quality ingredients to maintain that coveted ice cream label.’

Palm oil has long been considered particularly bad for our health because it contains high levels of saturated fat.

Emulsifiers, meanwhile, are used in thousands of ultra-processed foods to help bind ingredients that don’t normally mix, such as oil and water.

But some experts have linked the increasing consumption of additives such as emulsifiers to the rise in early-onset colon cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and colitis.

In Britain, more and more people have turned their backs on cow’s milk and opted for plant-based alternatives instead.

In recent years, allergy-related diseases in children have increased, with the World Health Organization predicting that half of the world’s population will suffer from an allergy by 2025.

The latest government figures show that around 2.4 million adults in Britain are living with a food allergy, with hospital admissions for severe reactions having more than tripled in the past two decades.

The increasing number of allergies in children also includes children who cannot drink cow’s milk.