from the I-don't-think-I-want-to-eat-it-anymore dept.
Alternet tells us
Technically, ice cream follows the laws of thermodynamics, but what would you think of an ice cream that didn't melt on one of the hottest days of the year? Cincinnati station WCPO recently reported on Christie Watson's discovery that her Walmart Great Value ice cream sandwich wouldn't melt even in 80-degree heat. What's that? Ice should melt.
"I thought it was quite weird so I looked at the box and it said no artificial ice cream," Watson said. "So I thought to myself what am I feeding my children?"
Watson couldn't fathom how that could happen so she left out an ice cream sandwich outside again and came out with same results. Then WCPO reporter John Matarese did a test with a Haagen-Daaz ice cream sandwich, a Klondike Bar and the Walmart Great Value sandwich. After 30 minutes in the sun, the Walmart sandwich still resembled a sandwich, the Klondie bar melted some and the Haagen-Daaz was more like a milk puddle. [...] Matarese contacted Walmart and was given the following statement: "Ice cream melts based on the ingredients including cream. Ice cream with more cream (sic) will generally melt at a slower rate, which is the case with our Great Value ice cream sandwiches. In the frozen aisles, Great Value ice cream sandwiches are one of the top sellers, and we are glad to be able to offer a great treat that families love."
Virgina Tech food chemist told the L.A. Times that the less fat the ice cream has, the slower it will melt. Although the Great Value ice cream doesn't quite melt, the ingredients meet all FDA requirements and and have less fat, too. The Great Value ice cream includes corn syrup, guar gum, and cellulose gum, which are common food stabilizers that help keep the sandwich's shape.
The Haagen-Daaz ice cream [ingredients] include cream, milk, sugar, and eggs, and vanilla, "but no corn syrup or gums of any type." This is why it passed the melt test with ease, but not the cost test. It's about $3 more to purchase Haagen-Daaz, Matarese says. But, in this case, melting is included.
Related Stories
MillerCoors sues Anheuser-Busch over controversial Bud Light Super Bowl ad
MillerCoors filed a lawsuit Thursday against Anheuser-Busch InBev, claiming that its rival's Bud Light ad shown during the Super Bowl is false advertising meant to deceive customers and misuses the Miller and Coors trademarks.
The company is seeking an injunction to stop Bud Light from continuing the ad campaign. MillerCoors is also asking for a trial by jury and for the defendant to pay its legal fees. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported and posted the lawsuit, which was filed in a Wisconsin federal court.
The lawsuit is the latest retaliation from the U.S. subsidiary of Molson Coors Brewing for the Bud Light campaign that shamed Miller Lite and Coors Light for using corn syrup. Backlash from both the targeted brewer and corn industry growers followed. After the ad aired, MillerCoors said that none of its final products contain the ingredient, which is used during the brewing process.
[I think this is the advertisement. --Ed.
Also at Bloomberg, The Hill, AdAge, and WISN.
Related: Why WalMart Ice Cream Doesn't Melt
Playing Small is Okay, Says Judge in "Craft Beer" Case
AB InBev-SAB Miller Deal Approved by Shareholders
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2014, @08:32PM
Virginia tech says less fat means less melting, Walmart says more "cream" means less melting; cream is milk with more fat. WTF.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday July 30 2014, @08:53PM
My work's idea of creamer is some sort of dry powder that is mostly corn-starch solids. So who knows.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by cykros on Thursday July 31 2014, @04:55PM
creamer != cream
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 31 2014, @05:06PM
Real creamer is. The fake shit is obviously mostly oil, water and sugar.
(Score: 2) by Leebert on Thursday July 31 2014, @02:18AM
Never worked with your organization's PR department, have you? Some PR droid probably pinged an internal subject matter expert, who wrote a detailed e-mail that was promptly misread by the PR person who sent out a response that was exactly the opposite of what the SME said. The SME is probably facepalming somewhere in his cube in Arkansas right now.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday July 31 2014, @09:16AM
Also, it will be the SME and not the maketroid who gets fired if the inaccurate statement turns out to have any consequences for the company.
(SME == Sweet Meltifiction Engineer?)
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday July 31 2014, @06:23AM
more cream could also slow down melting [I have no idea, but it could]
However.
There has been no claim made by Walmart that their product actually has a higher percentage of cream. It is implied by the statement, but that is just standard bullshit you have to see through.
It is unlikely that a significantly cheaper product will have significantly more of the most expensive component.
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday July 30 2014, @08:38PM
Looks like it is our good friend WOOD to blame again.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:40PM
Wood pulp. It's what Wal-Mart shoppers crave!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2014, @08:43PM
People buy food at Walmart? Or even worse: Walmart brand food? 'Murkan fatties [peopleofwalmart.com]must be pretty desperate to eat such shit.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:30PM
Its actually a step above Family Dollar and Aldi
So I'm in Family Dollar a couple months ago, looking for kids party favors, cheap plastic junk to give away, preferably not painted with lead paint. I'm bored, as usual, so I look around. They got freezer section. So theres this big box claiming to be fish sticks that when you read the fine print, its like 6 sticks in this big box, and they're made out of ground up fish meal. I'm like WTF is this a treat for pampered cats? No its supposedly people food. "Made out of minced fish"? Craziest stuff I've ever seen.
I've been inside Aldi also, and the average is OK but that place has a really high std deviation, so it'll be perfectly normal or even good stuff next to pure WTF how did this ever get into the store? (Like a 5 gallon bucket of generic non name frozen aw chitlins, seriously? what is anyone supposed to do with that?)
(Score: 1) by number11 on Wednesday July 30 2014, @10:40PM
You obviously don't buy many chitlins, cuz that's how they're sold. Or is it that it doesn't have a Hormel logo to make you feel secure? Around here, pretty much all the big (and some smaller) grocery stores have pails of chitlins, though I haven't seen them at Aldi. Chitlins are pretty good (especially IMHO fried), but preparing them is a lot of work.
Some foods obviously are not for city kids who think food comes in a box, who pine for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, and some foods are best if you grew up with them. Some people eat oysters steamed or even raw, or durian fruit (very tasty if you can ignore the aroma) or tapioca, or hominy grits, or runny scrambled eggs. Some eat lutefisk, or blood pudding. Chitlins may fall into this category. They are not a food that the ad agency is going to want to make a TV commercial for.
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Thursday July 31 2014, @12:29AM
OMG, what the hell are you eating over there?
(Score: 1) by number11 on Thursday July 31 2014, @04:41AM
People do. Actually, it's not bad if you add enough real ingredients (meat, veggies, actual cheese). But then it's not "Kraft Macaroni and Cheese" any more.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday July 31 2014, @09:19AM
> So theres this big box claiming to be fish sticks that when you read the fine print, its like 6 sticks in this big box, and they're made out of ground up fish meal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY6G2E8dgWU [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:35PM
...You have to make EVERY penny count just to survive!
Wal-Mart is the ONLY nationwide store chain that
offers such value to those of their clientele
who absolutely need it the MOST!
Shopping anywhere else means higher prices through
unionization of the workforce and assorted markup
due to the layers of middlemen between all the other
store chains and the product producers themselves.
To put Wal-Mart out of business means bringing back
all the offshored manufacturing jobs, raising the
minimum wage up to a level you can TRULY live off of
the income of one entry level 40-hour workweek full time job,
and a freeze on the prices of all food/clothing/shelter
products. This prevents the income gains of the workers
from evaporating due to higher prices because business
owners passed on the extra labor costs to their customers.
To avoid these losses, they can be properly subsidized by the
Federal Government like other businesses are and have
been in the past and the increased costs redistributed
equitably across the entire population of the USA through
higher taxes properly levied, collected and indexed to
the rate of inflation that is increased only when
it is ABSOLUTELY necessary!
This can ONLY be done by the Federal Government
outlawing cash, moving everybody onto electronic
debit cards, taking over all the U.S. based
electronic payment networks due to eminent domain,
and institute a national sales tax to collect taxes on
all purchases with the monies electronicaly funneled
into Federal Government coffers for subsequent use.
The IRS could then be stripped way down or totally
dismantled as they would NOT be needed in their
current form. With cash made illegal, it would END
tax evasion and possibly TRULY combat terrorism
financing. If this was all done, the only
flaws/weakness I can think of is bartering--
cumbersome between more than a few parties--and
Hawala banking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala [wikipedia.org]
With cash outlawed and a 100% electronic and tracked
payment network, Hawala banking might disappear
alltogether as a means of tax evasion and terrorism
financing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 31 2014, @05:37PM
No, Wal-Mart is not the ONLY. There are several chains that meet or beat Wal-Mart for grocery values. I know from direct personal experience because I buy my own food.
I stopped reading your comment after that statement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 31 2014, @03:04PM
(Score: 2) by hubie on Wednesday July 30 2014, @08:52PM
You don't end up with a liquid when those melt either.
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:21PM
(Score: 2) by hubie on Wednesday July 30 2014, @10:04PM
The shakes I'm familiar (in the US) will melt to a point. There will be liquid in the bottom of the cup and a stable foam matrix above it that is remarkably stable.
(Score: 2) by monster on Thursday July 31 2014, @08:05AM
These two comments probably speak a lot more about customers' expectations and tolerance to lowcost products than about anything else.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:41PM
Actually I've drunken a McDonald's milk shake once, and did expect a milk shake, not an ice. The first mouthful literally hurt because of the cold, because, after all, I was not expecting ice, and thus didn't prepare for ice. I never again drank a McDonald's milk shake, because when I want a milk shake, I want something to drink, not ice. And when I want ice, I know where I can get better ice.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Sir Garlon on Wednesday July 30 2014, @08:53PM
Wal-Mart ice cream is not the only "food" with bizarre material properties. Years ago I discovered Peep Research [peepresearch.org] when it was still hosted at Emory University. A couple of biology graduate students did destructive testing on marshmallow Peeps. The results of the solubility tests [peepresearch.org] are astounding if you remember how sulfuric acid is supposed to react with sugar.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:02PM
Makes you wonder what it does inside your body. LOL.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:19PM
"Makes you wonder what it does inside your body. LOL."
Makes me wonder why people give me shit about eating a mostly paleo diet. Aside from the usual trolling stuff which I deserve/expect.
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:14PM
I intentionally performed an experiment on peeps, inspired by the site you link to, around the turn of the century, where I exposed them to air for about six to twelve months and then tested their durability to destruction. Using a slingshot.
It turns out that dehydrated peeps vaporize on impact when launched with a slingshot, when they impact anything. Nothing remained solid after impact, just dust. Even the slightest impact, like a tree leaf, results in just a cloud of sugar dust. No structural integrity at all.
I wonder if this happens to a wallmart "ice cream" sandwich. The "cookie" probably maintains some structural integrity but the corn syrup might prevent complete drying, hard to say what would happen after a couple months "mummification".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 31 2014, @10:13PM
Hmmmm. Makes me wonder if the old T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. student lab experiment website is still on the web somewhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:35PM
I'd argue that ingesting something that was squeezed from the underside of a quadruped is more strange by at least an order of magnitude than the fact that a particular product derived from such squeezings melts at a slower than expected rate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:44PM
True. The squeezings only taste good when they come from a tripedal animal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 31 2014, @04:07AM
I'd suggest bipedal. If you look around, I'm sure you can find a large, female, bipedal mammal somewhere in your vicinity. You could ask her if she would like to help you make some ice cream.
(Score: 1) by Freeman on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:36PM
Neapolitan (Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry) my Favorite.
MILK, CREAM, SUGAR, STRAWBERRIES, WHEY, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), TARA GUM, NATURAL FLAVOR
Why pay more for Haagen-Daaz when you can have Breyers?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:43PM
Ben n Jerrys very good. Hagen Daz is also very good, but less variety? Just about every Gelato parlour in Italy is awesome, especially pistachio gelato. "Fichi d'india" flavour which I've only had in Sicily, and is like a super-watermelon flavour...
(Score: 2) by carguy on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:46PM
> Why pay more for Haagen-Daaz when you can have Breyers?
Seconded -- but read the labels carefully. In the last year or two, we noticed that many of the Breyers varieties now have a long list of ingredients (many that are hard to pronounce). Basic chocolate and vanilla still have the short list.
(Score: 1) by Freeman on Wednesday July 30 2014, @11:00PM
Yeah, pretty much just the basic flavors are made with the good stuff. Though, what do you expect from something like a "Snickers Bar" flavor of ice cream.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Thursday July 31 2014, @12:38AM
Why have processed imitates, when you can have real ice-cream [amorino.com]?
(Score: 2) by yellowantphil on Thursday July 31 2014, @04:10AM
It still has the dreaded "natural flavors." What kind of natural flavors? Tadpole eye? Fungus? Emulsified frog extract?
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Thursday July 31 2014, @08:18AM
Lark's vomit [youtube.com]!
(Score: 2) by hubie on Thursday July 31 2014, @11:38AM
Breyers used to be all natural, just milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla. It was a big part of their advertising [youtube.com]. And like in so many other instances, in the 90's they were bought by a big corp who started cutting costs and dramatically changing things. Now they have all the rest of the added stuff as all the other cheaper brands.
(Score: 1) by Freeman on Thursday July 31 2014, @03:55PM
They have also survived and perhaps even flourished. The average person buying ice-cream at Wal-mart doesn't care what's in it. They also do have a number of flavors that are all naturual. I would say this is more of a case of a company doing what they believe in and appealing to the masses.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 31 2014, @01:48PM
Breyers is disgusting and cheap-tasting. Try out some Bluebell ice cream. As a bonus, it comes in an actual half gallon instead of the fake half gallon promulgated by manufacturers like Breyers. And on top of that, the Bluebell ice cream is less aerated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 31 2014, @02:22PM
I used to be a breyers dude too. Until they started shrinking the packaging and messing with the formula. I also noticed it made me feel sick (think I have an allergic reaction to one of their additives).
The easiest trick is look for the words 'ice cream'. That is usually a good start. As to put the words ice cream the gov makes them have particular sets of ingredients. At that point you can see what else they added. If you see corn syrup or what ever gum just put it back on the shelf. Look for a high 'fat' content too. As cream is just that, milk fat.
Usually the 'store' brands are good place to look too. They many times are real ice cream. Not always though as the store may change out but leave the 'generic' on them. So you have to keep an eye on it.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:40PM
I've done some research, more than this topic deserves, and the walmart "food like products" being discussed are a thicker version of Kool Whip. No kidding.
If you dehydrate walmart ice cream a bit my letting it sit out (maybe for months), I wonder if you can set it on fire like a marshmallow?
If you thought fake ice cream that doesn't melt was impressive, wait till you set it on fire.
You can teach a man to buy real ice cream sandwiches, or you can set him on fire in a day if he buys fake ice cream, or something like that.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:48PM
".... that didn't melt on one of the hottest days of the year ... wouldn't melt even in 80-degree heat..."
That better be Celsius, because about almost all of USA population lives south of my latitude per some google searches and 80 isn't even considered warm around here. Maybe its a mountain thing, like the peaks of the rockies.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2014, @09:51PM
Of course it's not celsius. 80 isn't mean to be a super-hot temperature. In fact it would be just slight higher than "room temperature" which is more than hot enough for non-fake ice cream to melt.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 30 2014, @10:17PM
It is cincinnati. Before noon. As in before the hottest time of day.
Also "80-degree heat" means a temperature range of 80 to 89 degrees.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Thursday July 31 2014, @01:03AM
I consider 80 warm and I spend about half the year in it.
I want to move to Alaska. :(
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday July 31 2014, @02:55PM
Hell, I live in Wisconsin and it routinely gets over 90 in the summer these days. About the only way to get further north in the U.S. is go to Alaska.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday July 30 2014, @10:17PM
I am okay with having my ice cream not melt. And it has less calories. The biggest issue I have is that Walmart sells it, and I hate entering that store.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday July 31 2014, @11:48AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by tizan on Wednesday July 30 2014, @11:15PM
Basically it is organically made material that looks like plastic foam which may be edible.
Thus keeping it in the fridge was a waste of energy.
Put it in the fridge when you need to eat it cold just like your can of soda !
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 31 2014, @06:48AM
So, just like American "cheese" then?
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday July 31 2014, @02:24PM
I'm pretty sure you are not allowed to call that cheese.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 31 2014, @07:33AM
Haven't we talked about SN for all and all that? What's that 80-degree heat? 80K? 80C? 80 imps?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday July 31 2014, @02:59PM
80 Rankine, obviously. (-379.67 degrees Fahrenheit)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Thursday July 31 2014, @11:15AM
Reminds me of this:
http://qz.com/223742/there-is-a-secret-ingredient-in-your-burgers-wood-pulp/ [qz.com]
I'm growing concerned about fake food and the decline of the US food supply. Sure, it's cheap, but there are people who can't tolerate fake food. What do those people eat? It's getting hard to find bread without undigestible filler.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by zzw30 on Thursday July 31 2014, @03:21PM
They say this like it's a good thing. I won't fully mount the soapbox, but "less fat" usually translates to "more carbs/sugar", which for many people is worse.