The Best Ice Cream: Delicious and High-Quality

Let's play a word association game for a moment. I'll say the word "summer," and you say whatever words come to mind. Now, let's bet that one of those words will be ice cream? To write this column, I went on a tour of an ice cream factory. Feel free to be envious. Here's what I learned during the cold and tasty tour.

There are three categories of ice cream. Mainstream ice creams contain 50% air and are made from milk or milk powder. They include low percentages of palm oil or coconut oil and both natural or synthetic flavor extracts. In the premium ice cream category, the protein comes from eggs. The fat percentage ranges between 8% and 12%, and the air content is less than 50%. The highest-quality category is called super premium. In these ice creams, the air percentage is 20%, and the fat content is at least 12%. All ingredients in super-premium ice cream must be natural, meaning they use fresh cream, fresh milk, egg yolks, stabilizers, and natural extracts.

A simple way to identify which category your ice cream belongs to is by looking at the volume and weight as listed on the package. For instance, on mainstream ice cream boxes, you will see: 2 liters and 1,000 grams, which means 100% air was added. In contrast, super-premium ice cream boxes are marked with: 500 ml and 425 grams, indicating they're higher quality but also more calorie-dense.

How to make ice cream: First, all raw materials, referred to as MIX, are added into large vats. There, the mixture is blended and melted at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. The next step is pasteurization of the MIX, carried out at 72 degrees Celsius for half an hour to sterilize it from pathogenic bacteria. The mixture is then rapidly cooled to 4 degrees Celsius. The following process is called homogenization. Its purpose is to create a homogeneous mixture by converting fat particles into tiny particles. After that, the MIX undergoes a stage called Ageing. Similar to wine aging, the ice cream is kept in tanks for 8 to 48 hours, depending on its type, at a temperature of 3-4 degrees Celsius. During this time, the ice cream gets a creamy texture as stabilizers absorb water, and emulsifiers are activated. In the Ageing tanks, the ice cream adopts its aroma. This step is essential for maintaining the texture of the ice cream later since it will undergo temperature fluctuations, such as during the period between leaving the supermarket freezer and reaching the home freezer. The next step is aromatization, where natural or synthetic flavor extracts are added to the MIX. Natural food colors, such as red from beets, green from spinach, and yellow from turmeric, are also added, or synthetic food colors are used. The ice cream then goes to freezing at minus 40 degrees Celsius. During this phase, air is incorporated into the MIX, increasing its volume. Fast freezing is crucial as it affects the size of the ice crystals; the quicker the freezing process, the smaller the ice crystals, resulting in a smoother mixture. Finally, the ice cream is stored in cold rooms at minus 28 degrees Celsius until it is loaded onto trucks.

Want to know more? Purchase the series "Growing Healthy," taught by naturopath Sarah Bar Asher, on the Jewish campus of Hidabroot.

Sarah Bar Asher is a naturopath and lecturer on nutrition and the food industry. Barasher@zahav.net.il