Richard S. from Joppa, Maryland writes:
Dear Ernie,
Why is it that some ice cream containing fruit contains more fruit than other containers of the same brand and flavor? Like my Turkey Hill Cherry Orchard Limited Edition. My sister's product had gobs of cherries and mine had hardly any. What's up with that, Ern?
Sorry about the lack of cherries, Richard. Here's what may have happened.
Fruits, nuts, candies, cookies and all of what I call the “good stuff” is added to the soft frozen, flavored ice cream through an ingredient feeder. The good stuff is added to a hopper where it delicately slides down into a turning auger carrying it to a spinning star wheel where it is deposited into the ice cream. The combination of ice cream and good stuff is then blended as it is added to the awaiting container. For product safety this is a closed system. Occasionally bridging occurs at the entrance to the auger, causing a shortage of good stuff in the ice cream. This, I suspect, is what happened to your disappearing cherries.
This process is monitored and recorded. As an additional safeguard, members of our Research & Development Team and Quality Assurance Team do ice cream cutting each and every day. They pull containers from the beginning and end of each batch to be tested for things like taste and texture. Then, they cut each container in half with a big knife to make sure all of the inclusions and ripples are dispersed properly.
Thanks for your question!
Ernie
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If you’ve got a technical question about the ice cream making process or some other inquiry about the nuances of America’s favorite treat, chances are Ernie has the answer. He might not be able to answer all questions, but he’ll try his best and some may be featured on the Ice Cream Journal.
“Then, they cut each container in half with a big knife to make sure all of the inclusions and ripples are dispersed properly.”
Wow – that part sounds like fun! Why am I imagining someone with a samurai sword?
Does the dissected ice cream then get thrown out, or does someone get to eat it?
It is an interesting image and you’re not too far off on the samurai sword! We’ll have to see if we can get some pictures of Ernie and the gang splitting some ice cream containers and post them here on the blog.
As for the leftovers, we’ll let Ernie handle that question in an upcoming “Ask Ernie” post (although I think we all know the unfortunate conclusion to that answer).
I’d like to apply for the cutting and tasting of the ice cream!!
That’s sounds like a great job
You put the icecream in smaller containers and we get charged the same amount as the larger was. Not nice Turkey Hill
In our area we have not sen this new ice cream yet. Hope to see it soon, sound good, I like cherries.
Is this new ice cream high test or is it lo-cal or fat-free?
I’d rather pay for quality vs quantity. Go with a store brand if you want quantity
I see that Jessica above beat me to the question. What happens to the halves? They are not, heaven forfend, thrown away are they? If so, when’s a good time to come to stand by the trash can?
What happens to the ice cream is actually interesting. Ernie will enlighten us all with an answer in an upcoming post.
PATRICIA – Thanks for your comment. Because some flavors use slightly more expensive ingredients, we’re faced a several options: 1) use cheaper, lower quality ingredients (which we’d never do), 2) keep the same package size but raise the price, or 3) make the package slightly smaller and keep the same price.
From surveys and focus groups with customers we learned that most people are comfortable with the smaller packages. In the end we hope that the taste of what’s inside far outweighs any difference in size. Hope this helps!