26 Jul 2006
Creamy, Healthier Ice Cream? What’s the Catch?

Ya know, there's something seriously wrong with folks that think this is a good thing:

Almost all commercial ice creams contain industrial ingredients that mimic the luxurious effects of butterfat and egg yolks: some are natural, like carrageenan, extracted from algae plentiful in the Irish Sea; others are synthetic, like mono- and diglycerides.

They want a creamy texture but they don't want to use cream. They want a rich flavor, but they don't want to use eggs. Some of the motivation for this travesty has to do with the "low fat = must be good for you" myth, but a lot of it has to do with the bottom line. But the latest in ice cream technology is a real mind-bender: genetically engineered protein from fish, grown by yeast, to stop ice crystals from forming:

The other new method for making supercreamy ice cream was caught up last month in the global debate over genetically modified foods. In June, Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, applied to Britain’s Food Standards Agency for permission to use a new ingredient in its frozen desserts — a protein cloned from the blood of an eel-like Arctic Ocean fish, the ocean pout.

In Britain, where labeling of GM food is mandated, this has already come to be called "vaneela" ... but in the US, well, was there something fishy about your last ice cream cone? You'd never know - labeling is not required.

But the statement that really gets me here is from H. Douglas Goff, professor of dairy sciences at the University of Guelph in Ontario:

“The ice creams produced with the new methods are simply better than any ice creams have ever been,” Professor Goff said. "Quite definitely better in texture, and much better tasting."

I just don't believe that. I've (unwittingly) tried a product made with this (Breyers Light Double Churned Ice Cream Bars) and I thought they sucked. So I'd like to issue a personal invitation to Professor Goff to stop by the farm on a warm summer day. We'll run over to Kevyn's if he's still milking Cherry (or out to the barn if we have a cow in milk) and get a gallon or two of fresh milk. Then we'll hit the hen house for some fresh eggs, pull out the ice cream maker, some kosher rock salt, a bit of vanilla and some ice and crank away for an hour or so.

And if he can tell me with a straight face that his "vaneela" ice cream tastes better, I'll become a believer in better living through playing god genetic engineering.

For those who crave ice cream as voluptuous as butter and as virtuous as broccoli, there is fresh hope in the freezer case.

(link) [New York Times]

09:17 /Agriculture | 3 comments | permanent link