"Ice cream" has a legal minimum density floor of 4.5lbs per gallon. It has been that way since 1958. If they're mixing more air than that per gallon, they can't legally call it "ice cream".

https://www.nytimes.com/1958/03/26/archives/u-s-issues-an-ic...

The term "ice cream" is pretty well regulated in the US. Really shows where our priorities are as Americans.

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pimlottc an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> The term "ice cream" is pretty well regulated in the US. Really shows where our priorities are as Americans.

Most natural food products are regulated in the US [0]. Ice cream is not unique in this regard, nor is the standard is particularly onerous compared to others. It easily fits on single page [1].

0: https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards

1: https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/IceCreamI...

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annoyingnoob 17 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That is the minimum. If you were making a heavier product then you could add more overrun as a form of shrinkflation, its real.

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fluoridation 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why not just measure it by weight then? That's what we do here.

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sophacles 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And a lot of 'ice cream' tubs in the "ice cream" section of your grocery store are "frozen dairy desert" not ice cream. They are packaged like Ice Cream, flavored like Ice cream, and appear to be Ice Cream. But the words Ice Cream do not appear and instead a hard to spot "frozen dairy desert" is somewhere on the packaging.

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vel0city an hour ago | parent [-]

If they want to make a frozen concoction of a ton of candy bars and cookies and fudge and milk and sugar and churn it all up to be nearly the consistency of chunky whipped cream I don't see any reason to not allow that to be sold as a product if we're allowing all that candy and what not anyways. I'm glad its not allowed to be labelled ice cream.

And if they're making a product like that, where else would you prefer for that to be put? In between the porkchops and the steaks? Maybe between the crackers and the chips?

I don't quite get where you're going with this other than to suggest they shouldn't even be allowed to make such a thing at all and sell it in stores.

	▲	sophacles 6 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The point is its another phenomenon similar to the shrinkflation and quiet ingredient substitution. I'm commenting on how the not-technically-human marketing creatures try to get you to think that you're buying ice cream when you're buying something else of lesser value. Particularly when its something like Breyer's light - its literally sold next to the Ice cream equivalent from Breyers and is designed to be ice cream in all but density requirements. Most people would call it ice cream and never know its designed to trick them into accepting something that is lesser quality for the same price. As to where I'm going with it - well I'm just pointing out another form of the stupid shit. I can't wait to see how you flip out when I point out all the ways that they try to trick people into believing they are buying meat.

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xp84 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's why crap companies like Dreyers mostly doesn't sell it anymore, they sell "Frozen Dairy Dessert" in fine print but with giant ice-cream-evocative words above it.