Well-known ice cream brand questioned for double standards! Use milk in foreign countries, non-dairy cream in China?

Expert of this article: Pa Lize, chief physician of nutrition, former deputy director of the Institute of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Management of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Center for Disease Control and Prevention

In the hot summer, there is nothing that an ice cream can't solve. If there is, then two ice creams are the solution!

The taste is silky and cool, making people linger...

Recently, a well-known brand of ice cream has sparked heated discussion among netizens due to the different ingredients used at home and abroad. Later, the official responded that the product belongs to a type of combined non-dairy ice cream. The "non-dairy" here means that the ice cream uses "vegetable oil", not that non-dairy creamer is used in the ice cream.

Many people wonder, is there any difference between ice cream made with vegetable oil and ice cream made with milk? What is the difference between vegetable oil and non-dairy creamer? Today, let's learn more about it.

Ice cream made from vegetable oil and milk,

What's the difference?

Ice cream is a volume-expanded frozen food made from milk or dairy products and sucrose as the main ingredients, with or without eggs and egg products, through processes such as mixing, homogenization, sterilization, aging, freezing and hardening.

The traditional concept of the general public is that the rich, delicious, delicate and smooth ice cream is entirely determined by the certain amount of fat and non-fat milk solids (protein, lactose and inorganic salts) it contains.

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However, since the 1850s, mechanized production has meant that the ingredients of ice cream are no longer limited to milk and eggs. Due to the widespread use of food additives such as emulsifiers, stabilizers, flavors, colorants, etc., even if animal fats such as dairy products and eggs are not added to the ingredients, and vegetable oils (i.e., non-dairy fats) such as sunflower oil, corn oil, coconut oil, soybean oil and grapeseed oil are used instead, the texture and taste of the ice cream can still be guaranteed.

At present, there are countless types of ice cream around the world. In the recommended standard GB/T31114-2014 for "Frozen Beverage Ice Cream" implemented in my country since 2014, ice cream is divided into three types: full-fat, half-fat and non-dairy.

Table 1 GB/T31114-2014 "Frozen Drinks Ice Cream"

It can also be seen from the above table that there is no difference in the requirements for non-fat milk solids, total solids, fat and protein contained in some milk and non-dairy ice cream.

Whole milk ice cream may have a richer taste due to its higher fat content (the main part of the milk fat mass fraction is more than 8%). Because the fat in the formula comes from milk, it will contain more protein, calcium, vitamin A and other nutrients than vegetable oil formula products.

However, considering the nutritional value, the intake of saturated fat in whole milk ice cream will also increase. In addition, the cost of vegetable oil is lower than that of milk fat.

What is the difference between “vegetable oil” and “non-dairy creamer”?

From the literal meaning, it seems that "non-vegetable fat" and "non-vegetable creamer" are very similar, but in fact, these two kinds of "fats" are very different in essence.

Vegetable oil≠non-dairy creamer!

Vegetable fat refers to vegetable oil, which can also be understood as vegetable edible oil for cooking, such as peanut oil, soybean oil, linseed oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, olive oil, etc. It is generally labeled as "refined vegetable oil" in the ingredient list of processed foods.

Although non-dairy creamer is also derived from vegetable fat, it is obtained through the hydrogenation process and belongs to hydrogenated vegetable oil. During the hydrogenation process of vegetable oil, it is easy to produce a byproduct - trans fatty acids.

How to avoid buying

Ice cream containing trans fatty acids?

Hydrogenated vegetable oils were widely used in foods such as cakes, ice cream, and chocolate for quite a long time starting around 1930.

It was not until around 1990 that scientists found conclusive evidence that trans fats were a major cause of increased cardiovascular disease and that they also affected the growth and development of children and adolescents. Some research results show that trans fats are also closely related to the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease.

Therefore, our nutritionists point out that the daily intake of trans fatty acids should not exceed 2 grams.

my country's "National Food Safety Standard - General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Pre-packaged Foods" stipulates that if the trans fat content of food is less than 0.3 grams per 100 grams or per 100 milliliters, it can be labeled as trans fatty acid content of 0. Therefore, even if the trans fatty acid content of the food packaging label is shown as 0, it does not mean that it does not contain trans fatty acids at all.

Therefore, in order to avoid the "invisible" accumulation of trans fatty acids, especially for growing and developing children and teenagers, do not frequently consume ice cream whose formulas contain ingredients such as non-dairy creamer, margarine, vegetable butter, shortening, etc.

Of course, even without trans fatty acids, ice cream and popsicles are snacks that are high in sugar, fat, energy, and low in nutritional density. They cannot replace regular meals, and the frequency of consumption should be controlled, not more than once a week.

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