Posted on 12/01/2025 6:05:48 AM PST by Red Badger
Companies didn’t improve the recipe — they cheapened it.
The scam is simple: charge the same, deliver less.
The label tells the truth the ad won’t.
*********************************************************************
BRIEFING
Grant here. Here’s a story that’s going to hit people right in the nostalgia and the grocery cart. A couple’s video is going viral when they bought what they thought was the Breyers they grew up with… and instead they stumbled straight into a corporate magic trick. Let’s break it down.
In the video, the couple discovers after closely examining the box that their Breyers “ice cream” isn’t legally ice cream — it’s actually labeled “frozen dairy dessert.” Why? Because companies reformulated years ago to dodge FDA rules. Less cream, more air, stabilizers, gums, and cheaper fillers mean it no longer meets the federal definition of ice cream… but still sits in the same freezer aisle with the same familiar branding.
SOURCE
AMERICANS ARE JUST NOW REALIZING THEIR “ICE CREAM” ISN’T EVEN LEGALLY ICE CREAM ANYMORE
“Does anybody know what’s happened to Breyers ice cream…that it’s no longer ice cream?”
A couple posted a viral video after buying a tub of what they thought was normal ice cream only to discover the packaging never uses the words ice cream anywhere.
Instead, the label says “Frozen Dairy Dessert.”
Why? Because years ago, companies quietly changed their recipes:
• Less cream
• More air
• More gums & stabilizers
• Cheaper fillers
• Ingredients that no longer meet FDA standards to legally call it ice cream
The wife says she bought this thinking she was being “moderately healthy,” until she noticed something insane:
“NOWHERE on here does it say ice cream.”
“It literally says frozen dairy dessert.”
“This was the ice cream of my childhood…now it tastes TERRIBLE.”
She opens the container and immediately freaks out:
“First of all… what is this texture?”
“It tastes metallic.”
“It’s forming a FILM inside my mouth.” “
This is NOT ice cream.”
Her husband jumps in:
“This used to be the PREMIUM ice cream of the bourgeoisie.”
She stops him, but keeps inspecting the tub:
“They made it LOOK like ice cream… the fancy label, the ‘Rainforest Alliance’ leaf… the Grade A milk logo… but WHAT am I actually eating here?”
“Because it’s definitely not ice cream.”
People across the internet are now checking their own tubs and realizing the same thing – half the brands in their freezer aren’t even allowed to be called real ice cream.
Did you know companies legally reclassified this stuff… or have you been eating ‘frozen dairy dessert’ without realizing it?
Snopes actually dug into this “ice cream mystery” a year ago, long before this current viral outrage, and confirmed the entire thing: many brands like Breyers stopped meeting the FDA’s legal definition of ice cream. Once the milkfat drops too low or the overrun (air) gets too high, companies are forced to relabel the product as “frozen dairy dessert.”
Snopes lays out exactly how the reformulation happened: less cream, more gums, more fillers, and more air. And why brands quietly pivoted to the new label to avoid violating federal standards.
SOURCE:
Breyer’s sells both ice cream and frozen dairy desserts. The difference between the two products is not due to proportion of air whipped into the product, but due to the percentage of milk fat used in it. Legally, in the United States, ice cream contains 10% or more milk fat — per the FDA — while frozen desserts contain less.
In May 2024, a post on Facebook claimed that ice cream manufacturer Breyer’s no longer sold ice cream, but “frozen dairy desserts,” as it failed to meet standards of quality for ice cream set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA):
Breyer’s, America’s favorite ice cream, is no longer ice cream. It now legally has to be called Frozen Dessert, as it is 50% air, and has only a tiny percentage of actual milk or cream.
DEBRIEFING
So what we have here might look like a silly viral moment, but it’s actually a window into a much bigger story. Food companies have spent the last decade quietly rewriting the product underneath us. And they didn’t do it because consumers asked for more integrity or higher quality. They did it because the economics reward dilution.
When you swap cream for gums, you save money. When you whip more air into the mix, you inflate the volume without improving the product. When you lean on fillers instead of fat, you stretch every dollar further. And once you fall below FDA standards for “ice cream,” you don’t fix the recipe. You just change the label to a loophole category: “frozen dairy dessert.” And just quietly hope the public doesn’t notice.
This isn’t just about a creamy frozen delight; it’s just further exposing the same pattern we see across appliances, food, consumer goods, and even fast food. Quality shrinks silently, marketing stays glossy, and the customer pays more for less.
NOW YOU KNOW The scam is simple: charge the same, deliver less.
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Poland Spring water is legally labeled as “100% Natural Spring Water” because it meets FDA standards for spring water: it must come from a natural spring and retain its original composition.
According to the FDA’s Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR §165.110), bottled water labeled as “spring water” must:
Be derived from an underground formation from which water flows naturally to the surface
Be collected only at the spring or through a borehole tapping the underground source
Maintain the same composition and quality as the spring itself — no alteration beyond safe treatment
Poland Spring sources its water from multiple springs in Maine and surrounding areas, and it complies with these standards.
From Poland Spring’s 2024 Water Quality Report:
No added ingredients — it’s just water
Mineral content (varies slightly by source):
Calcium: 4.6–11 mg/L
Magnesium: 0.91–1.9 mg/L
Potassium: up to 1 mg/L
Fluoride: ND–0.21 mg/L (ND = not detected)
pH range: 5.1–7.6
No detectable levels of lead, arsenic, mercury, or other harmful contaminants
Purified water is typically processed via distillation, reverse osmosis, or deionization
Poland Spring is not purified — it’s filtered and ozonated for safety, but retains its natural mineral profile
In past lawsuits, critics argued that Poland Spring’s sources weren’t true springs.
However, the company has maintained compliance with FDA definitions and continues to label its product as “spring water” legally
HEY!
1977 was a pivotal year in the regulatory history of ice cream. That’s when the FDA formally updated the Standard of Identity for ice cream, tightening the definition and effectively phasing out the old “ice milk” category.
Before 1977:
Products with less than 10% milkfat were labeled as “ice milk”
Ice milk was a popular lower-fat alternative, often cheaper and lighter
After 1977:
The FDA revised the Standard of Identity for ice cream under 21 CFR §135.110
Minimum milkfat set at 10% for anything labeled “ice cream”
Products with less than 10% milkfat could no longer be called “ice milk”
Instead, they had to adopt new labels like “frozen dairy dessert”, “reduced-fat ice cream”, or “low-fat ice cream”
Marketing shift: “Ice milk” sounded inferior, so brands embraced “frozen dessert” as a more appealing label
Recipe reformulation: Many companies adjusted ingredients to meet or dodge the new standards
Consumer confusion: The term “ice cream” became more exclusive, while freezer aisles filled with euphemistic alternatives
This is prime material for a timeline reference sheet:
1950s–1976: “Ice milk” vs. “ice cream” side-by-side
1977: Regulatory shift — new thresholds, new labels
1980s–2020s: Rise of “frozen dairy dessert,” “light ice cream,” and “non-dairy frozen treats”
Wooo!
18%
Ah - you know about it too!
BINGO
Well, meat has WATER injected into it.
Now it's frozen low-fat milk...absolute gah-bage.
Try finding a tool with a power cord on it.
Or one that runs on gasoline.
Your ‘options’ may not be the ONLY things expanding!
I love to experiment with different foods & desserts. Since I make my own vanilla extract with vanilla beans and rum, I’m going to give this a try and make some kick ass vanilla ice cream (hopefully).
Growing up in western NYS, we got Sealtest ice cream, and it was delicious. (IIRC, it won top honor in ice cream contests.) I checked, and it’s not sold in the US any more — only Canada. It was taken over by Unilever, so most likely the quality has degraded.
I’m drooling!
Poland spring watwr used to be from a mineral water spring, and was the reason people travelled great distances to get it, for its suppxoed healing properties. Now its from ordinary springs. While it is “just water” its not the mineral spring watwr it once was
Ai “Poland Spring water is currently facing legal challenges regarding its classification. A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit to proceed that claims Poland Spring water does not meet the standards for being labeled as spring water under FDA and state laws. This lawsuit raises questions about the authenticity of the water’s source and whether it can still be considered mineral water. Additionally, there are concerns about the presence of harmful substances in the water, which further complicates its reputation.”
If you wish to r3ad about the history, here is a good link. I have a spedial interest in the history.
https://thekitchenpursuits.com/what-happened-to-poland-spring-water/
Product Feature Original Poland Spring Water Source Natural springs in Maine
Current Poland Spring Water
Natural springs in Maine, with some sources in other states
Well, I still eat store brand ice cream and increasingly, lots of butter. I also eat the more nutritious, high value cottage cheese
The article says that the company makes both frozen desert and ice cream.
The house wife in question bought the cheap stuff, eschewing the higher priced real thing.
The problem is purchasing error, not manufacturing
The TDS of todays poland spring water is 20 mg/l, whereas the TDS of the original was 50-100 mg/l
The minerals of todays watwr is added in during proc3ssing
You described my world as a child in the early 60’s in the Washington state desert. But we did have electricity. We just used it for stuff like TV’s and Radios.
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