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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When you’re a blogger and don’t have any real news to report, write something about folks who are too stupid to read a package label.
Breyer's is one of the worst. You can tell it's full of air by how quickly it melts. It has no "body". Breyer's seems to have embraced shrinkflation years ago.
We were juat talking about huge companies buying out smaller companies and ruining the products. Duofold made one of the best long underwear, but sold to fruit of loom i 5hink it was, now they are horrible, cheap. Poland spring water was sought out all over thw world, then the founder sold to nestle, and now its nothing like it was. So many exzmples like these.
Yes Bryers is bad. Most of their flavors are frozen dessert, not ice cream. They do make a few flavors that are branded as actual ice cream. Their mint chocolate chip is pretty good and it doesn’t glow luminous green like most other brands
Happened in 1977
The Government changed the requirements for ICE CREAM
Prior it was just milk and cream at a high percentage. anything lower was ICE MILK
Now it is chem clean
A a 1976 Hoodsie cup had more nutritional value than a quart of what is being sold now.
Happened in 1977
The Government changed the requirements for ICE CREAM
Prior it was just milk and cream at a high percentage. anything lower was ICE MILK
Now it is chem clean
A a 1976 Hoodsie cup had more nutritional value than a quart of what is being sold now.
One reason to cross the boarder up to Canada. Ice cream (including those soft serves) not allowed to be sold with less than 18% butter fat.
My wife says cooks don’t come out the same since Crisco removed the trans fat.
I worked in an ice cream factory. No chocolate for me and only Haagen-Dazs.
Cookies. Not cooks
Same here.
Sorry, if reality sucks. I was working in factory orders at that time. We had a group of American companies that we tried to promote as a made in America group. They couldn’t hold on. Their costs had to be made up by price. The Chinese had their government covering their costs and didn’t need to make a profit. Not finding made in America products in-store was an effect that was downstream of where the problem was.
BTW -Ross Perot was a Dem plant.
Häagen-Dazs still makes real ice cream, and it’s the only one I buy.>>> Ditto and i used to work in an ice cream factory.
I use vanilla ice cream for my root beer floats. Cheap IC is okay. I also use it to make pecan topped vanilla in a sugar cone.
The article boils down to a complaint that the Breyers frozen dairy dessert they bought is just that- frozen dairy dessert.
If you want ice cream, buy ice cream, not frozen dairy dessert.
I do that and I’ve been boycotting Chinese made products when I can for years because of their frauduent business practices. It’s easier to do that now because manufacturing has moved to many other countries. China is still a big problem though. Thank God for Trump!
The bioengineered ingredient is the xanthan gum.
Costco vanilla ice cream.
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