Do you remember the Breyers Ice Cream commercial about a young boy (little Johnny) trying to read the ingredients list of Brand X ice cream?
Little Johnny stuttered and stammered and just couldn’t sound out the words because the names of artificial ingredients like polysorbate 80 were too complicated for him.
Then they gave little Johnny a box of Breyers Strawberry Ice Cream and he read it perfectly:
“Milk, sugar, cream, strawberries”
The narrator then said:
“See, Johnny can read…Can you?”
Before you eat your ice cream, read it!”
I couldn’t find the one with little Johnny in it, but here is a Breyers commerical from about the same time period (1984).
Breyers has been a favorite at my house since I was a kid in the 1970s and few other ice cream except homemade were acceptable. I guess you could say I was a good example of brand loyalty though I tend to think of myself as a person that is not easily influenced by advertising.
I am ashamed to say that the effect of that commercial stuck with me until after the Unilever conglomerate began changing the Breyers recipe in 2006. I didn’t noticed when Unilever started adding Tara gum to Breyers ice cream until my wife mentioned it. I was disappointed that Breyers had abandoned their commitment to simple, natural ingredients, but we continued to buy Breyers Ice Cream.
I was disappointed, but how could I have imagined that this giant ice cream manufacturer that plops hundreds of thousands of gallons of ice cream into coated card board containers was making each carton with love and real commitment to all-natural ice cream and to world peace. Oh yes, forgive me. Tara gum is defined as a natural ingredient by the USDA.
Hey, let’s all run down to the store and get a Tara gum cone with carrageenan sprinkles. I joke, but that is only to keep from crying, because now we find out that Breyers Ice Cream changed the recipe again for many of our favorite flavors and the changes are noticeable.
Wait A Minute, This Don’t Taste Like All-Natural Ice Cream?!
How did we find out? Our first clue that the recipe had changed was the ice cream was very soft when we scooped it. We keep ice cream in the deep freeze at -10° F so it will be hard. Hey, if I am going to eat 1,000 calories of ice cream, I should at least get a workout trying to scoop it.
I had to check the freezer to make sure the power was still connected. No problem with the freezer, so we thought maybe something had propped the freezer door open by mistake.
Our second clue was that the feel, taste and consistency of the ice cream was not the same, it was like all the other cheap “store bought” ice creams that we avoid. It was no longer the rich, thick, sometimes slightly icy, but that completely familiar home made consistency and taste that we like. But we thought that too must have been an artifact of the ice cream being to soft.
My cherry vanilla ice cream is now a cherry vanilla frozen dairy dessert. Tastes like frozen foam.
But when the cat actually refused to lick the ice cream bowl, we knew something was wrong. We immediately read the label and saw that our old friend; Breyers Butter Pecan Ice Cream is now Breyers Butter Pecan Frozen Dairy Dessert. My wife’s favorite, cherry vanilla ice cream is now cherry vanilla frozen dairy dessert. She didn’t even want to finish what was left in the bowl. What? I knew it.
I thought only the government could screw up ice cream, but I blame Breyers (and Unilever) for this screw up. Shouldn’t they have to issue a public service announcements before they can make changes like this? They had to know that thousands of people would be buying something based on past experience and be fooled like we were. But seriously, what does the cat know that we don’t?
Breyers Butter Pecan Ice Cream Ingredients, Past and Present – Johnny Needs to Expand His Vocabulary!
Here is Breyers Butter Pecan Ice Cream recipe as of March 2012, just before recipe change:
Milk, Cream, Sugar, Butter Pecans (Pecans, Butter, Cottonseed Oil, Salt), Whey, Natural Flavor, Natural Tara Gum, Salt
I can not find the real original recipe, but I believe it was the same except it didn’t have Whey or Tara Gum.
Compare that to the new Breyers Butter Pecan Frozen Dairy Dessert:
Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Butter Pecans (Pecans, Butter, Cottonseed Oil, Butter (Cream, Salt), Salt], Cream, Whey, Mono and Diglycerides, Salt, Carob Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Natural Flavors, Carrageenan, Lactase Enzyme, Annatto (For Color), Vitamin A Palmitate, Tara Gum
Yikes! Yes, I can read and I don’t like it.
The butter pecan part of the ice cream, I mean the frozen dairy dessert is about the same, but with three kinds of gum (Carob Bean, Guar and Tara), Carrageenan, Mono & Diglycerides, Annatto coloring and Lactase Enzyme, no wonder they had to change from calling it real ice cream (at least 10% cream) to frozen dairy dessert and no wonder the taste and feel has changed. We wonder which of these chemicals; Excuse me, USDA approved Natural Products caused the cat to reject it?
What Breyers Says about The Recipe Change
I called the Breyer’s customer service to see if they could explain the recipe change. They must have received a lot of calls, because I can’t find that number on their website anymore.
Market trends make yucky ice cream.
The customer service person was very polite and apologetic and started explaining about commodity prices, competition and market trends “Stop!” I said. “There is no love in commodity prices and market trends. I just want my favorite Ice cream back”.
She assured me that all the taste tests showed that people actually prefer the new recipe better. Seeing that they were not going to change the recipe back just because I asked, I apologized for wasting her time and wished her and her company good luck with their new endeavor, a journey they will be taking without us.
About a week later, we received some coupons in the mail from Unilever, which included coupons for Breyers Ice Cream and Frozen Dairy Desserts. We have decided that we will no longer eat Breyers even if it’s free. What’s the point of eating something if you don’t like the taste. All youngsters ignore that last sentence and eat your broccoli, it’s good for you. We might get some free Lipton Tea, though we prefer Luzianne.
It is amazing to me that this abomination to real ice cream was preferred by their taste testers. Who did they use for taste testing? Preschoolers? It must have been people that have never had home-made ice cream. But should we be surprised? How many people today know much about natural or homemade or even know where their food comes from? A hundred years ago, everyone knew that milk came from cows, meat came from animals and most meals were cooked at home from scratch.
Today, food just magically appears in the grocery store, all neatly packaged and wrapped in plastic. Defrosting a frozen manufactured food made by a giant conglomerate in the microwave is considered home cooking. We still laugh at a friend that brought “home-made” banana pudding to a pot-luck dinner. He was very proud of himself though he used an artificially flavored and artificially colored pre-mixed box of instant vanilla pudding and vanilla wafers from a box. He really thought he made banana pudding from “scratch” because he peeled the banana.
Make Your Own Ice Cream – It’s Easier Than You Think
We no longer eat anything Breyers and instead, make our own homemade ice cream with our favorite ice cream maker.
In a follow-up post, we discuss other brands of ice cream and if store-bought, all-natural ice cream even exists. We will also explain what thickening, stabilizing and emulsifying agents are and if they are indeed unhealthy. Note: New study shows emulsifiers may cause gut inflammation, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colitis.
Question: Have you stopped being a Breyers Ice Cream fan or do you still buy Breyers despite the changes?
I was wondering why my butter pecan would not get hard. My wife said something is wrong with the new freezer. I sad it was soft when I got it from Shoprite. I opened it tonight this sh** is horrible! My wife won’t eat it so I threw the whole no longer a half gallon in the trash. I grew up with breyers and remember the school trip to the Breyers plant in Philadelphia. Pretty sad I will no longer by Breyers this stuff what ever it is is yucky so in the trash. I would never eat this crap again even if it was free. Now to find something that is really ice cream, I will be searching the shelves next week.
You have to do a lot of searching these days to find completely all-natural ice cream. Besides Häagen-Dazs and a few other brands we mentioned on our other post, they are few and far between and typically expensive. That’s why we just decided to make our own when we can.
My daughter is EXTREMELY allergic to guar gum; just a fews spoonfuls of Breyers with guar starts an anaphylactic reaction. My daughter first had this reaction as a teenager after a few sips of an Arby’s Jamocha Shake and then again 8 months later after a few sips of a McDonald’s chocolate shake. There were so many ingredients listed online, there was no way to know what was causing the reaction. Extensive allergy testing provided no answers, and we started carrying Benadryl and an Epipen.
At that time, I always purchased Breyers because it had the fewest number and all natural ingredients. Still, I suppose I should be thankful to the folks who make Breyers. One evening when my daughter’s throat began to swell at home after eating Breyers Homemade Vanilla, I was able to find the culprit. Guar was the only new ingredient on the list.
Unfortunately, we now find guar in many food products and have become avid label readers. And, just this week, we found guar in a product we didn’t suspect–it’s in the adhesive matter of an iontophoresis patch used in physical therapy for post-surgical pain. She had the same anaphylactic reaction. And she’s not the only one.
Hi Tari, thank you, this is very useful information, I’m glad that you shared it. We’re a small ice cream maker on the west coast of Scotland. Have struggled to fathom the outrage I have seen on this website regarding gums. These are, after all, natural ingredients. And the reason they are added, in very small quantities to ice cream, is because the ice cream tends to collapse after a few weeks in the freezer, and also tends to form lots of ice crystals as the water and fats migrate apart very slowly in the freezer. We tried making our ice cream without any gums, and did test batches. If everyone ate our ice cream within 2 weeks of it being made we would be fine, wouldn’t need the gums. But that isn’t realistic for us here. But we will now drop Guar Gum, on the basis of what you reported with your daughter.
“Struggling to fathom the outrage regarding gums????” PLEASE go do some reading. And just tagging on the nice fuzzy word “all natural” doesn’t make it good either. Think about this for a minute. Poo is all natural. Would you eat it?
I did more reading about when gums first started appearing in ice cream. And why. I get that it stores better, ships better, and keeps in the freezer better with emulsifiers. Well FAT doesn’t crystalize well. Making GOOD ice cream with a high butter fat content will stay creamy better than if you cheap out and use a lower fat mix of ingredients.
Egg is a good option for an “all natural” emulsifier. French Vanilla, if it’s made right with egg is awesome. Keeping it cold enough during shipping is also critical, though I get a small company might not be able to afford that, but that also keeps the separating and ice crystals down to a minimum.
Now Breyers USE to be this way. They USED to be good. Another reason to use guar gum is because cutting the product with a much cheaper ingredient pads profits. And gums have been showing up in EVERYTHING lately. Guar is one of the least harmful but as Tari pointed out some people are allergic. And according to our own FDA “in small amounts…” it’s ok but they know in large amounts it can cause problems. Well how would anyone know how much they had by the end of the day when no one has to list how much exactly is in their products and the stuff is in everything.
Just recently I put back a carton of cottage cheese because it had no fewer than THREE types of gums in it. WTH? Cottage cheese? Seriously! It’s in sausage, the buns, condiments. There is not a single brand or flavor of salad dressing that doesn’t have xanthan gum in it. (That one isn’t just a plant gum, it’s bacteria fermented seaweed.)
NO. I won’t buy store bought ice cream anymore. Or a lot of other things anymore. Making my own is not at all hard. And my daughter and I found a few ice cream shops that also make their own. And boy is it good. I doubt anyone with REAL ice cream in their freezer would have it there for long before it gets gobbled up.
I bet if you printed right on your cartons, NO GUMS. NO CORN SYRUP, NO OTHER CRAP, just darn good real ice cream, you could charge what you need to and sell it well. Wish I could find something like that by me but no. Given up.
You dont need guar gum or oils in ice cream! Lecithin…or egg yolk does the same thing! The finest ice cream in the world …The old Breyers never used gums of any kind….and never had ice crystal problems…i think because of the high butterfat content 17%. I dont believe that there are any ice cream producers left in the U.S. that makes ice cream like the old Breyers….. Unilever should be closed down for adulterating a beautiful ice cream like they did!!!
I will be making my own also. I also checked out Haggen Dazs and it also is not the same
and has additives. I think it is a shame that you cannot find all natural ingredients in hardly anything any more. I refuse to buy ice cream anymore and the advertising that is going on for Breyers on T.V. is lying. It is not the same but it says it has all natural ingredients.
I found that Blue Bunny makes a natural vanilla ice cream without all the gums; it is nice and smooth without the sticky texture you get from gums. So that was a start. But they also whip a tremendous amount of air into the product. I now buy the Aldi premium chocolate and vanilla ice creams. No gums, no bs, just good ice cream. $3.99 a container (48 oz or whatever is common these days).
https://www.aldi.us/en/grocery-home/aldi-brands/specially-selected/frozen-foods/frozen-detail/ps/p/specially-selected-super-premium-vanilla-ice-cream/
Also a similar size of Blue Bunny was by mass 30% less food. 30%! You are getting ripped off. Please give the Aldi premium ice cream a try!
Steve – The product page says that the Aldi Super Premium Vanilla Ice Cream has only 5 ingredients. What are the five? Can’t find a label or listing of the ingredients anywhere.
I have a carton in the freezer. The ingredients are: Cream, Skim milk, Sugar, Egg Yolks, Vanilla Extract.
Where is it sold? I’ve never seen or heard of it.
And by the way cottonseed oil is a waste product and not suppose to be for human consumption. And never get anything with corn oil in it (all corn oil is now GE).
No Canola oil either – it thickens your blood to a sticky glue like substance and causes heart attacks and strokes.
Huh? I just checked my Haagen Dazs carton of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla and there are no additives in any of those flavors, so this is not true.
I no longer buy Breyers due to changes in recipe. Last straw was CORN SYRUP. Ice cream didn’t taste good.
I was not happy when seeing that Breyer’s had changed their recipe and put all those additives in their ice cream, including corn syrup. No more Breyer’s for me!
Yes! Corn syrup!! I thought I was going nuts when eating Breyer’s Peach ice cream! Yuk. Tastes like someone poured a gallon of artificial sweetener into it. And our beloved Breyer’s Vanilla, with all the vanilla beans. No more!! I ate that ice cream for OVER 50 years, in the malt shop in Scarsdale, N.Y. So 😢 Unilever bought them out with no thought of the customer. (they should’ve stuck to soap). I will never purchase Breyer’s again (6/5/17) because their ice cream is, simply, NOT BREYER’S.
Just Purchased Breyers Butter Pecan and it tasted nothing like it use to. Big disappointment. It was not creamy nor buttery tasting like many years ago. So, after eating a bit, I said something has to be wrong, and I looked at the Package and in small type lower left bottom it reads Frozen Dairy Dessert. What!? Who would have thought in a million years that Breyers changed this once great tasting Ice Cream to a Frozen Dairy Dessert. In the Garbage it went and I will find another Brand, and also watching Unilever Products much more closely, now that I heard about them here. I myself would have had no problem paying more for Breyers Original Butter Pecan Ice Cream.
The same thing happened with me. I bought a pint of their butter Pecan and after two days in the freezer it was soft. I thought something was wrong with the fridge. I started eating it and said what the hell. I started reading the container and then saw the frozen dairy dessert. I used to be a huge Breyer’s fan from my childhood. Now I mostly eat Ben and Jerry’s or Haagan Daz.
Mike – The company that bought Breyers also bought Ben & Jerry’s so you have to start reading their ingredients as well before purchasing. Many of their flavors now have guar gum, locust bean gum, carrageenan and soy lecithin as well. They also use cornstarch as a thickener. Cornstarch isn’t bad in itself, but when it’s replacing cream in my ice cream as a way to fake creaminess, I protest it.
Thanks for that heads up. I didn’t know that. I have to start reading all the labels now.
Stopped eating that garbage years ago, Turkey Hill Natural very good.
Well did you also know that Beyers has the bovine growth hormone in their ice cream, and now Turkey Hill and a few others after they have been actually petitioned by consumers and the a big rally group that’s environmental blew the whistle, and also they will not label that thy do not use GMOs that is not a good thing.
I went to Turkey Hill all Natural and Ben and Jerry’s they said is their brand without it. But if this processed food thing and the food doesn’t turn around soon besides that I know the farmers where I get stuff.
I buy Certified organic and believe me it kills the budget but I try to just eat fresh and frozen and buy the organic that I can and eggs that aren’t fed, arsenic in the feed and everything else they feed our cows.
You have to find a farm that will not be sucked into this harmful genetics that ruining all our food and making all of us sick….So be on the lookout for your bags and boxes that either said No GMOs or certified organic cause if they are not allowed to put any of that if it carries the label certified organic. Trust me if you can save your family as much as possible maybe by us sticking all together. They will see we are not a bunch of guinea pigs being tested.
My husband and I became deathly sick after eating the lactose-free Breyers Ice Cream and threw up immediately after eating. Fake, artificial, poly-plastic ice cream…Totally not digestible by humans, animals, not even a bug will eat these artificial ice creams. Want to hear another false product? Any pill that is coated with poly…gel or whatever. Killing people as we speak.
It’s sad when a company has to produce an “all natural” product for the folks who don’t want to eat the fake stuff. Wouldn’t it just be easier to make everything all natural? I guess not.
Try Aldi’s brand Premium ice cream, if you have an Aldi’s store in your neck of the woods. Seems to have nothing wrong and it is very good. Tastes like real ice cream.
Agreed.
I will not by Breyers ice cream, you should see what it looks like when it melts. OMG it is really nasty.
Thank you for posting my very same concerns about the change in this ice cream. I just called the Breyer’s Customer Service Dept. & spoke to a representative about this. Very disturbing to me that when I finally found an ice cream that was tasty & free of additives, I was extremely disappointed to find out that the coffee flavor had so many extra garbage in it that it gave me flem in my throat, & it tasted weird. If she knew that there were others with the same concern, she didn’t let on. It was good to find out that so many people had the same concerns that I did. Thank you. Let’s keep bugging them about this until they make the change. Also about the GMO thing too. Thanks. “The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Grease”
Patty, I work customer service. I guarantee this will not make one bit of difference to the company that purchased this and other ice cream companies like Ben & Jerry. Too bad Breyers and Ben & Jerry’s didn’t hold out for honest buyers, not someone who would turn their brands into junk.
I have never been a Breyer’s fan. We were poor and bought what we could afford. I do want to say that back then, they didn’t have half the dangerous stuff (like GMO), just the usual run of the mill chemicals. I had been purchasing Carb Smart. Since it is New and improved, I have also noticed the consistency is different. What is funny is that it uses Skim Milk as the main ingredient. Anyone on a carb smart diet knows that the more fat you pull out of the milk the higher the carbs are.
True carb smart would go with cream, which is very low in carbs. How do they bring down the carbs? The next main ingredient is water. I noticed that if I put a scoop of this in diet Root beer for a float, it now gets icy right away. It’s worse than ice milk. Then this frozen dairy dessert has cream (so little it cannot be termed ice cream), and then sorbitol, polydextrose, whey, glycerin, natural (whatever that means) flavor (doesn’t say Vanilla so I’m banking it’s not), proplyene gycol, monoesters, cellulose gel, mono and diglycerides, cellulose Gum, guar gum, Carbo bean gum, acesulfame, potassium, Sucralose (Splenda Brand), carrageenan, and finally Sugar (why sugar in low carb with all the fake sweeteners?…got me). It’s junk.
I too have decided I will make my own ice cream. I can purchase heavy cream, milk, Splenda, vanilla and egg yolks and go for a true custard that won’t cost me more than the junk Breyers has to put out. I’ll be purchasing an electric ice cream maker.
The dishonest people that now make Breyers are low ethical people. They could care less about your health. The crap they are substituting is for one purpose and one purpose only…to put lots more money in their pockets because chemicals are cheaper than food, and if you get sick eating their product, oh well. If they honestly did better in a taste test with the junk they put in it now, they are assured there will be enough suckers to keep them in the black.
GMOs aren’t dangerous. They’re just bad for the environment.
My family “loved” Breyers ice cream–especially its Vanilla Bean, which we always served when we had company. Then came the insultingly smaller packages & the complete disappearance of our beloved Vanilla Bean. Fortunately, we have discoverer a wonderful alternative, which is Stone Ridge *REAL* Ice cream with a very good Vanilla Bean among many other very good flavors.
Bill – This is the ingredient list for Stone Ridge “Real” Vanilla Bean Ice Cream:
This is Breyers Natural Vanilla Ice Cream Ingredients:
I’m wondering….the fact that you like the Stone Ridge Vanilla over Breyers Vanilla may prove Breyers to be right – that people like the creamier texture that additives like mono-and diglycerides, guar gum, carob bean gum, and carrageenan may provide. Breyers original natural vanilla lacked the tara gum that it now has, but the Stone Ridge ice cream has 2 gums, carrageenan plus calcium sulfate (food stablizer to make a dry, stiff ice cream, reduces rate of melting), and sodium bicarbonate, aka, baking soda (reduces acid to improve body & texture).
Also, you mentioned that Breyers has smaller packages, but Breyers Natural Vanilla is the same size as Stone Ridge – 1.5 quarts.
We “loved” the original Breyers Vanilla Bean, including its oh-so-slightly icy/ hard texture, but it’s gone now and the only Vanilla Bean that we can find that comes a bit close is Stone Ridge. Of course, it doesn’t equal the old Breyers.
Haagen dazs is the only ice cream I have found that does not have carrageenan and/or other chemical additives. Stephanie, GMO’s are BAD for your body! Do you think glyphosate is good for you?
YOU ACTUALLY BELIEVE THE LABEL? LMAO
Unfortunately the entire contents are not listed on any products..(secret ingredients) you can thank labeling laws for that. unless you are making it yourself you really do not know what is in any of theses commercial products. NONE ARE GOOD. except homemade!
Many Haagen Daz choices are now made with LACTOSE REDUCED SKIM MILK and CORN SYRUP. The texture has definitely changed – not hard packed like it used to be and very disappointed with the cheapening of ingredients.
EWG rates foods/ice cream
http://www.ewg.org/foodscores/products?search=haagen+daz
Breyers ice cream doesn’t melt, it deflates.
Breyers, since the 80’s, has been adding something to the ice cream boxes for years.
I noticed the ice cream starts to shrink away from the side of box after opening, I was told it’s added preserver. The taste of the ice cream was different along the perimeter opposed to the center. The ice cream was dryed, rolled up & discolored. And that was back in the early 80’s.
Maybe no one is aware that Breyers is no longer Breyers. They sold the company many years ago and slowly the new company changed the original recipe. The same is happening to Hershey and other childhood favorites. They buy the name and change the ingredients. I think unless they contract to continue making the product the same, they should change the name.
Maureen – Yes, we mentioned that Unilever bought Breyers in 2006. They also own Ben & Jerry’s, Good Humor and Talenti Gelato & Sorbetto. As far as I know, Hershey Ice Cream is still owned by the Hershey Trust Company.
The reason why Unilever would buy Breyers is for the brand name. They buy it because it already has a reputation (as the “all-natural” ice cream) and is exactly why people continue to buy it, not knowing that the ingredients have changed. However, as many people here have discovered, once you taste it, you’ll definitely know something ain’t right. If Breyer’s stipulated in a “contract” that Unilever couldn’t change the ingredients or they would have to change the name, well then the acquisition probably would have never happened. What would be the advantage of paying a premium for Breyers, but then having to change the name?
re: Talenti Gelato
I’d gotten fed up with the poor quality of this product (it was disappointment after disappointment trying the flavors of the soulless, overpriced stuff), and went to file a complaint when I discovered they were owned by Unilever; I instantly understood why the ice cream was so “flat” (I’ve never had flat ice cream before – they managed to pull it off somehow – it was as if there was no “love” put in to it), lost all hope it would ever change, and trashed the complaint form I’d filled out on their site (no point investing any time or effort at all into a relationship with a company like Uni – a company willing to poison people to make money).
One hint that a recipe may have changed are the words, “New and Improved” or similar adjectives. As one person above said, we may not even know the extent of every little thing that has gone into an ingredient. One example: natural flavor is not the same as stating what the flavor is. Vanilla Bean and natural flavor would be two different things. Add in artificial flavors, and you’ve added another level of chemicals for which we are not told exactly what that is. More and more I am learning that if we can buy it from a farmer (milks, cheeses, etc) buy it there. If you have whole foods stores near you, pay the extra and stay healthy. If you can grow it and make it yourself. do it.
find turkey hill natural
Ditto.
Breyer’s mint chocolate chip was my absolute favorite for decades. Then one day I opened a container to find that the glorious semi-sweet chocolate chunks had been replaced by milk chocolate chunks. The result was a less than glorious flavor. I emailed a complaint to the company which tried to make me happy with a slew of coupons. Apparently I wasn’t the only one because the milk chocolate was soon replaced by semi-sweet chocolate FLAKES, a totally inferior and different sensory experience. I switched to Turkey Hill All Natural and found it better than the original Breyer’s. The quality of the Turkey Hill remains unchanged. Recently I succumbed to a Breyer’s two for $6 sale. Not only were the boxes less than full, but the texture and flavor were inferior. Won’t make that mistake ever again.
Sadly, Turkey Hill (owned by Krogers) has changed their “natural” recipes and their “natural” ice cream no longer tastes clean and leaves a film in your mouth. I contacted them about this and they don’t care. Like everyone else, they just sent me a bunch of coupons which didn’t help change the taste and purity of, or trust in, their product.
So, good luck with Turkey Hill because it’s being changed to the nasty too.
NOPE! turkey hill “natural” is no more….i caught it just as they made the change…..called the company and was told the only change they made was to make it more creamy. I told them that’s a lie and that they pumped more air into it …drastically cut the vanilla.and changed the texture…it is now SH** just like breyers….I wish people would be so ignorant and buy adulterated foods just because it has a “brand name”
rbrittne – Curious what Turkey Hill told you about how they made it more creamy? Did they give any explanation or details about the change they made?
YES! They lied and told me that they changed it to make it more creamy. I said how did you do that? She said they added more butterfat. I told her that is misinformation. I told her all you did was add more air and use less real vanilla! It now taste like caramel. They lie because They believe we are idiots!
FULLY AGREE! THEY are destroying everything .
I suspect that they are now using Vanillin, and not vanilla extract, as the latter is extremely expensive circa $500 per litre compared with $100 per litre 3 years ago. A tropical cyclone wiped out 85% of the world’s Vanilla pod supply in March 2017, hitting the vanilla-growing part of Madagascar two weeks before harvest was due to start. It takes 18 months from harvest to make good quality vanilla extract, so the situation has not yet improved in terms of scarcity of supply and sky-high pricing. Vanillin on the other hand is a flavor compound that is able to be derived from wood pulp, and is pretty cheap.
Interesting. It could also be something called castoreum. One of about 700 ingredients that can be part of “natural or artificial flavors.” And no company has to disclose just what chemicals they are using in their mix. But castoreum comes from the back side of a beaver. Suppose to taste like vanilla. So now… ANYTHING with “natural or artificial flavors” has been put on my never buy this list. They can KEEP their beaver butt oil. Yuck.
I never had the problem with it not melting. it melts on me I don’t know what all of you are smoking. I forgot it in the car I came out it was melted. even somebody tried to show on the internet that it doesn’t melt. There was cream around the little bits of ice and he said it didn’t melt. what do you call that loose cream and the fact that it deflated from a ball scoop into a puddle of nothingness? It melted. That’s the only brand we get out here and I am still going to eat it. God, every one will find problems and say there’s problems with anything we eat.
Steele cut oats of metal pieces in them they say.
Breyers ice cream doesn’t melt they say( it does).
All apples have dangerous pesticides they say.
Organic tomatoes are given growth hormones.
Cereal had metal shavings in it.
Dog food is made out of poisonous chemicals.
How about this? how about you just get rid of all the food out of the market and you can eat grass. sound better? no milk, no nothing since no matter what ever one is going to find a problem with everything.
You must work for Unilever. Anyone who has tasted the real ice cream knows the difference. It all melts, but it’s how it melts in your mouth. Real ice cream should melt into a very thin milk without leaving residue. The new ice creams melt into a sticky thick like cream that leaves a wired feeling in your mouth.
When you are someone like me who has horrible allergies you read every label and try to buy pure food with words you can read and recognize. I have been to emergencies rooms with attacks of hives and then symptoms that persist for many weeks.
Because of the DOLLAR, these companies are killing us. I live in a farm area and when we moved here 29 years ago, there was spraying from airplanes about 3 or 4 times a year. Now it is quite often and hangs in the air, my husband filled me in on the chemical sprays on these farms and was shocked that they even plant through spraying by air. Corn is sprayed to harvest earlier.
Think of this, High Fructose Corn Syrup is in everything!! Cereal, and tons of products have corn additives. I remember when Pepperidge Farms bread stopped HFCS, but I still see it in ice cream labels and so much more.
Children are now full of allergies and obesity, we all see these kids around and wonder, ok they don’t play outside and jump rope anymore, but eating at fast food restaurants is HORRIBLE>. Have you tasted french fries from McD’s lately?? They taste like cardboard.
Why is our government killing us and making everyone either sick or obese. “MONEY”
I feel sick after eating ice cream anymore, so I don’t eat it. I just looked since I read here that Unilever owns Talenti. So, even the sorbet has junk in it. That’s an expensive indulgence I will discontinue.
My family and friends don”t understand why I love trips to Europe. The food there is pure and the bread is fantastic. So, I come back feeling great! Aldi is a German company. Let’s pray that they do not take our lead and corrupt the pure food. I will try their premium ice cream.
Now, my biggest question is How can Perdue make a breaded chicken cutlet that is only refrigerated and lasts weeks in home refrigerators. YUCK
And don”t even start me on the wood saw dust in grated and processed cheese. It taste like cardboard too.
I agree with every word. It’s why I started doing a LOT more home cooking and less buying of processed anything.
We bought an ice cream machine and make our own now, only problem is finding actual cream is just as hard as finding good ice cream. Even Land O Lakes packages “heavy cream” though if you read the ingredients it’s SKIM MILK thickened with carrageenan. YUCK.
Half and half will work, not quite as rich but it will work, and even that you have to read labels. Only found two brands that are real.
Pre-shredded cheese…. funny story. Some young woman was looking at cheese and somehow we got to talking… she said “my grandma insists we buy a block of cheese and shred it.” I said listen to your grandma, she’s a wise woman. Then said let me show you.
Pointed on the back of the shredded cheese she had, to cellulose fiber. I said they add this so it doesn’t stick together. It’s also known as cardboard. So yea, grandma was right. Sure you will work a little bit harder, and the cheese might stick together a bit, but so what? It will melt into your dish just fine and taste SO much better.
Never hurts to educate people anywhere possible.
There is definitely something wrong with the ice cream because I don’t want any more after having a little bit of the vanilla ice cream by breyers and I can eat a lot of ice cream. I just don’t feel good after eating it. I feel like I ate something slimy.
I agree Breyers does not freeze hard. I stopped eating Breuer’s a long time ago.
Shocked!! I just discovered that the last Breyers I purchased was not my favorite all-natural icecream but some “frozen dessert”! Way to go, Unilever! I never checked the fine print on the carton – because, who would suspect a change like that? It’s no doubt all about profits. Well, what will you profit if no one buys Breyers any longer? And I’ll be watching other Unilever products much more closely in future.
I found black specks in my ice cream and they will not tell me what it is . I will not eat anymore BREYERS VANILLA ICE CREAM.
And these are not the black specks from the vanilla bean? And Breyers wouldn’t tell you what they are?
You do realize that Breyers still makes real ice cream. Most of the assorted flavors are frozen dairy dessert. They do still make real ice cream only in a few flavors. Read all the labels.
Find me just ONE that doesn’t have corn syrup, assorted bean gums, polysorbate 80, natural or artificial flavors (which may contain any of some 700 chemicals they don’t even have to disclose,) or any other crap in it. I talked with breyers once asking for plain vanilla without corn syrup. They said “all natural vanilla.” Found some. No corn syrup. And guess what else it doesn’t have.
VANILLA! How is that even legal?
Nope, I don’t even go down the ice cream isle anymore. Make my own.
Abby’s mom Do you even know what real ice cream is? Breyers used to be a pure natural ice cream like it was made in the old days. Unilever bought the breyers name and adulterated their ice cream by using cheap chemicals. Bottom line….profit…….BREYERS IS GARBAGE!
We agree with you! It tastes like plastic mush! Who are they trying to fool? The very first BITE told us that this was NOT the old fashioned Breyers. Has GREED consumed us?
Now I am getting sick after eating some of this junk
It definitely left a bad taste in our mouths. We have never gone back to Breyers since.
We just discovered how it is NOT an ice cream…some kind of plastic tasting thick MUSH!
I’ve been boycotting Breyers ever since they reformulated their cherry vanilla ice cream. But last week, in my local Bel Air supermarket in Sacramento, they had the cherry vanilla. And it was ice cream, not frozen dairy dessert. So I checked the ingredients. Not as pure as the original which was only milk, cream, sugar, cherries, and vanilla, but better than many: milk, cream, sugar, cherries (cherries, sugar, water, plum, cherry and black carrot concentrates, citric acid, natural flavors), whey, tara gum, natural flavor.
Yes, Breyer’s “Ice Cream” version is much better than the “Dairy Dessert” and a step above most other brands of ice cream as far as having natural ingredients. I still do not like the addition of tara gum and whey which gives it a different mouth feel to me than their original all-natural ice cream without those ingredients. If we absolutely have to have ice cream right away, I’ll either buy Breyer’s or Haagen-Daz 5, but most of the time we just make our own ice cream now.
Mark, Tara gum? How is that an ingredient of ice cream? “Natural flavor.” Yea you better look this up. Companies don’t have to disclose exactly what they are using. Proprietary rights allow them to keep their formulas secret. But a LOT of different things can be called “natural.” Including… castorium. Tastes like vanilla. Comes from a gland on the back side of a beaver.
Well I’m sorry but VANILLA tastes like vanilla and I’d rather not eat beaver butt oil.
“Flavors” be it “natural OR artificial” are OFF my shopping list. Give me real food or it stays right on the shelf.
My family has been buying Breyers ice cream since the 1970’s..my personal favorite is cherry vanilla…today I purchased the “NEW” cherry vanilla..the first thing I noticed is that the container was considerably smaller ..however the price remains the same…I just now scooped my ice cream into my bowl..and curled up on the couch to enjoy my Breyers cherry vanilla…as I have been doing for 40 years…immediately I noticed the horrific change…I LITERALLY vomited…it by far was the absolute worst ice cream (now called (dairy product because by law there is no longer enough cream in the recipe to call it ice cream) that I have ever tasted in my life…I read the label and saw that it is no longer all natural ice cream..it is loaded with chemicals…I put the bowl onto the floor for my dog …and he did something I have never seen him do ..he sniffed it…sneezed and walked away without even eating a small amount! I will NEVER BUY ANOTHER BREYERS PRODUCT AGAIN…AND I WILL TELL EVERY ONE I KNOW…SHAME ON YOU BREYERS!
@Mary Ellen: Our cats wouldn’t eat it and neither would your dog…that’s very telling. I agree, Breyers’ “Frozen Dairy Dessert” is completely disgusting. I have discovered though that Breyers does offer some of their flavors in a “Natural” version that leaves out the mono and diglycerides, carob bean gum, guar gum and carrageenan. For example, their Natural Vanilla is: milk, cream, sugar, tara gum, natural flavor. The addition of the tara gum is somewhat noticeable, but not as much as all the added fillers in the Frozen Dairy Dessert. But unless we absolutely need ice cream immediately, we just end up making our own. Milk, cream, sugar, natural flavors – that’s it!
Try Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, it’s good. Just as many calories in a pint as breyers had in 3.
I used to like breyers, too, but now it’s the same crap as everyone else. The taste isn’t there anymore, and the texture is too soft. it’s like soft serve, bad soft serve.
Steve – I used to love Ben & Jerry’s, but like Breyers, they too have been taken over by Unilever and their ingredients have changed. Look at the list:
Cream, Skim Milk, Liquid Sugar (Sugar, Water), Water, Cherries, Sugar, Egg Yolks, Coconut Oil, Cocoa (Processed With Alkali), Cocoa, Fruit And Vegetable Concentrates (Color), Guar Gum, Natural Flavor, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Butteroil, Carrageenan, Soy Lecithin.
I do not want guar gum, carrageenan or soy lecithin in my ice cream. I’m not sure I even want butteroil in my ice cream. If you wouldn’t use these in homemade ice cream, they shouldn’t be in my storebought either. And “natural flavor” isn’t as innocuous as you would think. Lots of ingredients pass for being “natural”.
The definition of “natural flavors” from the Code of Federal Regulations is as follows:
“The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.”
For example, Castoreum is considered a natural flavor and will be labeled simply as “natural flavor” on a label. What is it?
Castoreum: Made from a secretion from a Beaver’s anal gland. Beaver’s use this chemical to mark their territory. This chemical is processed and then used in a variety of products, including ice cream, candy and alcoholic drinks.
Do you want beaver butt juice in your ice cream?
I used to love Breyers before the gums. Now I won’t eat it because it upsets my stomach and my view of the world. I won’t buy it again ever!
Uh…Castorium! Who would buy it if they knew Castorium was in it? Yuck! (For anyone reading this, scroll through and read the response to Steve. It’s near the bottom. Castorium listed as “natural flavor” in ingredients and a Beaver’s anal secretion for marking their territory. Okay…I have to go throw up.
Also, there is no fancy drink at Starbucks which does not have some artificial flavor or engineered sugar in it and What a price for JUNK. I can only order either tea or plain coffee, sometimes with 2% milk. Usually, I bring my own from home.
Turkey Hill makes a new ‘all natural’ chocolate icecream with 4 ingredients. Cream, sugar, milk, cocoa. It’s pretty delicious.
I’ll have to look for the All Natural Turkey Hill Ice Cream the next time I’m in the store. I kind of gave up looking after finding so many of the other brands using so many fillers and artificial ingredients. I see they have a cherry vanilla which is one of my favorites. Ingredients are just cream, nonfat milk, sugar, black cherries and vanilla. Awesome – no guar gum!
We have also switched from Breyer’s to Turkey Hill All Natural Ice Cream that we find at Wegman’s. It is the real deal, and my son loves the Chocolate Chip Mint flavor.
I finally pinpointed the Carageenan in the Breyer’s Carb Smart as the culprit for my gastro upsets.
When I cut out all my dairy with this ingredient (A type of red seaweed used as an emulsifier and stabilizer) things started to improve drastically. It amazes me at the junk ice cream companies put in their products. Yuck.
Turkey Hill has our vote in our home. Breyers 3 for 10.00 no wonder, it’s trash. You really ruined a good product Breyers so sorry for your loss.
I also discovered Turkey Hill and the vanilla (milk cream, sugar, vanilla) tastes the same as what I make myself only without the work.
Yes, I buy this brand too. I like it.
I have been wondering what TaraGum was. I looked online and Apparently Breyers reformulated in 2006 (I should’ve known something was up when you can buy a whole tub at Walmart for a little over $2). The kids wanted some of the Breyer’s Waffle Cone Blasts at the grocery store yesterday and I was horrified when I looked at the ingredients list. I will also be taking my business elsewhere.
@Lia: Yep, the “Breyers Blasts” line is especially unnatural, most being frozen dairy desserts with ingredients such as mono and diglycerides, guar gum, carrageenan, potassium sorbate, etc..not things you would put in your homemade ice cream.
Breyers is just horrid now, as you well know of course. What amazes me is Breyers still does make ice cream, yet they also make this nauseating “frozen dairy dessert” product as well. And many of the “fdd” products are quite simple. How much harder is it to make cherry vanilla compared to strawberry for instance? Yet (I think) strawberry is still an ice cream, cherry vanilla a ‘fdd”.
I need to to consider getting an ice cream maker perhaps, since I have found some brands that are natural and not corrupted with various gums and other odd substances, Talenti gelato comes to mind (although some of their flavors do contain tara gum, so even with them one must be careful). I enjoy Talenti a lot, but it’s quite expensive compared to even other premium ice creams sold by the pint, usually a dollar or so more then Haagan Daaz here locally.
@Evan: Yes, I do not understand why anyone would prefer a FDD (frozen dairy dessert) to ice cream. I know they have a little less fat, for example: Total fat for Cherry Vanilla FDD 3g vs 5g in Natural Strawberry. But this is not the place to cut calories. And I don’t understand why Breyers still has Cherry Vanilla listed in their “Original” line on their website, because when you click on it it clearly says it’s a FDD with diglyerides, carrageenan, tara gum, etc.. The original Breyers Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream never had those ingredients. We do love using our ice cream maker and knowing exactly what goes into it. And yes, there are premium ice creams that are all-natural, but as you noted they are typically pretty pricey.
WOW – this hits the nail on the head! I was digging into the carton of Butter Pecan and it struck me – This isn’t my old friend of rich cream and a hint of sweetness – this was now a soft goo and sugary.
i recently had a similar experience with nabisco’s Ginger Snaps – ugh! where are all the SIMPLE foods going?
the GOOD news is that there are PLENTY of craft manufacturers that have GREAT natural products for us to buy – we just have to look in the right places. I’m blessed to live outside of a major metro area and have plenty of choices in foods. I shiver to think the pain those less fortunate are going through if the only major food suppliers are Walmart or convenience stores.
Good bye, family tradition of being Breyers fans! I’ll remember the good old days but my kids won’t get the chance.
@Michael: Yes, you do have to spend some time searching, but as we have noted as well as our visitors, there are a few brands out there that do make all-natural ice cream if you are willing to pay a little extra such as Häagen-Dazs Five, Strause Family Creamery, Three Twins and All Natural Turkey Hill Ice Cream, just to name a few. I have found them at my local grocery store, Smith’s, and at Whole Foods…Or, like we now do most of the time, make your own!
So what are they putting in the Ginger Snaps now?! I can only imagine.
Thanks for posting this. I have actually been meaning to look this up since the new versions are really bad. For those of you in some areas, the Harris Teeter Natural store brand is very much like the old old Breyers (cream, milk, sugar – not even Tara Gum) and is a lower price point as well.
@Argh: We will have to add Harris Teeter Natural Ice Cream to our list. Thanks!
Sadly the majority of Breyer’s products don’t contain enough milk or cream to be considered ice cream by the FDA…That’s the result of cost cutting measures..Breyer’s now is no different than any other cheap product.
The only true natural ice cream is now made by Haagen-Dazs, but it’s extremely expensive and does’t taste as good as the original Breyer’s.
You’re so right. Opened up cherry vanilla, tasted funny, read ingredients, threw out. Will now try turkey next. So sad a company can’t leave a good thing alone.
I’m still in shock over Breyer’s complete corporate sell-out. I contacted them long ago when they first made changes. Got the “thanks, but the ingredients remain all-natural” response and a coupon. This used to be the ONLY ice cream I would purchase because of its all-natural ingredients, and regardless of what the FDA says, taro gum is not natural in ice cream. My guess is they have ramped up the addition of artificial filler material in the product to make up for the dwindling profits on sales. Really is a sad example of corporate profiteering run amok. I’ll never will purchase Breyers again, unless Unilever wises up and brings the old product back. In all likelihood, either that’ll happen or they’ll sell the brand off when it doesn’t do well – probably never figuring out why….
I just tasted the new Breyers tonight. I immediately thought… this is not Breyers whatsoever. This is pure garbage. I was shocked to read the label. They sold out!!! I will never purchase another Breyer’s for as long as I live. Stupid corporate idiots!
Just saw this. I’ve been eating Breyers ice cream since I was a kid and I raised my children to do the same because of the all-natural ingredients. I was going to buy several gallons for my grandson’s birthday party but after reading this, I will NOT purchase Breyers again until the head honchos at Unilever reverse their decision as did the head honchos at Coke. Readers, please repost to help get the word out. In fact, let’s boycott UNILEVER and all their products until the changes are made.
I too had to quit eating the Breyers Ice Cream that I have eaten since the 70’s. I could always count on their Vanilla to have real vanilla instead of “natural flavors” which is much worse than it sounds look it up. Anyway, I have been getting sick after eating it, really sick, flu like and couldn’t figure out what it was…and now know…TARA GUM>>>yuck. You are right, it does not taste as good either…they have completely ruined a good thing all for money…..so sad….. 🙁
Yes, I agree with all of the above comments. I suggest you try Blue Bunny Vanilla Bean – it has now become my favorite vanilla and is definitely labeled as an “ice cream”. Their other flavors are also very good, but am not too keen on all their mix-ins with pieces of cake. If you want really good high premium (high price and high calories) try Ben & Jerry’s or Haagen-Dazs.
@Trish – Blue Bunny Vanilla Bean Ingredients: Milk, Cream, Sugar, Skim Milk, Buttermilk, Vanilla Extract and Vanilla Beans, Egg Yolks, Carob Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Carrageenan. Wish they would leave off the last 3 ingredients. Since Unilever bought Ben & Jerry’s, the same thing has happened to their ice cream as Breyers did. They add guar gum, soy lecithin, carrageenan, etc.. Haagen-Dazs, although pricey, sticks to using all-natural ingredients. You won’t find gums and carrageenan in their products. Keeping my fingers crossed that they won’t be bought out by Unilever too.
Hi! I rarely bought the flavored Breyers because of the additional ingredients in the cookies or whatever is used to flavor the various kinds, but just realized today that they had added several new ingredients to my plain “homemade” vanilla! You said it right when you said it tastes like a frozen sponge. Yuck! So glad I happened to get a cuisinart ice-cream maker just last weekend. Will definitely be breaking it out sooner rather than later. (We’re in the midst of an out of state move…) Anyway, I too was wondering who on earth they used for their taste tests when I read about the change on their site. *sigh.
Enjoy your new ice cream maker, Amanda, and say goodbye to Breyers! We love our Cuisinart. One of the best new additions our kitchen. Yes, their taste-testers must be smoking something to say they prefer frozen sponge to all-natural creamy goodness!
Unfortunately, even today we don’t know the human bodies reaction to all of the negative ingredients mentioned above. I say, trust the CAT. When has a cat ever refused ice cream? 🙂
My big pet peeve however is MSG and Aspartame. Those are the real killers. Unfortunately for us, the FDA allows such in many things we eat, including ice cream but you won’t necessarily see it (if ever) on the label. The reason for this is because the FDA says that you can use MSG or Aspartame as a secondary ingredient to the larger first ingredient and NOT have to state MSG or Aspartame on the label.
Anymore, I only shop the outside isles of a grocery store. No frozen, no processed foods, nothing except meat, vegetables and fruit in their specific areas. The only thing I buy inside the isles is rice. Rice is rice. I’ll get off the excitotoxin thing here because if not I’ll be writing something the size of a very large book. Oh heck, I’ll say a little more.
Simply stated, excitotoxins cross the blood brain barrier. Excitotoxins are NEVER to cross the blood brain barrier, which is why MSG was doomed from baby food. Just baby food, not big people food, due to massive complaints. Here is the definition for excitotoxicity – Excitotoxicity is the pathological process by which nerve cells are damaged and killed by excessive stimulation by neurotransmitters such as glutamate and similar substances. The area that this takes place is in your brain in the same are that tells you when you are full or hungry.
How many times have you eaten Chinese food and then ate it again about 30 minutes later because you thought you were hungry. It’s still happening today. AND, over weight peeps wonder why they can’t lose weight. It is becaaaaaaause they think they’re doing themselves a justice by drinking an aspertame riddled soda and sitting down to a froze tv dinner. That’s two fires and 30 minutes later they’re hungry again. Sad, but true.
@Eileen: Yep, we always will trust the cat! We also stick to the outside aisles for real food. The FDA apparently does not require labeling for MSG and Aspartame as you stated. And MSG can be disguised by over 25 different names such as hydrolyzed protein and something as benign-looking as yeast extract. You just never really know what you are buying if it’s in a box with an ingredient list.
People may like the taste better, but some people cannot eat whey. My son is allergic to whey and now cannot eat breyers. We now buy Turkey Hill’s all natural flavors which is very much like the old Breyers recipe. My son got sick because Breyers never warned us on their packaging they changed the recipe.
My husband coughs constantly after eating Breyers ice cream. He has an allergy to hops in beer. Is whey a product of wheat?
I just threw out his Breyers this morning after reading here.
Whey is not a product of wheat. It is derived from milk and is used in ice cream to increase viscosity of the unfrozen portion and help maintain both small air cells and small ice crystals. Thus, mouth-feel of frozen dairy desserts with whey proteins tends to be smoother, creamier and less icy or “coarse.” Your husband may have an allergy to one of the other additives such as carageenan or guar gum.
I figured out the change a few years ago after a few years of wondering if my tongue had changed. Today Bryers was on sale for $1.50 and I still refuse to touch it. I looked at the box that had the NERVE to say “Natural Vanilla” what LIARS! Unilever got sued for a few million for lying. They should get sued again, this time out of business. I’ve been on HD for the past few years. It is the only ice cream left!!
I’m with you, Mark. Even if they were giving Breyers away I wouldn’t eat it. We rarely buy ice cream anymore since we now make our own, but if we get a craving and are too lazy to make our own, we will buy Haagen Dazs 5 – only has 5 ingredients and they’re all natural.
I Inadvertently bought Breyers “natural” “vanilla” two days ago and it tasted terrible like a chemical experiment. Ate a very small amount only. The next day I tried calling Breyers at 1-800-931-2826 (their phone number is buried, hidden, hard to find), the rep was so arrogant after five minutes I had to ask for a supervisor, the supervisor was so arrogant after two minutes I just had to hang up. They are very defensive of their “product” and non-listening. Deception, arrogance, the almightly dollar, what a company. I assure you companies like that would never list the true ingredients on products or refrain from calling it “ice cream” unless the government FORCED them to comply.
We called too and all they said is that their taste testers liked the new formula better. Their taste testers have no taste then. And let’s leave the government out of our ice cream. That will only leave another bad taste in your mouth.
I was tempted to purchase Breyer’s Gelato this week but, as a celiac, I read the label first. Imagine my utter disbelief to see “corn syrup” followed by (wheat), yes, in parentheses as if interpreting what constitutes the source of the corn syrup! I have to wonder if Breyer’s has any idea what ingredients they are using these days.
Loline: I found that strange too for them to list corn syrup (wheat) as an ingredient. The only thing I can think of is that corn syrup and glucose syrup are sometimes used interchangeably and glucose syrup apparently can be made from wheat starch. That’s a bit of a stretch, but with the loose labeling guidelines, who knows?! I’m sure there are plenty of people with varying degrees of wheat/gluten sensitivities who would never guess that wheat is an ingredient in Breyers gelato.
Beware………..I just posted earlier ( I live adjacent to farms) that corn is now sprayed by air, not planted with a tractor.
And then sprayed to reduce weeds, maybe twice a season, then sprayed to dry up for harvest earlier than nature would take.
Yes, I noticed the change and now refuse to buy breyers. How stupid for them to change the recipe after my eating it for 3 decades…vanilla and chocolate were my favorites. Out come the ice cream makers from the basement…ahh, cream, sugar, and hand ground vanilla bean….or giradelli semi-sweet chips.
Doug – Stupid is as stupid does and Breyers sure did and does. Yes, dust off those ice cream makers and make your own premium ice cream minus the high price and guar gum.
Unilever has done this with so many brands, water in the mayonaise, carved the center of of the bar of soap, and if you write to them and complain, some slick PR person will tell you that they were only responding to customer complaints about the product. Yeah, we all complained that Breyers tasted too much like ice cream, the mayo didn’t have enough water in it and the bar of soap was too heavy. Unilever has got to be the MOST dishonest corporation out there, and our government always looks the other way because corporations can do no wrong. I will never purchase Breyers again.
Water in the mayo? Well that’s just great, yet I’m somewhat thankful it’s just water and not guar gum or carrageenan which seems to be in everything these days. But we make our own mayo now since it’s so simple and only takes a few ingredients. Hollow soap too? LOL, Anne. “Oh, yes. Our customers said the soap was too heavy so we made it hollow to accommodate their needs.” Don’t piss on me Unilever and tell me it’s raining.
I went to look up one of my favorite brands of mayo, Duke’s. I began using Duke’s because I was on a low carb diet, and Duke’s was the only brand I could find that did not add sugar. I was smugly looking over the ingredients and found they also are putting water in it. It is a natural filler, but filler nevertheless since water is unnecessary in order to make mayonnaise. Looks like that is a fairly common practice. I did find one top end mayo that had no sugar and no water. Great ingredients. But only for those who are rich or use it sparingly. I will probably deal with Dukes, since I have no desire to purchase a food processor to make it and I’m too old to whisk that much.
Karen- Do you remember the brand name of the mayo you found that had no sugar or water?
Oh thanks for that make your own mayo link. I saved it to my pinterest food board.
https://www.pinterest.com/artmakersworlds/food-mmmmmmm/
Gotta try that.
Your welcome Jenny. We haven’t bought mayo in years since it’s so simple to make your own without using soybean oil as well as calcium disodium EDTA, modified food starch, maltodextrin, lactic acid, high fructose corn syrup, potassium sorbate, etc..
Below is a link to a list of Unilever brands in the US. I imagine the ingredients list on all of them is FDA approved and highly suspect. You have to wonder if this latest scam with Breyers is part of the federal government’s fight against obesity. But seriously, a campaign to cheat the customer and lie to them about what they are actually purchasing isn’t something I feel good about. Unilever claims, on its website, that they are “Making Progress and Driving Change.” Don’t know about everyone else, but I don’t like being treated like cattle that has to be driven to change……
http://www.unileverusa.com/brands-in-action/view-brands.aspx
This handy Unilever list is appreciated. Fortunately (whew), I only buy one of their brands…Ben & Jerry’s. Thanks to you, I just bought my last pint of “Sea Salt Caramel”. The nerve!!!
I remember Bryers as a kid. The folding carton, not the lid. Just looked online today and saw this article. Sad.
I noticed that my old friend “Vanilla Fudge Twirl” was not the same. Add me to the list of those who will never buy this version of anything Breyers again!
In Indiana you can still get real ice cream better than Breyers used to make. Its called VALPO VELVET. It always blew the sox off of Breyers….
Don – I like that Valpo says their base mix consists of only cream, milk, corn sugar and gelatin. However, some of the flavors also have ingredients like artificial flavor, lecithin, and artificial colors. They consider themselves of having a “gourmet” ice cream product, but in my opinion, I don’t think anything artificial should be part of gourmet ice cream. It is also very difficult to find an ingredient list of their products online. They are not very forthcoming of it on their website.
My family has been eating Breyers ice cream for over 45 years. It was always our favorite. Our favorites were Vanilla Fudge, Vanilla, Butter Pecan and Vanilla Chocolate Chip. I bought some Vanilla Chocolate Chip a few months ago and it tasted awful. The chocolate chips had such a weird taste I ended up throwing the whole carton in the garbage. I refuse to buy their ice cream anymore. They keep shrinking the carton and the price keeps going up but the quality is terrible. I know my Mom grew up on Hershey Ice Cream but can’t find it here in NJ. It’s really hard to find good tasting ice cream. Any suggestions?
I remember my Aunt loving Hershey’s Chocolate Ice Cream too. I haven’t seen it in the stores either.
We wrote a post on Natural Ice Cream Brands that includes Häagen-Dazs 5, Three Twins Ice Cream, All-Natural Turkey Hill Ice Cream and Harris Teeter Natural Ice Cream on the list. Of course not all ice cream brands are available to everyone.
After I spend so much time going to stores and reading all the ingredients of so many different brands and being disappointed, I found it was easier to just make my own ice cream. We bought a relatively inexpensive Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker (our review here) and haven’t bought ice cream since.
Stopped eating the the garbage, Turkey Hill Natural out of PA is made like the original Breyers was.
Al – Yes, I think Turkey Hill Natural is a good replacement for Breyers. For example, their Vanilla Bean and Chocolate flavor has these simple, natural ingredients:
Cream, nonfat milk, sugar, cocoa, vanilla, vanilla bean. – Awesome, no gums or carrageenan!
I also appreciate that they do not add fake green coloring to their Mint Chocolate Chip.
Before reading the info here, I decided to dump the remains of some Breyers gelato in the sink after noticing how crummy it taste. Three hours later the Gelato had not melted and was more or less still in “blob” form in the bottom of the sink. It was 99 degrees yesterday here in San Antonio TX.
Yuck, this can’t be good..Then..Newsflash! I was up most of the night in the potty with upset tummy after eating the stuff…..which caused me to began to do some research on this product..NO more Breyers! Sickening.. Our food supply is in trouble folks…and what can we say about the FDA..
Marilyn – I went and looked up what’s in Breyer’s Gelato “Indulgences” line. Here is what is in their Vanilla Caramel flavor:
MILK, CARAMEL SAUCE [REDUCED LACTOSE SWEETENED CONDENSED WHOLE MILK (MILK, SUGAR, SKIM MILK, LACTASE), CORN SYRUP, WATER, SUGAR, BUTTER (CREAM, SALT), MILKFAT, PECTIN, SOY LECITHIN, BAKING SODA, VANILLA EXTRACT, SALT], CREAM, SUGAR, CORN SYRUP (WHEAT), CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING: WHEY, CARAMELLY CURLS [SUGAR, COCOA BUTTER, WHOLE MILK POWDER, SOY LECITHIN (AN EMULSIFIER), NATURAL FLAVORS, YELLOW 6 LAKE, YELLOW 5 LAKE, BLUE 2 LAKE, VANILLA EXTRACT], CAROB BEAN GUM, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, GUAR GUM, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, CARRAGEENAN, NATURAL FLAVOR, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, ANNATTO EXTRACT (FOR COLOR).
I hardly find this line “Indulgent”. If you went to an Italian Gelato shop, I doubt they would have Yellow 5 Lake, Mono and Diglycerides or Guar Gum in their product.
Your upset stomach may have been due to the guar gum. It has been shown to cause gastrointestinal side effects like excessive gas and abdominal pain. Some are more sensitive to guar gum then others, so be sure to check the label before you purchase any ice cream – even if it says “Natural”.
I grew up with Breyers and used to LOVE it– I too noticed the recipe change. They must have done it across the board on every product. I used to love the mint chocolate chip and the newer raspberry chocolate chip. Now they all have long ingredients lists and taste bad.
I was at my parents house visiting and they decided to try the new tiramisu gelato. OH MY GOODNESS it was DISGUSTING. The pastiness, the phony artificial flavor, the after-taste that wouldn’t go away, it was the WORST ice cream I have tasted in a while– I couldn’t even force myself to eat it. Talenti gelato has usually been good but the last time I purchased the vanilla bean the flavor tasted different to me (more of an artificial vanilla flavor of some sort) then previously so I wonder if they changed their recipe too.
The only “easy to find” ice cream out there with decent ingredients seem to be Haagan-Dazs Vanilla and their Coffee. Yesterday I decided to get a container of Whole Foods’ new Caramel Sea Salt Gelato– I haven’t tried it yet but the ingredients list wasn’t too bad. It’s still is too long of a list though for ice cream. 🙁
Jill – Yeah, i don’t know how Breyers comes out with a “Gourmet” product like their Gelato line and fills it with a long list of funky ingredients like soy lecithin (an emulsifier), yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, blue 2 lake, carob bean gum, mono and diglycerides, guar gum, corn syrup solids, carrageenan, etc..
I looked up Talenti Gelato Tahitian Vanilla Bean ingredients and they aren’t too bad: milk, sugar, cream, dextrose, vanilla, lemon, carob gum. Would be better without the carob gum of course.
Whole Food’s Caramel and Sea Salt Gelato ingredients: pasteurized milk, cane sugar, coconut oil, inulin, rice flour, citrus fiber, caramel, sea salt, natural flavors, wheat starch. Not too bad either, but the inulin, rice flour and wheat starch are there as cheap thickeners which I don’t like. Not exactly sure about the function or need for the citrus fiber. Perhaps also a way to “bulk” up the gelato.
This is a good example of where “natural” doesn’t always equate to better. Sure, Whole Foods has made a product that contains all-natural ingredients, but they are doing it to make a cheaper product. For example, where is the cream/butterfat? Gelato does contain less butterfat than traditional ice cream, but it should have some. Looks like Whole Foods is saving some $$ by leaving out the cream all together and adding in flour and starch to fake us out…. But my tastebuds know the difference. 😉
re: Talenti Gelato
Honestly disgusted with this product (tried many flavors: over-priced disappointment after over-priced disappointment after over-priced disappointment). The only reason anyone should buy it is if they don’t want to invest themselves in making their own (or they want to but don’t have the necessary tools – or something else along those lines) or because it is one of the 2 to 3 ice cream products in major grocery chain freezers that isn’t made with hfcs (at least not as of 15-10-31).
Wow, like many of you, I used to love Breyers for their short and natural ingredients. Through the years, I thought my palate had changed and I developed lactose intolerance. After numerous bathroom runs, and trial and errors, I discovered the culprit was the artificial ingredients. I will gladly pay a premium for something that tastes great and won’t leave my stomach in 30 minutes.
I just bought a container of Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip- the consistency, taste, everything was different- foamy. After I looked at the ingredients, I immediately got online to find out what happened- I was so disappointed.. No more Breyers fake crap for me…
Thanks everyone for writing, I thought it was just me or that my memory was skewed. Breyer’s did change, a LOT. I too, like the rest of you, used to love their ice cream…when it WAS ice cream.
My take on the situ:
Even a child selling lemonade at their stand doesn’t start adding lots of bogus ingredients thinking it’ll sell better and that they’ll save money and sell more. But then again, most parents don’t hard time their children into producing an unreasonably high profit at the end of the day. Instead they are pleased that their child is having fun and doing something productive. And most kids really enjoy the fun of selling something tasty to people, to see them smile. So whatever happened to this basic business model?
When did the sin of greed get into bed with gluttony to produce the horribly gross ‘food stuffs’ that have taken over our food stores? Is it sloth or the fear of wrath (from share holders) that has caused this situation? Maybe lust for ungodly profits?
Are they just too proud to admit that they are no longer having fun and selling a great product to their loyal customers? Well, I for one, don’t envy their position.
(did i cover all 7? wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony, it’s what’s for dinner)
Good bye Breyers, I will never buy your ‘natural vanilla’ again, unless you change it back to the original ice cream recipe.
Well said, Suzabel. 🙂 Funny you should mention lemonade stands. We can’t find a stand where the kids sell real lemonade anymore. The last one was mixing up Crystal Light. Here’s Crystal Light’s “Natural” Pink Lemonade Ingredients:
Yeah, their lemonade is as natural as Breyers Natural Vanilla ice cream. There’s not even “Lemon” in the ingredients – and it’s supposed to be “natural lemonade”! How in the world can they call their product natural when they have an ingredient labeled as “Artificial”? Drives me crazy.
I think it’s sad if that is what kids think is lemonade. It’s the reason why their generation, and also their parent’s who are buying such things for them, like or accept fake-foamy Breyers Ice Cream. Sorry kid, I admire your enterprising ways, but there’s got to be lemon juice in my lemonade if I’m gonna give you a quarter or more. I want you pouring from a clear, glass pitcher with lemon slices floating on top. Maybe I am too demanding. Maybe I need to open my own lemonade stand.
Omg, you are so right. Yes, open your own lemonade stand!!
Crimeny, whatever happened to common sense, and why do corporations think that poisoning the food supply is ok. Even doctors and the medical establishment isn’t on board anymore with the types of self-induced illnesses we are seeing; many prefer to go overseas where there are true diseases that need cures, and not the avoidable, manufactured ones like here in the USA. The only option we have seems to be to boycott the foods that are making us truly ill.
Thankful to read this comment blog, and know that I am not wrong when my instinct was to check the freezer temperature after opening a box of Breyer’s because it felt too soft and spongey. And I don’t mean to pick on Breyers, it’s a systemic problem. Just mostly disappointed in them because for many years, they sold delicious vanilla bean ice cream.
I used to LOVE my Breyers chocolate chip ICE CREAM but now…good GOD, what have they done?! The consistency and taste are complete different, it’s no longer all natural, it’s gummy instead of crumbly, it’s full of CRAP! I bought the plain old vanilla because THAT was still called “ice cream” but it tastes funny, leaves a funny after taste. That’s it! Screw you Breyers!
Breyer’s was one of the few things I would actually treat myself with. I drive a 20 yr old pickup, but I’d pay a buck more for real ice cream. Haven’t bought any for years now and I guess we should all just get use to eating trash or quit shopping for anything but basic ingredients.
It’s purely a numbers game to those bean counters at the money mill. NO HEART, NO SOUL
NO SALE!
A buck more? Is that what your health is worth? A buck?
Not sure if you have been paying attention to the news but a buck ain’t worth what it used to be.
If you want quality you have to pay for it. And it will cost you more than a buck.
I could tell for quite some time now that something is seriously wrong with Breyer’s. I had it confirmed that they had sold it and the new owners changed the entire approach. What a loss for the rest of us!
Like the rest of the comments here, I will no longer be buying it. I can get some that is locally made in Meadville, Pa.. It is actual ice cream.
I do hope though, that like Harley buying back their motorcycle to save their reputation, that the former owners will either buy it back or some person in a financial position to do so, will buy it up to re-offer the good version of it. What a loss!!
Glenn
They just lost a customer for life.
I ate a half a gallon of this crap before I started getting sick. It tasted different. Something was off. This is not the breyers that I grew up with and that I know and love. I purchased this believing that breyers to be the all natural ice cream it’s always been. How could they be so stupid as to change a profitable time-tested recipe? This is worse than when Coca-Cola change their original recipe. I purchased breyers cookies and cream. It’s loaded with artificial ingredients and chemicals! They are complaining about commodities cost? So they change the entire ingredients list? Every single manager and executive person there who approved of this should be fired. How stupid can you be! If commodities prices are going up you raise the price. It’s that simple. They did this during a time when organic and healthy foods are really taking hold and people are willing to pay the higher prices! That’s a fact! The organic market segment is the highest grade market segment there is.
I now feel sick to my stomach and it’s because the ice cream is full of chemicals and artificial flavorings it taste like absolute garbage. I just put a half a gallon of crud into my system. Had this been the original priors recipe I would not be feeling sick to my stomach right now! I blame the people at Breyers this is not cool. I have been a lifelong customer. I will never never never never never never never never never purchase this crap again. That’s what it is now. Crap. Absolute crap!
I will gladly pay a little bit more money for something that is organic and all natural! So will most people! Breyers has made a fatal decision by changing the core essence of their time-tested original product during a period where organic and healthy foods are experiencing explosive growth. It makes no sense. None none none none none. The people who made this decision are IDIOTS.
They are finished. Done. Finito. They sold out to some huge multinational corporation called Unilever who has changed the ingredients.
I will NEVER purchase Breyers again after this betrayal! How dare they use Breyers heritage and good name to trick me into eating this garbage! I should sue! I instantly became sick! I had to take to bed! I can’t understand why I’m suddenly sick! I’m doubled over in bed wailing! Why am I sick? What happened! Did I eat something? Breyers is all natural so it could not be that.
Let me just check. I crawl out of bed and look at the ingredients and am HORRIFIED to see this a long list of artificial and chemical filler GARBAGE. Which by the way if it was not for the FDA we would not even KNOW what was in our food! I wonder how long until lobbyists pay our corrupt politicians to get rids of labels so we don’t even know what we are eating!
How dare they trick me into buying this garbage! Breyers quality since 1866 on the label?? 1866??? 1866??? In 1866 the ingredients were all ORGANIC and NATURAL. Now you are selling POISON ! !
These ingredients are why we have all these cancer and healthcare crisis today! Our bodies were not made to be saturated with artificial fillers and chemicals! I’ve been on a raw natural foods diet and my health has skyrocketed! THERE IS NO DOUBT what the reason for all this healthcare crisis is! It’s our food!
Corporations are doing this for PROFIT. Bottom line. It’s cheaper AND their profit margins are larger. What goes that tell you about what you are putting into your body? TRASH! TRASH! TRASH!
BReYERS ICE CREAM???? NEVER AGAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think the Three large chemical companies are ruling the United Sates. They pay politicians to look the other way. HUGE Profits
But, doctors are complicit too because they get patients who have problems from the food they eat, but they never tell us to change our diets. They give us a prescription and send us home.
Cortisone was always the drug of choice but now it is acid reflux meds and antihistamines.
I know, I suffer from hives. Eczema is also on the rise. Chemicals.
My newest complaint is the coatings on our generic drugs, like statins. Which we need if we have a stent. My heart doctor wrote me a script for the original drug but my Pharmacy says over $2,000, for 3 months of polls.
It’s not just the chemical companies. The world gov’ts have a depopulation agenda. They want to scale down the 8+ million people to 1/2 million. Poisoning food, water and air is the way they’re doing it. But they don’t want us to die fast.
All those poisons have led to major health issues. Leaky gut from all the Prilosec for heartburn, babies born with tumors/cancers, eczema, reflux, depressions caused by the antidepressants et al. The symptoms are so bad that we take the ‘new’ poisoned meds to combat them which cause even more health issues.
I only take the older meds, eat organic whenever possible and found out through a food sensitivity test what I can no longer eat….that part is really important. You can get back to normal and beat the odds.
Patricia, I know this may be a bit off the ice cream topic, but maybe not. After I started reading up on food additives, I started looking into soaps.
Now, since HS I have had dandruff. Any over the counter anti dandruff shampoo a few times a week usually kept that under control, never really got rid of it, just kept it mild.
Several years ago though, I started getting an annoying rash under my pits and a few other cozy places. And suddenly my mild dandruff turned into huge chunks falling off my scalp. Saw a doctor for the rash, he thought I had a staff infection. (I did not.) Saw another doctor for the scalp and was told “dermalogica psoriasis” no known cause, no known cure. SWELL! And this was after I tried every kind of product and a half dozen home remedies. Turns out soap is even LESS regulated than food and pretty much every single chemical in it is either a mild skin irritant or actually a cancer causing agent. OMG! So I found an all natural one, there are many but the one that I like most is called Dr Bronner’s castile soap. (I get the liquid but it comes in bars too.) Gave this a full two week trial without using anything else.
Guess what. The psoriasis with no known cure cleared up. The assorted rashes all cleared up. The dandruff I had pretty much all my life, cleared up. I haven’t touched a dandruff shampoo in years. So yea, patient heal thyself. Doctors and our government sure as hell don’t care about anything but the all mighty dollar.
I just picked up a BREYERS “Cookies and Cream with Oreos’, picking Breyer’s over the other brands because I new I wanted the best, and got this CR*P instead. I knew as soon as I tasted it something was wrong, and sure enough I read the label and they had STOOPED to putting CORN SYRUP and other GARBAGE in their no longer ice cream, now flavored dessert. YUCK! How LAME!
NO MORE BREYERS EVER AGAIN. GOODBYE BREYERS FOREVER…
Corporate greed is all it is. Find a company that has a great product and a following of very loyal customers. Buy that company. Cheapen up the product and foist it off as the original on the loyal customer base. Have some PR firm handle the complaints with a BS line of ‘this is what our customers want’ or all these additives are still ‘natural’.
They don’t care any more about what we say or think than Detroit bean pushers who calculate it will cost less to leave the defect in the car than to pay off the families of the ones we kill. These corporations have no public conscience and don’t care ANYTHING about any of us other that reaching in your pocket and taking as much of your money as possible for the poorest quality junk they can legally dispense.
I have the list of Unilever products and will not buy any of them. My small protest in this David and Goliath world we live in.
I, too, found out the hard way that my favorite coffee ice cream had morphed into an unappetizing fake “dairy dessert.” We stopped buying Breyers except at the 2 for sales when they tried to fool us by cutting the size and making the container look the same. The price was the same but 25 percent less product = hidden price increase. Only the vanilla is close to the old recipe but no longer All Natural either. Once we found out we’d bought the fake frozen dairy dessert, we trashed the open container and also the unopened container.
They claimed that customers like the texture and flavor but it is no longer a palatable product. The free coupon they sent will remain unused. The company can go out of business for all I care but there are too many uninformed folks who just don’t care or notice the difference. Breyers quality is no more!
The old cherry vanilla and peach was the best ice cream ever. The frozen desert is so gross. No matter how cold it is it won’t get hard. I don’t know how they stay in business.
The vanilla with the vanilla beans is still good but the frozen desert is the worst. What a shame!!! If its the cost then raise the price. People will pay for a quality product. I wouldn’t eat the frozen desert if someone paid me. Gross
I took one bite of Breyer’s plain vanilla and dumped it in the sink. It tasted like gasoline was one of the ingredients and it wouldn’t melt. WTF is that about?
Looks like they finally got around to screwing up their coffee ice cream – within the last 6 months they switched over to corn syrup…..sad, as I’ve been reading the ingredients and always felt good about their 4 or 5 ingredients in coffee ice cream. The corn syrup stuff tastes much worse than their traditional coffee ice cream. We will never buy Breyers again.
I first noticed something was amiss when I bought their coffee ice cream. It was so awful I threw it out. I was disappointed that vanilla bean was no longer available, so I bought homemade vanilla. Big mistake. It was so terrible I have it to my brother to feed his toodler save, since they don’t know the difference. Now I feel completely tricked, I should have known something was off when I was able to spoon it out so easily. Who in their right mind wants soft, “smooth” ice cream. I don’t buy it that testers preferred the new smooth recipe. It’s bull. They just wanted to reduce the price and make higher profits. The point of buying breyers was it was not a cheap supermarket brand. It was all natural ice cream, an indulgence. This is just disgusting.
My son picked up some coffee yesterday, & when I looked at the ingredients, I said this isn’t right. So we looked in the case, & found 1 that looked slightly different, & it was the old recipe without the HFCS, so we bought the last one! I guess we’re done with Breyers.
I had some of the Breyer’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie Blast for my sister in law’s birthday and it tasted great but then I developed a really bad stomach ache. I really thought I had just over indulged. We had a big meal then cake and ice cream.
I had not had ice cream of any sort for about a year or more so I just thought I overdid it. But I tired some of the leftovers on it’s own, just about 1/2 cup and same stomach ache. I drink milk and ingest all sorts of other dairy so it’s not that.
I also noticed it was very soft and checked our freezer too. I was used to wrestling with a frozen block of ice cream and this peeled out of the tub like it had been sitting out on the counter for some time. I’m glad I came across this post because it was very strange. We don’t eat ice cream often and obviously have not purchased Breyer’s since the switch but what a huge difference! My stomach is killing me!
Well I have been a long time Breyer’s customer, over 20 years. I am (was) a huge fan of their Coffee flavor ice cream. I am talking one container a week addicted. In the last couple of years I had other flavors while at friends/family house and noticed the weird taste and started noticing the book of ingredients and “Frozen Dairy Dessert” (translation: fake ice cream). I figured they would never touch their bread and butter flavors.
Sure enough a couple of months ago while on my standard Breyer’s Coffee ice cream run I ran into the “new and improved” version. At the time time of purchase I only noticed the new packaging and didn’t given any thought to looking at the ingredients. Got home, scooped a bowl, and I noticed before putting it in my mouth something was different. The texture, smell, color was all wrong. The taste test confirmed Breyer’s official had screwed up another staple flavor.
The new stuff actually made me feel sick and left a chemical taste in my mouth. I’ve called Breyer’s numerous times (Linda) and have been told a number of reasons why they changed it; easier to scoop, creamier, less fat, etc. Consumer Reports even just came out (Jan 2015) with a spot on the “new” Breyer’s FROZEN DAIRY DESSERTS and says to stay away for health reasons. Breyer’s wont do a dang thing as long as sales are good. Ice cream is trivial in life, but not having my absolute favorite dessert anymore sucks!
My Cherry vanilla became cherry something else. Friendly’s still makes the real thing
Friendly’s Cherry Vanilla – But is it the “real thing” with red 40, blue 1, diglycerides, carrageenan and gums?
You are dead on, this happened to me 2 years ago, try Turkey Hill NATURAL, what breyers was.
Count me among the disappointed who will never buy Breyers again. It’s Turkey Hill All Natural for me. Taste is pretty comparable to the Breyers of old.
Yes, totally right.
I’ve purchased my last Breyer’s ice cream and sea salt caramel gelato this week.
For some time I’ve been getting the gelato and putting a dollop each morning in my
coffee… but lately I’ve been having severe stomach/bowel problems…. Also not enjoying my gelato as much. I think I’ve finally narrowed my increasing painful stomach problems down to the Gelato. No more for me – and my husband tells me I can also skip the weekly Breyers ice cream for him, having “lost his taste for it”. I’m going to check the ingredients because what we used to love and was always on the grocery list isn’t the same.
Shame on companies who feel they have to sacrifice quality in their products.
I say make the package smaller, make the price a bit more… but PLEASE dont give up taste and quality.
All non-sense, It is just money and deceptive. I also will not buy ANY Breyer’s products.
I only eat Blue Bell.
Emaleroland – But something as simple as Bluebell’s “Homemade Vanilla” flavor has artificial vanilla flavor, gums and carageenan:
Been eating Breyers since 1970’s. Now?
Breyers should just close down. Recently bought some strawberry ice cream. Just reminded me why I stopped buying that crap a long while ago. Ice cream have virtually no flavor and there is maybe 1 thinly sliced dehydrated strawberry in there. Gross crap!
Same with the Butter Pecan. No flavor, no pecans to speak of. Breyers. Just close the doors and go away already!
Cherry Vanilla was once my favorite. It too has fallen victim to chemicalization and ingredient diarrhea.
The Breyers family must be in hiding
I first noticed a recipe change with their yogurt. I always got Breyers yogurt and ice cream. I can’t remember what year I noticed the yogurt recipe had changed. Only 2 or 3 blueberries in the bottom. Blue looking slimy syrup. Slimy yogurt. I thought a mistake had been made, so I called Bryers to complain. The person on the other end told me consumers demanded they change the recipe to be more like Dannon. Yes, they really said that to me!
I told them I would no longer be buying their product.
Then I noticed the change in the ice cream as well. I won’t buy any of their products any more.
It isn’t just them that changed. All of the packages are smaller, but same price. 11 1/2 ounce cereal boxes. No more 5 pound sugar bags. Yogurt is 6 ounces instead of 8.
I saw someone stocking the Safeway shelves and I asked him why the package sizes changed. He said “They haven’t.” I told him to look closely at the packages he is stocking. He said he had not noticed the changes and that he sees what I mean.
In addition to that, a Wal-mart employee told me that store brands used to be done by name brands…for instance, Gold Medal packaged for Wal-mart flour (just a random company) and did a store label, but that Wal-mart and other stores would deliberately set their store brand next to the company brand who packaged for them, then deliberately undercut their packager’s brand. Then, other national store chains did the same thing to their packagers. Cut-throat.
Plant a garden. Get to know your neighbor. Get to know your farmers. Make your own yogurt and ice cream.
The way my husband and I found out about the change to ‘Frozen Dairy Delight’ was that we both got (ugh) diarhea, hadn’t eaten anything different and finally read the ingredients on our Breyers ‘ice cream’, and found out it was no longer really ice cream. Then we started buying only flavors that were still listed as ice cream. Yesterday we sat down to some French Vanilla, looked at each other, and got up to read the ingredients. NOW THE’VE CHANGED AGAIN! The last real ice cream flavors are still called ice cream but they’ve substituted other types of dairy for some of the milk and cream so that they'[re only technically ice cream. Texture and taste are altogether different. Guess we’ll have to start making our own, too.
These companies are doing us good. Throw out the TV and do what our parents did. Make stuff from scratch and grow a garden. This is a blessing they are changing recipes for more profits with cheap chemicals. It only gets smart people motivated to not buy the crap and cook with love again.
I used to be a Breyers Girl, but have since moved on to Turkey Hill. They have 2 kinds of ice cream…. ALL NATURAL and NOT. I always go for the All Natural Vanilla. It is the best! Tastes like the ice cream I used to make as a child and has 4 ingredients…milk cream sugar and vanilla.
Thanks to all who posted, as I’ve been wondering for a few years now, about the consistency of a few of these popular ice-creams, due mainly to their “melting” factors. As for Turkey Hill, I wouldn’t touch that ice-cream if you paid me, as they’ve used artificial ingredients for a very long time now. So, I will stick to either Real ALL NATURAL or make my own when I can. A hard lesson well learned.
Friendly’s still seems to be good
Friendly’s Vanilla Ice Cream: Milk, Cream, Corn Syrup, Skim Milk, Sugar, Whey Protein Concentrate, Whey, Buttermilk, Vanilla Extract, Guar Gum, Mono And Diglycerides, Xanthan Gum, Carrageenan, Annatto Extract And Turmeric (For Color).
Well that’s not great. On top of Corn Syrup (which has about as much flavor as musiladge)
we have the trifecta of garbage here. Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Carrageenan,
So we have gum of bean seeds (that have no business in ice cream) but that isn’t bad enough, xanthan and carrageenan are both nasty seaweeds too fibrous to digest so they are dried, bacteria introduced to break down the fiber, then it’s ground and put in our food as a “thickener or emulsifier.” YUCK. I’m sorry but I don’t want processed nasty seaweed in my food! In ANY FOOD. And it’s becoming harder and harder to find ANYTHING. Just last week I realized I can’t even find cream cheese now without this garbage in it. WHY? It’s cheese. NOT a fertilizer factory.
No more cream cheese for me either now. Philadelphia cream cheese, once the best, owned by Kraft foods is now among the bottom of the pit of crap foods to avoid. Just like ice cream, and SO SO many other products. People you all REALLY need to read ingredients of everything now. And every time you shop. What was good one week will be different the next. Very disgusted with the whole mess.
Thank goodness I’m not the only one who is real cranky at them for passing this pasty junk onto us. you know, when you eat real ice cream it has a soothing feeling. That feel good euphoric feeling….. this stuff is a big big let down. shame on you nasty ice cream sellout giants
I recently bought a tub of Breyer’s Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream and from the first bite knew that something was off. It’s the same thing that happened to ice cream truck ice cream. It used to be cold and refreshing and now its barely cold, disgustingly fluffy, and goopy and tastes a lot like marshmallow cream which they use to cheapen their costs.
I’m so upset that they have changed the formula that I will ABSOLUTELY NEVER, EVER purchase another item from Breyer’s again. I threw out my ice cream which I have never even considered before. Honestly, it feels like a betrayal to their loyal customers to add all these disgusting unnatural ingredients in. Anyways, I won’t go on anymore, I’m just mad and I hope that someone in charge of making decisions for the Breyer brand sees all of the backlash to the change and realizes that we will not adapt to it but rather just buy another brand of ice cream.
Yeah. I was unaware that Breyers changed their recipe. I thought it was me. This used to be the only kind of ice cream I would buy. Since for the last couple of times I’ve had issues with an after taste, and most recently with what appears to be an allergic reaction to the ice cream, I suspect because of the un-natural ingredients, I will never, ever, buy Breyers again. How sleazy is it to change the ingredients from something that was simple, and very close to natural, to something that’s I suspect damaging folks health and well being?
As someone else mentioned, and worth mentioning again, we all need to do our homework on GMO’s that have been given to animals (like the cows the cream and milk come from), etc. If there is Soy Lecithin, there’s probably GMO’s in it.
Looks like we’re all getting the much needed wake up call. I remember when Lorna Doone took the butter out of their cookies. We stopped buying it after that because the taste and texture were different. I still read rave reviews about how good Lorna Doones cookies are. Obviously not around before they found the new improved recipe made with oil instead of butter. So if I want a shortbread cookie, I can make it myself as it takes 4 ingredients…period.
Buy organic. While it will cost us, we will ultimately save in the lives we live NOT riddled with all kinds of health issues, or earlier deaths, or mountains of expensive and painful health issues when we are older. We may save bucks today, but pay for it in much more costly means one day. Many older people can’t begin to afford the expensive medications they take, some of which are easily hundreds to thousands of dollars each month, and if they can’t afford it, they do without.
Just threw out all the coffee ice cream. What a shame they have ruined such a great product. Sent them an email but sounds like they don’t care. Will never buy Breyers again. Nasty stuff. Yuk.
I noticed the breyers switcharoo a while later than most others, damn this new crap is gross. My wife made the mistake of buying some while shopping because the flavor looked interesting, we both noticed quickly how god awful the taste and consistency were, especially gross when it melts (or kind of fails to actually melt from all the additives).
The reason I was late to find out about this abomination? I am lucky enough to live in a city that has many stores that make fresh frozen custard, it’s high in calories, but damn tasty!! I will continue to be stopping off for pints and quarts and not buying fake ass ice cream!!
I bought some Breyers a long time ago after they started putting guar gum in it and noticed the difference right away. It was gooey and sticky, not light and clean tasting like before. I had not bought any more in years until the other day, I picked up a carton of peach flavor. It is horrible. The “frozen dairy dessert” is about as far from ice cream as you can get. It is nowhere near the quality of the average store brand. Never will I buy Breyers again. I will only eat Maola or Wal Mart’s house brand known as “home style”. Not great, but better than Breyers.
You guys are all nuts. The silk milk like smooth breyers is one of the best ice creams I’ve ever tasted. Glad to have found their desserts.
Unilever has bought up most of the ice cream brands, Breyers (many years ago), Ben and Jerry’s, Klondike, etc etc, and they all contain the same garbage ingredients, more garbagier all the time. Now its so bad, many of their products can’t even legally be called ice cream, but are toxic, cheap, unappealing chemically engineered “frozen dairy products”. Unilever’s mode of operation is to buy the brand name, ruin the product with their crap cheap ingredients in the name of profit–do not buy Unilever Products. Note that Ben and Jerry’s now also contains their crap ingredients (maybe slightly less crappy than Breyers, but getting there) Texture, taste, ingredients are terrible, like toxic soft cold (not frozen) slime consistency, won’t buy their crap even when on 1/3 sale (even if it’s FREE). In the supermarket, Haagen Daz, and some of the “all natural” store brands are good, and Turkey Hill now has a selection of a few flavors–just look at the label, shouldn’t contain anything else than cream, milk, sugar, and whatever flavor ingredients. Most brands now contain these crap ingredients (to more or lesser extent); along with cheapening the product, all the gum and crap allows them to mishandle the product and let it warm more than allowable, then refreeze it and it still has the same texture (albeit crap, but its the same crap as it started).
My daughter has the right idea. We bought an ice cream machine and make our own.
I simply can’t FIND real ice cream anymore. Even the expensive brands are filled with corn syrup and junk I cant pronounce let alone want to eat.
I too got the coupon for free ice cream after sending Bryers an email stating I can’t even find plain old vanilla without corn syrup in it. Got the same BS about it being “smoother.”
Clearly they are not listening. So I plan on mailing their coupon right back to them with yet another note saying sorry, I like REAL ICE CREAM not “creamy corn syrup covered guar bean gum.”
I no longer eat Breyers. I miss their yogurt & I do NOT like the ” YoCrunch” yogurt. When u have a good/ great thing, why do u stop making it??? I used to LOVE the Butter Pecan ice cream… Never again. I’ve moved to a different brand. Sorry Breyers u totally lost me as a customer & I will NOT return.. Too bad the company will never learn. We DO NOT want frozen dairy crap, we want ICE CREAM!!! U blew it!!!
Amen. What was Breyers thinking? That we all suddenly wanted syrupy, gummy ice cream goop? Ugh. I just wasted my money on their Salted Caramel goop.
I’m gonna try Haagen daz 5 Only 5 ingredients!
I have tried different brands of ice cream and seem like all of them has lost the milk, so I’m thinking to make my own. I don’t like foamy, fluffy ice cream, it’s not hard anymore.
I had the same reaction as all of you. What happened to my Breyers ice cream, the only supermarket brand I would buy, including Whole Foods ice cream-Breyers tasted better. I was APPALLED reading the ingredients.
Speaking of Whole Foods, I’m noticing many of their formerly “natural” products are also filled with GUMS of all sorts. Are they the new high fructose corn syrup? Nothing is sacred. Chocolate bars like Hersheys have replaced ingredients with unpronounceable ingredients and are now inedible.
If any Unilever people are reading this, you should take it to heart and the bottom line. Your product has lost customers and reputation. BRING BACK THE REAL THING!!!!
I buy Turkey Hill All Natural, I love their cherry vanilla, but cannot find it any longer. I get a burning stomach from carrageenan and never buy products with carrageenan listed on the ingredients. I hope Unilever loses money on the Breyers takeover. I agree about Whole Foods changing to cheap ingredients in their products. I used to buy their organic white bread before they added dough conditioners and changed the entire packaging and label on the bread. When I complained, the Whole Foods rep said it was the same loaf, sure…that’s why it doesn’t smell like bread any longer.
Well said.
I decided to lookup why my ice cream tasted crappy. Now I know. Haven’t bought Breyers in years, went and bought 2 containers. Gross. Tastes fake. Leaves a weird aftertaste in your mouth. Melts weird (when I dumped it down the drain). Had no idea they changed it from REAL to CRAP. Thank you for this website! I will never touch this crap ever again. It was weird… I even turned my freezer up thinking something was wrong… Nope, its crappy cheap ice cream. Bleh! Never again! I’ll research a company before I ever buy ice cream again. Real ice cream tastes SO good and doesn’t make you feel “ill” in your stomach. and… no… it’s not bad… it’s just the taste and it makes me feel blah after eating it.
My husband bought the ice cream. We usually buy a different brand. We got vanilla. After a couple of bites I noticed a bad aftertaste. I thought I was imagining it because I remembered bryers was the “all natural” ice cream. Not anymore it’s not. Tara Gum now pollutes the milk, sugar vanilla and natural and artificial flavors. Blah. Not eating this weird concoction again.
I used to only buy Breyers because it was the best, but now it is the worst. I spent $50 for a 1 qt. CUISINART ice cream maker and make my own for far less than any of the commercial junk, and its wonderful! It is easy, too – just chill the ingredients and freeze the bowl overnight, pour it in, turn it on, and in 20 minutes you have soft serve. No salt, no ice, just the machine. It is SO worth it! They also make a 2 quart size. The ice cream is unbelievably good. Like Breyers used to be. I told them what I thought of their crap and they wanted to give me coupons, and I told them I would never use them if I got a lifetime supply for free, because that’s how bad it is.
right on the mark
Thanks for posting this. I thought I was going nuts. I’ve been buying Breyers for years and suddenly it tasted horrible. What a thoroughly boneheaded move. Guess it’s Häagen-Dazs or Ben and Jerry’s from now on.
Steph – The same company (Unilever) that bought Breyers also owns Ben & Jerry’s and the ingredients are pretty much the same, containing guar gum and carrageenan.
turkey hill natural is what if not better than what breyers was, stopped buying breyers years ago
We are in Italy and was just curious as to why I could eat gelato without my usual digestive (embarrassing to boot) issue that I have after eating USA brands of ice cream.
I came across this article and realized that the problem is more than likely the other crap that is added to “improve” the ice cream…ha ha!
Thanks for this article and all posts from other real foodies.
Chris – Wish I was in Italy eating gelato right now (jealous)!
Some people say that using gums in ice cream, gelato, etc. improves texture and flavor. Did you notice any difference in the Italian gelato, sans guar gum? I’m guessing not.
Blue Bunny! Tastes like the old Byerers.
Stefanie – What flavor of Blue Bunny? I looked up their “Vanilla Premium Ice Cream” and its ingredients are nothing like the old Breyers, even worse than the new Breyers vanilla:
Totally right.
No way, more garbage in blue bunny.
I couldn’t agree with you more on everything you wrote. I definitely call BS on the thing about taste testers preferring it to the old formula. Growing up, we’d usually get Breyer’s ice cream, & maybe other random brands every once in awhile (like if we wanted cookies & cream-for some reason, even back when Breyer’s was good, they always made a lousy cookies & cream, using these weird brown cookies rather than oreos. But I digress.
Anyway, my favorite of all time was their mint chip. Breyer’s is one of the few brands that doesn’t make theirs green-I know it’s just food coloring, but I hate green mint chip, I swear, it doesn’t taste right. But yeah, I know what you mean about how it’s too soft. And the texture of it is too smooth, if that makes any sense. And the chips-ugh, the chips! Before it had thick pieces of broken up dark chocolate, & now I don’t even believe it’s real chocolate. It’s these weird, square things that are again, too soft.
My favorite ice cream now that I’d recommend to anyone that’s frustrated with Breyer’s is Turkey Hill Natural. Not their regular line, it specifically says ‘Natural’ on it & has different color packaging than their regular line. It tastes like how Breyer’s used to be. It’s amazing to compare the two, the Turkey Hill will be hard when in the freezer for a long time. It has that ‘natural’ texture to it, & the chocolate chips are broken up real chocolate, not some pre molded chocolate whatever. And the chips are hard too. They don’t have a huge range of flavors in their Natural line, but they have maybe 5 or 6, & if you happen to see it at the store, it’s definitely worth picking up!
i switched tears ago, turkey hill natural
We left Turkey Hill a few months ago after they added a crap ingredient to it and trashed the clean pure homemade taste of it.
Leaves a film in your mouth too. Just nasty.
I have had a horrible time finding things to eat. I can have dairy but I can’t eat anything made with grains. That includes anything with corn starch and corn syrup. These things make me sick. Literally. It’s not that I don’t actually like the flavor, but because I just plain can’t stand to be ill from it. But, ice cream like so many other dessert and snack things weren’t originally made for daily consumption in the home.
Ice cream is supposed to be a celebration food. It was often made on special occasions in the home with an ice cream maker. A lot of foods were meant to be for special occasions. Like cake. But yet people eat this stuff all of the time and then wonder why they are gaining so much weight. In the case of store bought ice creams though… yes they aren’t what they used to be and no they aren’t what we really want them to be any longer. Maybe we should go back to it being a celebration food made at home with ingredients we can trust.
I too will not eat Breyers, I knew once i tasted the gum/gar. I went online to look at financials on ice cream companies, some one must be able to make/use the old recipe for profit.
There is a market.
Thanks for this article. It helped me to understand why, after eating some Breyer’s Ice Cream that I’ve not had for a few years, I woke up feeling TERRIBLE. I asked myself, “What did I eat that was unusual yesterday?” knowing that I tend to be hypersensitive to many food additives. I remembered the Breyers, so checked the ingredient list on the carton. Sure enough: the WHEY, ANNATO and GUAR GUM are what caused my eye areas to swell up, my vision to be blurry, and my heart to ache. Their French Vanilla ice cream used to be cream, milk and sugar. What a ripoff! Now I’ll have to throw out the whole carton. Was hoping to learn *when* they made this change.
TiredofCONS – Unilever purchased Breyers from Kraft in 1993. It was not until 2006 when they started to change the ingredients and began adding gums to “improve quality”. Now many of their flavors cannot legally be called ice cream because they do not contain enough milk and cream, and must be labeled as “Frozen Dairy Dessert”.
Sadly, turkey hill natural is slowly changing their ingredients. We were huge fans of their all natural choc peanut butter gelato, but suddenly it didn’t taste clean and left a film in my mouth…yuck. Saw they started using pectin. Really awful move on their part. Totally destroyed the product.
Locust bean gum is the least of your worries. In a book titled Nourishing Traditions, I read that the government does not require ice cream companies to list all of the ingredients in their ice cream. Some of the un-listed ingredients are pretty nasty and are known to cause health problems. Breyer’s can legally put industrial chemicals in their ice cream and call it “all natural.”
I never trust an ingredient when it is listed as “natural” because its meaning is meaningless, unless it is used on meat and poultry products, which the USDA has a legal definition for.
The Consumer Union explains this best:
I stopped buying Breyer’s just recently for the same reasons you cited….SAD.
I stopped eating Breyers a long time ago.
As for the name, seems to me it would be more accurate to call it:
“semi-frozen, dairy-ish, dessert-like substance”
Thank you all with so much info. My step son has been trying to keep himself somewhat healthy and fit. He is in his early fifties and when he was offered ice cream at a family dinner he insisted on Breyer’s but when he sees this site I’m positive he will say, “no thanks” I’ll pass. His mother is somewhat a fanatic ref: healthful food and drinks. I will keep this to myself but will look to making my own ice cream with ingredients as close to natural as possible, not using the FDA as a guide line Thanks Bill
Sadly, Turkey Hill (owned by Krogers) has changed their “natural” recipes and their “natural” ice cream no longer tastes clean and leaves a film in your mouth. I contacted them about this and they don’t care. Like everyone else, they just sent me a bunch of coupons which didn’t help change the taste and purity of, or trust in, their product.
So, good luck with Turkey Hill because it’s being changed to the nasty too.
Ice Cream sucks anyway. Get a clue.
Thanks, “Name”. That was really insightful. I sometimes wonder, why do they bother?
Organics brand from Safeway now has Mint Chocolate Chip that is somewhat reminiscent of the old Breyers ice cream, but it’s a little spongy. It’s not too bad though. At least it’s not ridiculously gross although I am not sure I’d buy it again. Still not true ice cream.
Suz – Some of the ingredients in Safeway’s Mint Chocolate Chip is as bad as I’ve seen, so your better off not buying it again. The worst is the hydrogenated coconut oil, but it also has gums, polysorbate 80 (which Johnny from the original Breyers commercial couldn’t pronounce) and carrageeenan. Their also trying to save some money on ingredients by using “chocolate flavored chips” vs real chocolate chips:
Suz – Ooops – I see you were referring to Organics Brand Mint Chocolate Chip, not Safeway’s. Those ingredients are better, but yes, still have locust bean and guar gums:
Yes, unfortunately the locust bean and guar gums make it kind of gross, even if they are ‘organic’…thanks for reminding me. My stomach last night said ‘no’ to the ice cream.
I just want to add a few things that the pretentious and ignorant of you are claiming is bad about ice cream and ice cream companies. A little research and you too can be well-informed -_-
-All of those gums and carrageenans and other things you are against are IN FACT derived from plants and are natural. Also there are natural chemicals in the world that are not evil. In fact some of them are even made *gasp* inside your own bodies *old southern woman exclaiming* “MY WORD”
Yes some people are unfortunately allergic to such things but that is a minority of people and does not make the product or company evil or worth your ire.
-It is called “Frozen Dairy Dessert” instead of “Ice Cream” sometimes because in this ridiculously health concious world the words “Ice Cream” carries negative connatations that makes people avoid it on principal.
-I make my own homemade ice cream and I’m not exactly happy breaking all of my containers trying to scoop a little ice cream into a bowl or having an ice cream so icy that it may as well be snow ice cream. So guess what I do to fix this problem and also make the ice cream have a few fewer calories and thus be HEALTHIER. I add a little Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, etc. These products are made by natural food companies that make gluten free/vegan products.
-“All natural” ice creams that have the “simple” ingredients you all seem to want are incredibly expensive but they do exist. So stop complaining about companies trying NOT to exploit people and charge them an arm and a leg for a little tasty treat and go shell out the extra money for your “natural” ice cream.
Please all of you pretentious and ignorant people understand something and study the world around you rather than hate on things changing in a world where change and advances must be made to keep the world turning.
(I found this while Googling ice cream recipes I didn’t come looking for it but got drawn in by the combined idiocy like one gets drawn to an accident scene.)
Oh and to the person who said GMOs are safe but bad for the environment WRONG. They are safe for the environment and actually fight issues that the world and nature put forth that would otherwise cause plants and foods to come to extinction, such as oranges.
SaraSeesStupid – I think you misinterpreted the intention of our post. Please feel free to eat any kind of ice cream or add anything to your ice cream you wish. And you are absolutely correct, products like xanthan gum, guar gum, carob bean gum, tara gum and carrageenan are considered to be natural products by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). There are many that question that wisdom, but let’s not discuss that here.
Just because the Federal Government declares food additives to be natural or that companies want to add these things to our food, that doesn’t automatically mean that I want to eat them. Our grandmothers never added these things to their homemade ice cream and it was delicious. In fact, the Breyers ice cream we ate in the past didn’t add these things either and it was also delicious.
We simply lament the fact that Breyers and other companies feel they need to use these products now when they did not use them in the past. Especially when the ice cream does not feel or taste better to us (or our cats), but that is just our opinion. Even though they say research showed consumers prefer the new feel and taste.
Despite all the claims of the many companies that still make all natural ice creams, we can only find one (Haagen Daz) in our area that doesn’t use gums or carrageenan.
According to the Cornucopia Institute, there are still a few brands around. The Straus Family Creamery has never put carrageenan in any of their products and other companies (Julie’s Ice Cream and Annie’s Ice Cream) have already removed carrageenan from their products as a result of customer complaints and negative reports.
More good news is that several other companies have committed to removing carrageenan from all their products including: Delicious Foods, Eden Foods, Kalona Supernatural, Clover Stornetta, Stonyfield Farm, Orgain and Natural By Nature.
This is good news because it has also become very difficult to find whipping cream, cottage cheese or sour cream that doesn’t have gums or carrageenan. We challenge you to read the labels of your store’s brands to see if they contain non-dairy additives or not.
We did not mention GMOs in our post about Breyers ice cream, but will let anyone that feels slighted by your GMO remarks to defend themselves.
Our main objection to carrageenan is because of environmental reasons. Carrageenan is refined from seaweed grown in the ocean (mostly from the Philippines, some in Africa) or gathered from “Irish Moss” beds from the Maritime Provinces of Canada.
Most carrageenan is processed by boiling or soaking seaweed in alkali (similar process used for Dutch processed cocoa). The dissolved carrageenan is leached into a solution, filtered and then coagulated in isopropyl alcohol or potassium chloride before drying.
So, seaweed may be a natural plant product, but carrageenan has to be extracted with a strong base and/or with alcohol. My grandmother definitely did not do that. So even though carrageenan is derived from plants, as you say, I don’t agree that the end product is natural.
While the largest processing plants are in the U.S. and Europe, where we can assume the strongly basic effluent is being properly treated to prevent damage to sea life. There are also large processing plants in the Philippines and according to Zemke-White and Smith (2006), the Shemberg processing plant in Mandaue City (Philippines) “…creates 2,361 cubic meters of waste water per day with a pH of 12-13 and a biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) load of 1539 kg. Given this high pH and BOD, it is important that the effluent be properly treated before discharge into the local marine environment.”
The processing plant has waste water treatment facilities but admits they are not operating at levels which ensure environmental standards of effluent are being met.
Other plants in the Philippines do not treat their waste water because it is cheaper to pay the fines imposed by the government rather than build an expensive water treatment plant.
In addition to the pollution, seaweed culture displaces natural plant and animal diversity with a monoculture of alien seaweed. The drying structures also have negative impacts because they shade the natural coral reefs. In addition, natural mangrove habitat is being lost because seaweed farmers use the wood for stakes to hold rafts and drying platforms in place.
Granted, this conversion to seaweed culture is probably no more damaging in the grand scale than conversion of an equal area of rainforest to pasture or conversion of open land to concrete and asphalt, but in our developed world, every little bit continues to add up and becomes more and more difficult to re-claim or to mitigate.
If seaweed culture and processing plants were needed to create medicine or something really important, that is one thing, but it simply creates a food thickener that we were able to live without until the 1970s. But is this what us “pretentious and ignorant people” shouldn’t “hate on” because these “advances must be made to keep the world turning”?
Putting junk in ice cream does not make a company evil. It just proves they don’t care about us, but they obviously don’t see that as their responsibility. Their job is to make a profit. I believe the companies that produce and promote real all-natural products will make more profit, but what do I know?
We never called any of the companies that use gums or carrageenan evil. But what should we think of companies that knowingly use products that pollute the oceans?
It’s called frozen dairy dessert BECAUSE there is not enough cream/milk to classify it as ice cream. There is nothing pretentious about wanting to eat ice cream over “frozen dairy.”
I use xanthum gum as a thickener quite regularly in my recipes that don’t use wheat flour. There is nothing wrong whit using a thickener when you need it, but breyers at this count now has: mono and diglycerides, carob bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan. You don’t need that many unless you are TAKING something away. In fact, real ice cream doesn’t need a thickener or stabilizer at all, let alone 3 or 4.
The issue people are bringing up is that breyers used to be the best all-natural ice cream out there. They aren’t adding several different gums because they NEED a thickener, they are adding them so that they can reduce cost.
This addition has altered the taste and texture of the ice cream. This wasn’t done for “better” taste or to scoop easier. Unilever bought a brand with name recognition, then slowly over time altered the recipe to save money. And consumers noticed because it tastes terrible to someone expecting ice cream. I had to throw mine away it was so gross. This is not pretentious, this is a matter of taste. And, I did shell out extra bucks for my fancy ice cream, it was called breyers and it cost about $6 a tub. Now it costs the same amount of money, with terrible ingredients that render it unable to be called ice cream. This is not an “advance to keep the world turning.” It’s a cost cutting measure to rake in profits. And I am free to decide I do not like it, and buy a brand that actually makes ice cream, which is what i want to eat.
As for “all natural,” many ingredients can be derived from natural sources…that doesn’t mean they are good for you. There are already concerns about carrageenan causing inflammation in the digestive tract. And the process to extract it from seaweed is anything but natural. Just like how hexane is used to create blocks of soy.
I just wanted to say that I think what Sarah said about the reason for ‘frozen dairy dessert’ over ‘ice cream’ is right. I mostly only buy Breyer’s fat free ice cream anymore because I’m trying to be a little healthier but can’t give up the sweet creaminess of ice cream.
I looked at the carton in my freezer and it lists a lot of the chemical things but is still called ‘ice cream’ and I know I’ve seen ‘frozen dairy dessert’ on some of the full fat ones that probably have the same number of chemicals or maybe more. So it probably has something to do with psychological manipulation or something. I mean if it’s fat free people probably don’t care if it’s called ice cream or something that sounds less “omg I shouldn’t be eating this” like frozen dairy dessert.
And also what do you think ice cream is? It is a frozen – dairy – dessert.
Ice=frozen
Cream=dairy
Dessert is just what it is usually eaten for
So I don’t know why people see it as something horrible to be called something different. It’s like the words ‘ice cream’ have just been run through Google translate a few times and came out messed up a little.
But those are just my thoughts.
And by the way Stacey, corn syrup is basically just sugar in a viscous liquid form so it isn’t a big deal for it to be in things either. My mom and I use it when we make homemade candies at Christmas.
Pax.
Some kind of name – There are legal reasons why companies use “Frozen Dairy Dessert” vs “Ice Cream”. Under FDA regulations, a product can only be called “ice cream” if it contains at least 10% milk fat and have no more than 100% overrun (amount of air whipped into it) and weigh no less than 4.5 lbs. per gallon.
If the product does not meet these FDA requirements, it has to be called something else, in this case “Frozen Dairy Dessert”. To make up for the fat, usually more additives are used to produce a similar taste or mouth feel as the full-fat product. The mono and diglycerides in the fat-free Breyers Ice Cream is actually derived from partially hydrogenated oils – trans-fat. But the label shows 0g of trans fat. Why? Because the FDA doesn’t require the labeling of trans fat from M&Ds. Fat-free ice cream is not necessarily a healthier choice…
You would be better off eating a smaller portion of full-fat ice cream from natural ingredients than eating fat-free ice cream. Whenever we eat a source of carbohydrate, it should be accompanied by a quality source of fat. Fat slows down the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream and prevents insulin spikes and crashes. The fat keeps us full longer which helps us reach or maintain a healthy weight. Fat-free foods, especially those with sugar, are especially unhealthy.
But if it can’t legally be called ice cream without a certain amount of cream then why does my fat free ice cream made with skim milk get to keep the name ”ice cream”
And I still don’t understand why y’all think “frozen dairy dessert” sounds inherently disgusting. Like I said it is basically just a Google translate version of ”ice cream”
Discrimination Law is probably the queen ?
Fat free or reduced fat ice cream technically are not ice cream. They used to be called ‘iced milk’, as Ice cream requires at least 10% milk fat.
Frozen dairy dessert is ‘disgusting’ because it tastes bad to me. It’s not ice cream. If I want ice cream I’ll buy ice cream. If I want Sherbert, I’ll buy that. I don’t want a frozen desert with corn syrup, guar gum or whatever weird things they decide to put in it to save money.
I believe the FDA allows the term ice cream as long as they say ‘reduced fat’ or something to indicate thatvits nirvana true ice cream, which also requires 20% total milk solids. Frozen dairy dessert isn’t ice cream, so it’s not called ice cream.
@CC
That doesn’t answer my question. I asked how my fat free ice cream maintains its “ice cream” name if it isn’t apparently legally allowed to say it?
And you are being biased by your wording. You mean all frozen dairy desserts you’ve had taste disgusting to you. That doesn’t mean they all are. You could potentially find one labeled that that becomes your favourite thing in the world. Just saying.
Sarahseesstupid – I think most of these posters are like me; they noticed the different taste and texture of Breyers ice cream and didn’t like it. Without reading the ingredients list on a carton of ice cream, I can immediately detect the additions of gums, gars, etc. (Nasty!) Most of us want ice cream that tastes like the kind our grandparents made…with ingredients that we all have in our kitchens. I fail to see what’s pretentious about that! I understand that all those gums and carrageenans (sic) are technically “natural.” But…probably 99% of folks do not have these oddball thickening ingredients in their kitchen. And most folks, like me, don’t like that gummy mouth-feel you experience with the gums, etc.
Lucky me, I have found an excellent replacement for my old beloved Breyers. Harris Teeter Supermarket makes their own natural Premium line of ice creams that are made with cream, milk, vanilla, sugar and totally natural flavorings and fruits…no additives, gums or seaweed. I noticed, about a year ago, that Turkey Hill has a limited line of “premium” ice cream flavors…the list of ingredients looked good. And, then there’s also the very good (but more costly) Haagen Daz.
Sarahseesstupid – Are you kidding me? Or maybe you work for Breyers?
-It is called “Frozen Dairy Dessert” instead of “Ice Cream” sometimes because in this ridiculously health conscious world the words “Ice Cream” carries negative connotations that makes people avoid it on principal.
No it’s called “dairy dessert” because by law they cannot call it ICE CREAM unless it has at LEAST 10% cream in it. Only 10% and they don’t even have that.
Now if you want to eat assorted plant gums and garbage made out of processed seaweed and call it desert, go right ahead. But don’t talk down to the rest of us who realize now that was ONCE GOOD is not pure garbage. And bean gums do cause gastric problems.
As for healthy? Listen, my daughter makes ice cream. She uses CREAM. MILK. SUGAR and what ever flavors. plain vanilla is always good.
THAT’S IT!
Darn rich, but it’s SO rich you don’t need to eat much of it. One scoop is a fantastic treat.
And if it’s too hard to scoop when it’s done, if left in the machine too long it sure does get hard, simply let it warm up just a bit until you CAN scoop it.
By the way
Sue… Haagen Daz has been slowly adding in more and more crap too. They all are. I don’t even bother looking in the ice cream isle anymore. Disgusting.
(Not to mention all the other foods they keep slipping bean gums in. Almond milk for example. No, almond and guar bean sludge. I stopped buying that too.)
I was just caught by frozen dairy dessert! This is the most god awful product. I have no idea who sat around the table at Breyers and did the before and after taste test! They are crazy if they think it taste the same. Not to mention adding corn syrup. This is completely my fault for not reading the label and assuming Breyers was still all natural!
“-It is called “Frozen Dairy Dessert” instead of “Ice Cream” sometimes because in this ridiculously health concious world the words “Ice Cream” carries negative connatations that makes people avoid it on principal. ”
Is it true that people think “Ice Cream” is less healthy than “Frozen Dairy Dessert”?
…for someone who is truly health conscious, wouldn’t ‘ice cream’ at least denote healthier ingredients? I don’t follow this logic at all. Unless people are on a low fat diet and in that case, why even consider ice cream let alone a substitute? I’ve been on diets before and I certainly didn’t torture myself with fake ice cream.
It’s called frozen dairy dessert because it legally cannot be called Ice cream, which must, by definition, have a certain percentage of cream. Frozen dairy dessert has cheaper ingredients thus can’t be called ice cream.
Unilever Corporation which owns Breyers also owns Good Humor, Klondike, Popsicle, Magnum, Ben & Jerrys , and Breyers. I own a antique ice cream business in New Jersey and use to sell Good Humor novelty ice cream. Last year they switched formula and now most of the Good Humor classic ice cream bars are frozen dairy dessert. My customers complained about the artificial taste so I switched to Blue Bunny ice cream. It’s not the best, but it’s hard to find good quality novelty ice cream that does not have all the gums and high fructose corn syrup. They market and continue to mislead the public. It’s a real shame that the bean counters have sacrificed quality over profits
@some kind of name,
“Fat free” Ice cream retains its name because the FDA allows it to. I don’t write the rules, but they allow them to say ice cream instead of iced milk. They have to state on the container it’s missing the milk fat. The FDA does not allow the newest crop of desserts to be called “ice cream” because besides the lack of cream/milk fat:
From the FDA: to be considered genuine ice cream, the product must meet “specific levels of milk fat content, nonfat milk solids content, total solids in each gallon of ice cream, and total weight in each gallon of ice cream, while frozen dairy products do not.”
Thus it’s not just the fat content, it’s the additives (tree gums) and overrun, i.e. The amount of air whipped into the product. Thus a frozen dairy dessert may have more air whipped into it for a smooth texture and to save money. So, it’s not just the fat you are missing. It’s less fat, more air and fillers, thus it’s NOT ice cream. I want ice cream, not guar gum and corn syrup. I’ve tried many tubs of frozen dairy dessert, the last one I dumped down the drain.
I’m not being biased by my wording. I want ice cream, not frozen dairy or reduced or fat free ice cream. Sometimes I go for gelato, which has less milk fat than ice cream but less overrun. Naming is important, if I wanted frozen custard, I would expect egg yolk in it.
I love how much effort everyone puts into this ice cream stuff but less then half of you go out and vote.
If you actually wanted to change back to “you’re (your) old friend” natural ice cream, maybe if you got off your butts besides to the junk food isle (aisle) you could vote for people who feel the same way and companies like Breyers would either change, move or cease to exist. Change the regulations around the industry, or whine online and do nothing about it.
Nearly everyone who commented said they had changed, I didn’t read that they have continued buying the Breyers, apparently not enough have made the change.
Alex – Have you heard of voting with your wallet? And what “people” exactly should one vote for to make Breyers “change, move or cease to exist”?
May 3, 2016
You wrote “other companies (Julie’s Ice Cream and Annie’s Ice Cream) have already removed carrageenan from their products as a result of customer complaints …”
I don’t know when you wrote this, but I just downloaded the pdf of Julie’s nutritional info. Since Turkey Hill Natural doesn’t offer a coffee flavor, I looked at Julie’s “Organic Mocha Java” which contains: “Organic Cream and Organic Skim Milk, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Chocolate Swirl (Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Water, Organic Dutch Cocoa Powder, Organic Corn Starch, Natural Flavors, Salt, and Carrageenan), Organic Egg Yolks, Organic Coffee Extract, Stabilizer (Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice), Natural Flavors”.
Apparently “Julie” wasn’t so bothered by customer complaints after all.
Apparently, Julie’s Organic Mocha Java is the only flavor with carrageenan. According the Cornicopia.org’s Shopping Guide to “Avoiding Organic Foods with Carrageenan”, which was last updated on 4/28/16, they still list Julie’s as having none. They do, however, mention on this page to avoid the Moca Java flavor. What’s odd is that Julie’s website doesn’t even list Mocha Java as one of their ice cream flavors here.
Odd indeed. I went back and skimmed the nutrition pdf and found carrageenan listed in at least two other flavors – which, as you point out, may or may not actually exist. I also found three other gums listed (locust bean, carob bean and guar), along with pectin and cornstarch. Maybe they’ve removed some/all of that glop, but just find it inconvenient to update their flavor and ingredient listings. As they say, “That’s no way to run a popsicle stand!”, never mind an ice cream (er, frozen dessert?) corporation.
BTW, thanks for the original post; I am not a regular ice cream consumer and was unaware of the Unilever near-monopolistic buyouts and the subsequent
degradation of long-respected brands.
I haven’t bought breyers in years, and I haven’t bought other brands either — except for the occasional B&J — though, they don’t have any good flavor either anymore. Yep, I make my own now, using organic ingredients. I can make whatever flavor I want, too.
Did you know if you left the breyers out for a day, it does not MELT? Gross liquid comes out and fills the bottom! Again, never eating breyers again!
Here is some of the science behind it
http://scambusting101.blogspot.ca/2016/01/breyers-ice-cream-meltdown_29.html
You’ll also note that breyers uses coconut oil, which is all the rage now 😉
Bill – Which Breyers’ flavors contain coconut oil? I looked at 6 or so on their website and didn’t find any that listed coconut oil. I also couldn’t find Breyers Family Classic Vanilla Frozen Dessert, which is what your post is partially about and what the guy in the video was testing is his meltdown experiment. And I still don’t believe guar gum and cellulose gum is required for a creamy-textured ice cream, despite what nutritional scientist Grace Yek says. I’ve had plenty of creamy ice cream that didn’t contains gums. And yes, guar and cellulose gum are naturally-derived products. So is arsenic. As far as being “natural,” cellulose gum isn’t just squeezed out of plants and then added to ice cream. It is synthesized by the alkali-catalyzed reaction of cellulose with chloroacetic acid. And, as you can see from the many comments here, guar gum, cellulose gum, locust bean gum, gellan gum etc. can cause mild to severe gastrointestinal side effects. It’s not exactly harmless. In this study, cellulose gum (aka carboxymethyl cellulose – CBC) caused inflammation, obesity/metabolic syndrome and robust colitis in mice.
And not to mention that it is pint short. A “half gallon” container is now 1.5 quarts!
Its all about cost. I bought some Breyer’s Sugar Free Vanilla yesterday and it was tasteless and hollow and watery. Weaker than heck. I will NEVER buy this abomination again.
So disappointed to experience foamy, soft Breyer’s Cherry Vanilla frozen dairy dessert. I usually read labels, but did not even think to look at the ingredients when I bought it today. I better get my ice cream maker out. Thanks for the information.
I stopped buying the Breyer’s as well when they made the change. I don’t buy ice cream all the time so I don’t know when the change happened. I just remember that theirs was almost the only brand I would buy and then one day, their ice cream was gross. I looked at the ingredients and sure enough, they had stopped having only normal ingredients. I never bought a tub again from them. It is quite frustrating that there are so few good ice cream brands. Most of them with quality ingredients add tons of additional things like nuts or fudge or cookies or what not. I just want to buy real plain ice cream sometimes. Haagen daz is ok but it is just too sweet. Home made is really the best.
I know something’s wrong with Breyers.. watched the guy on youtube, left the “creamery style” Breyers chocolate “real” ice cream out.. did not turn runny.. and it’s ~28 degrees Celsius out. Of course, when I purchased PC Creamfirst chocolate, wife loved it, dog licked the bowl clean. The dog was not interested in the Breyer’s bowl however.. at all.
Turkey Hill ice cream has an all natural line that is creamier than other ice cream and the way the original Breyer’s ice cream of the 70’s and 80’s used to be.
I was a very loyal customer of Breyers. However, I do like custard and was trying to get really fit so did not buy ice cream and bring it in the home often over the last couple years. It seemed like one day it was good and then one day I purchased it and it was not good at all. I too noticed the texture had changed and thought something was wrong with my freezer. I thought maybe too many items were in it and it was making the ice cream seem too soft. I stopped eating ice cream for a while and recently went to the store and realized all the changes. I was shocked because that had always been their selling point. It’s sad they charge such an expensive price and decreased the size for such an off brand tasting product. Haugen-Daus did not have that gum and stuff in it but I’m just going to start making my own ice cream/frozen yogurt. I went to GFS for cups and lids to make my own ice cream/frozen yogurt cups to ensure I manage my serving sizes to continue to stay fit. Big business…smh.
I’m so disappointed in Breyers. Have loved it for so many years, then I became diabetic and their no sugar added ice cream was the best I could get. It was turned into something else and is no longer ice cream. Its about disgusting. And I don’t want to waste calories on something that isn’t fit to eat. If my Mother was still alive, she would be so upset. She loved Breyers.
Yes…well, there is an excellent item on YouTube about BREYERS ice cream if you wish to look at it.
I read the label – it says NOTHING about CREAM OR MILK.
The fella who did the study put some in a dish along with three or four other brands and let them sit on the kitchen counter overnight.
All the others MELTED – NOT BREYERS – it was the same shape – and….after a week it got mouldy spots on it!
Thehell with Breyers – I have used it for YEARS, until I saw that item on YouTube!
No more – We use wholesome products – KAWARTHA for instance.
I’m dumbfounded. I got Breyers “mint-chocolate chip”. Breyers took perfection; a carefully manicured pedigree, quality of ingredients & product not to mention training the palet of its loyal consumers… Refined that until it became part of our mutual cultural psyche. THEN went and turned that product into the equivalent of a McDonald’s milkshake (flavor, consistency & “residue” (as my girlfriend put it). Et tu brute?!
I’ve noticed quite awhile ago that Ben and Jerry’s and Breyers no longer use a simple recipe and even Hagen Dazs is adding corn syrup and other undesirable ingredients to some of their flavors… I’m reading every ingredient list every time now and leaving the junk behind. I could care less if they go out of business! It’s about time people wake up and stop buying this crap and send the corporate gluttons a clear message. I’d rather do with out the indulgence of ice cream or any food for that matter when I need a degree in inorganic chemistry degree to understand the ingredients that I’m feeding my kids, friends, family or myself! Perhaps it’s time for more small ma and pa ice cream shop businesses to take a shot at what simple all natural ingredients means to people.
A resounding “Ditto”!!
I noticed some dramatic sale prices for Breyer’s this summer. Didn’t care, Don’t care. Walked right by it to the Turkey Hill Natural.
I rarely used to get by the Breyer’s section without pausing to grab a half gallon.
Now it’s garbage.
THANKS for nothing Unilever. I can only hope sales of the new Breyer’s frozen junk go down the tubes, but if they did, would Unilever even care why?
I want to add my Aunt Mary who owned an ice cream and soda fountain parlor in Philadelphia was at one time the largest seller of Breyers ice cream in the entire city. She was proud of her recognition and proudly displayed these certificates in the store. She would be rolling over in her grave if she knew what became of her beloved ice cream brand.
I used to love Breyer’s All Natural Vanilla with real vanilla bean specks, but I hadn’t eaten ice cream for many years. I, too, was extremely disappointed to find the addition of tara gum. Also, I wonder why it is necessary to include “natural flavor” and “natural vanilla flavor” to the ingredients list. Are those two things extra ingredients? If the flavor is natural, it should come from the other listed ingredients, no? Listing them separately makes me assume that they have tubs of these two “natural” ingredients. Sick. I am now sitting here enjoying my Haagen Dazs Coffee Ice Cream which contains only: Cream, skim milk, cane sugar, egg yolks and coffee. Wonderful, but I wish I could buy my good old American Breyers. So much for the “Pledge of Purity.” Screw Unilever. William, Frederick and Henry Breyer are spinning. I miss America.
Haagen Dazs is an American Brand (see wikipedia): Häagen-Dazs /ˈhɑːɡəndɑːs/ is an ice cream brand, established by Reuben and Rose Mattus in the Bronx, New York, in 1961.
Häagen-Dazs ice cream holds the distinction of being one of the few commercial ice cream brands not to use stabilizers such as guar gum, xanthan gum, or carrageenan. They do use corn syrup in many of their flavors, such as the Vanilla Swiss Almond, according to their website. The company also produces ice cream bars, ice cream cakes, sorbet, frozen yogurt, and gelato.
I just bought a 1.5 gallon of Beyers “natural Vanilla. Got to the checkout and picked it up only to find that the bottom was hollow. Missing about a pint of ice cream. Checker took it back only to bring me another one that was empty in the bottom. We check an many of the Beryers ice cream cartons were 1/3 empty.. Crooks. Making my own now.
Here’s Johnny!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnRrsodj0O8
Back when I was a kid, I remember us buying ice milk because it was cheaper than ice cream. It was made by all the same companies (Breyers, Mayfield, etc.), but was about $.50 to $1.00 cheaper per half gallon. Since we were poor, that’s what we usually ended up getting. Compared to ice cream, it was very bland. But I would rather eat it than this crap that Breyers is passing off as food. I used to love Breyer’s cherry ice cream. It’s one of those foods that trigger fond memories. Their “frozen dessert” just triggers sadness.
I remember that commercial. I’ll pin it right after I post here. I too contacted breyers looking for plain old vanilla ice cream without corn syrup in it. Was told to look for their “all natural vanilla.”
Found some. Sure enough no corn syrup, tara gum instead. But guess what else it does NOT have. VANILLA!!!!! How can they get away with that? I bet if they called it tara bean gum in a box no one would buy it.
Yup, bought a somewhat expensive ice cream machine. Couple hundred bucks. WELL WORTH EVERY CENT!
Make your own. Best advice anywhere.
By the way, it seems all the really expensive brands sold out too. Ben and Jerries, Haagan das, all have crap in them. Ice CREAM should be made with real cream, not bean gum and corn syrup. Yucko
Interesting article. I started my search because I don’t normally buy Breyers, but it was fairly soft almost melted and I thought what is wrong with my freezer. A friend really liked it but when she told me that it was long ago so probably before the changes. I would say I am not really a fan of it. Thanks for the info.
I don’t eat Breyers anymore because of the chemicals! I can’t believe they put chemicals and additives in there ice cream! What happened to the old ice cream?
I am a former fan or Breyers, but not anymore. I have not bought ice cream in a very long time. I bought some Breyers peach ice cream and noticed it tasted like cheap crappy ice cream. Then, I read the ingredients and saw that it is cheap crappy ice cream.
Wow has this thread grown.
Listen, very easy answer to this. I don’t even go down the ice cream aisle anymore.
We bought one of these – Whynter ICM-15LS Ice Cream Maker, Stainless Steel.
Google it. About 230.00 on amazon. SO easy. Put in the ingredients, turn on. It mixes, freezes… scoop it out, put into containers and into the freezer.
MAKE YOUR OWN! DELICH! And no bean gums, corn syrups, corn starch or anything else that has no business in ice cream. SO SO very good. And SO rich you won’t need to eat much. You’ll never buy the glue in a cardboard box again.
The owners of Breyers must have died. Their children may have taken over the company or sold to a stupid investor. Either way, their Ice-Cream used to be sooo good. It now tastes really bad. My family will never buy Breyers Ice Cream again. There are other brands out there.
Hi! I read this article about a month ago and i completely agree. I shared this article with my friends and family. We now make our own ice cream. However, today i was in a farmer’s market and i found pints of ice cream next to the big business “ice creams”. I live in Florida, and this company seems to be a good one! Southern Craft Creamery. We picked up a pint (even though it was slightly expensive) of Coconut Cream Ice Cream. (It’s the ONLY pure coconut ice cream I’ve ever seen.) Ingredients on the back say milk, cream, pure cane sugar, organic coconut, less than 0.5% gelatin.
Wow! Close enough i say! It’s slightly icy and difficult to scoop. Not a “frozen dairy dessert”. Joining the movement(?) for the search of REAL ice cream! Starting with this brand. Just wanted to give this company a shout out, because they’re one of the good guys. I hope they don’t sell out to “market trends” because I’m glad they realize that there are people that will pay more for REAL FOOD and not plastic and algae.
Robby – Glad you were able to find another ice cream brand with real ingredients. Here’s hoping Southern Craft Creamery never sells out and becomes a Unilever brand like Breyer’s and Ben & Jerry’s.
Darn it, only available in Florida and Alabama. Hope they make it to Michigan. Need more choices without “plastic and algae.” lol… yuck.
This is serious. I’m turned off ice cream now just because I ate breyers ice cream. maybe it’s also because after eating breyers my gut is bloated and I feel lethargic yet I didn’t eat enough to feel lethargic. I know this because I can eat a lot and didn’t. Don’t you just hate that?
You feel bad because of something you ate that you should be able to trust? It will we at least a day til my stomach is normal again. I’m telling ya, you take your health in your hands when buying food these days.😕
See if your store might get Alden’s Ice Cream. It’s about $8 a half gallon but well worth it. It’s the only organic ice cream I’ve found. I won’t spend $5+ for a pint of Haagen Daz or Ben & Jerry’s.
Aldens SUCKS! All it is is overpriced garbage! All kinds of gums in it.
November 26, 2018 (wish the comments had dates added)
I saw this organic crap at our grocery chain. Alden’s – yes, it was 9.99 for a 1.5 quart container. Their website states “Clean Ingredients”. Oh please. Tapioca Starch*, Guar Gum*, Soy Lecithin*, Locust Bean Gum*, Xanthan Gum. And that’s just in their vanilla.
JUNK!!!
Not sure why you seem to hate Soya Lecithin. I used to buy it years ago, in bags at the health food shops. It is generally considered a healthy thing to consume. It is present in the ice cream as an emulsifier, that is it helps the fats and the non-fat compounds of the ice cream to blend together better. Traditionally ice cream was made with egg yolk, because egg yolk contains lecithin, and so the egg yolk was a natural emulsifier. I am an artisan ice cream maker in Scotland, and we use egg yolk. Ice cream is almost be definition a blend of fats (cream) and non-fats (the rest of the milk), and so an emulsifier is needed. So if you don’t want soya lecithin (but why..?), and can’t find ice cream made with egg yolk, consider the delightful alternatives: Mono & Disodium Glycerides; or perhaps Propane 1,2 Diol…? These are two of the very common emulsifiers used in the world today to make ice cream.
Soy lecithin isn’t the problem. It’s the assorted gums especially xanthan and carrageenan, not even plant gums but seaweed broken down with bacteria because it’s undigestable. It’s the “natural flavors” that usually contain, among other things, castorium which comes from a gland on the back side of a beaver.
Please. I make ice cream at home now. CREAM…. SUGAR…. VANILLA. Works just great. Using egg makes it twice as good. But it works with plain half and half, sugar, vanilla too. The whole point of this post is because every blasted company on the planet seems to have sold out for cheaper ingredients. Nevermind how unhealthy they are or how much they taste like garbage, just pad the bottom line.
It’s not just ice cream doing this either. Just yesterday I had to give up on finding plain old cream cheese. MY GOD even Philadelphia cream cheese has bean gum in it now. I left it all in the store. Kraft foods is another company to sell out using cheap garbage ingredients vs real food. Sickening!
Honestly, it’s not just ice cream that’s going to hell. More and more foods are adding assorted plant gums to the ingredients. Did you know guar bean gum in large quantities is actually banned by the FDA because it causes gastrointestinal issues? But it’s ok to slip small amounts in. And it’s been showing up in EVERYTHING! Even some of my favorite yogurt brands, OMG. Bean gum! Every single salad dressing made has xanthan gum in it. YUCK.
look… [Xanthan gum is a complex exopolysaccharide, meaning that it is a polymer composed of sugar residues, secreted by a microorganism into the surrounding environment. Produced by plant-pathogenic bacterium – a microorganism that causes several diseases in plants – xanthan gum is widely used as a thickening and stabilizing agent in a wide variety of food and industrial products.] YUCK YUCK AND DOUBLE YUCK.
Gums in one form or another are in every brand of sausage and hot dog my local store sells. And most buns, and condiments. WHY it’s not banned entirely is well….. money. It’s all about money.
I tried to buy a jar of alfrado sauce once. EVERY SINGLE BOTTLE on the shelf had bean gum in it. I bought a block of cheese, some cream, made my own. It’s to the point there is very little in the way of any pre packaged food I trust anymore.
It takes me twice as long to go grocery shopping because I have to read every single label of a product before putting it in my cart. I remember the first time I checked a jar of olives for ingredients. You know, the fancy imported glass jar of olives. How could they possibly mess olives up? But there it was – guar gum. And long ago we had to stop buying pickles – carrageenan, yellow #5, polysorbate 80, etc.. We now make these easy refrigerator pickles with nothing more than cucumbers, water, vinegar, salt, and dill. I remember I served our pickles to some guests and they thought they were just sliced cucumbers because they didn’t look yellow enough for pickles.
I use xantham gum in cooking regularly, it’s a gluten replacement. So if you are baking gluten free, you need a thickener. A little bit here are there is fine. But the problem arises when it’s in EVERYTHING and used to reduce cost or in place of actual ingredients. No ice cream needs 3 different types of gums in it!
November 26, 2018
@Jenny – glad you ended up making your own Alfredo sauce. I found a very simple recipe online and now can make my own without ANY garbage in it. Heat flour and butter to make a roux (thickener) then you slowly add milk (whatever kind you want or cream, but its NOT necessary) then when its thickened add Parmesan cheese (I prefer 4C with no anti-caking agent).
I just got a block of I think it was romano cheese, heated some butter and half and half, grated the cheese into it and waited till it melted. Too runny add more cheese.
Roux has it’s place but I don’t care for the flowery taste. That’s great for gravy or other things, but cheese sauce is a whole lot richer without it.
But either way it’s sure better than that junk in jars now.
I was so disappointed with the change. I too grew up on Breyers. One scoop and taste of the changed dessert ended the gallon down the sink. No longer a breyers customer.
I purchased a container of Breyer’s Butter Pecan FDD about a year or so ago. Prior to that, I hadn’t purchased Breyer’s in quite some time. And when I went to scoop it from the container into the bowl, I knew something didn’t seem quite right. My suspicions were confirmed when I took my first spoonful. It didn’t even taste like ice cream and seemed like it was pumped full of air. I started reading the label and couldn’t find the words “ice cream” anywhere on it, so I started doing the research online and lo and behold, I pretty much found out what everyone else in this thread has been saying. I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never, ever put a spoonful of that crap in my mouth again. Just another classic case of a big conglomerate downsizing the amount of product while charging the same price for it AND substituting natural ingredients with artificial garbage, all to increase Unilever’s profits! Disgusting! I’m purchasing an ice cream maker soon and will starting making my own.
Dairy dessert soon as I tasted my cherry vanilla ice cream I knew something was very wrong, the taste and texture was so off I thought the carton of it was bad, there it was on the front of the carton in small letters, dairy dessert I felt deceived and violated by your company I bought what was suppposed to be pure ice cream and ended up with trash now I need to find a pure ice cream and the thing is I would have paid any amount to keep my Breyer’s the same when and if you go back to the regular pure formula send me an Email till then I refuse to buy your junky products.
I used to be a fan of breyers until they pulled the old cup and ball routine – who did they think they could fool?
So far Haagen Dazs (aka Nestle) is still producing Base flavours with minimal ingredients, The chocolate is as follows… cream, sugar, concentrated skim milk, liquid egg yolk, cocoa.
The strawberry, vanilla and coffee flavours are all fairly straight forward as far as ingredients go BUT BEWARE of the other flavours they have, especially the new line they just introduced those ones are following the Breyers trend.
I agree it is disgusting. I thought it was just me growing up and my tastes changed but I never remembered ice cream being perpetually SOFT as if it was partially melted. it has a thick kinda slimy foamy feel in the mouth and doesn’t feel cold as you swallow it, feels like I have some kind of sweet room temperature foam in my mouth. Couldn’t even finish a small bowl of it, how could anyone “prefer” that over some nice ice cold ice cream. Very gross Breyers, you should be ashamed.
I make ice cream all the time. It has 4 basic ingredients in it: 1 cup of heavy cream, 1 cup of 10% cream, 1/4 cup of sugar, and a pinch of kosher salt. Add a tea spoon of flavoring i.e. vanilla extract or if u like chocolate… 2 TBS of cocoa powder. Whisk mix for 3 min and chill in fridge for 30 min prior to churning in the machine. Best ice cream you will ever make. I haven’t bought that store bought stuff in 5 years. Last time I looked at commercial available ice cream it had 34 ingredients…. most of which we cannot pronounce. No reason for this. Make your own. Know what you are putting into your body. You won’t regret it!
What product is 10% cream or how do you make a cup of it?
Coffee cream is 10%, heavy cream is 35%.
This is too funny. I ate Breyer’s ice cream once and never bought it again because of the weird soft texture and strange taste. I guess now I know why!!
Turkey Hill now has an all natural line to fill the niche Brewers left. Limited flavors, but at least the ingredients are too!
Turkey Hill now sucks too! A couple of years ago they changed their recipe for the breyers clone vanilla which was very good…they use some kind of funny tasting vanilla substitute now….and pump more air in it!
Oh really? All natural you say? Prove it! There is not one ice cream that is all natural. Unless you’r miking your own cow and making it from scratch. All store bought stuff is full of chemicals. Regardless of what your label says. You can thank your government for the current labeling laws.
Curious, I had to look up Turkey Hill. Dang, I wish it were available in my area.
But here ya go, only looked up vanilla but this is a good sign.
Ingredients: NONFAT MILK, CREAM, SUGAR, VANILLA.
https://www.turkeyhill.com/frozen/ice-cream/all-natural-recipes/homemade-vanilla
Only problem I see with this, nonfat milk is loaded with sugar. And what’s the point? Next ingredient is cream. Just use full fat whole milk and it would be even better.
Now your right about one point, when ever something lists “Natural and/or artificial flavor” OMG you have no idea what might be in it. And they don’t have to list exactly what it is either. So added to my growing list of ingredients that cause me to put it back on the shelf,
Corn syrup (plain and especially high fructose)
Bean gums… all of them. (carob, tara, guar, xanthan, carrageenan….)
Hydrogenated anything,
and now natural or artificial flavors. Yea, I’d rather not consume beaver butt oil thank you.
(That’s one of the “natural” ones. Yuck.)
I bought Turkey Hill natural vanilla and found it is filled with so much air it melts instantly. I also see that heavy whipping cream now contains carageenan, so cannot make my own. I used to make ice cream with evap milk but now every brand has carageenan.
Jan 22, 2018
The other issue with the ingredient list – Turkey Hill All Natural as an example – it may say only Nonfat Milk, Cream, Sugar, Vanilla – but the latest problem is what is in the CREAM they are using? Is it extended shelf life heavy cream – aka Ultra Pasteurized which will have at least some kind of gum in it – gellan, guar, locust bean, etc. So, are we really just eating those 4 ingredients? And is it Vanilla extract? Vanilla flavoring? There’s more to the ingredients than what is listed on the carton.
I’d be very surprised if the cream they use has anything added to it. If that were the case, they would be required by law to show that on the ingredients list on the tubs.
As an aside, I have to say I am stunned to learn that carrageenan is being added to cream in the USA. I am an ex-Pat, and live in Scotland. You never see that sort of bizarre ingredient slipped in to cream here.
My wife is a tall small dairy farmer, and we are making very small batches of ice cream here, and selling it to local shops. (We’re unable to sell direct to folk, as our farm is on the remote end of a small island in the Inner Hebrides.) I’m the ice cream chef as it were. And I really didn’t want to add any gums to our recipes when we started out. So I did a test: I made a batch of Vanilla ice cream, identical except for the addition or exclusion of a few gums. I then left both in the freezer for a month. When we tested them both after 4 weeks, it was astonishing to feel the difference. Then one without the gums had developed lots of tiny ice crystals throughout, not simply on the top or sides. It was very obvious to the 6 of us that tested both that evening. But the one with the gums was as good as if it had been made 2 days before. So we added gums, in modest quantities, to our recipes. Initially I used Guar Gum, and Locust Bean Gum, and Xanthum powder. But I really never liked the first two, especially guar gum, as it has its own strong flavour. I could detect it in our Vanilla batches. But I didn’t know what else to do.
Then last year I learnt of Tara Gum, which is very very similar in biochemical terms to guar and locust bean gums, but it has a neutral flavour. After some testing, we switched to Tara Gum. And we use a tiny amount of Xanthum powder. Our ice creams are pretty popular here in our part of Scotland, and I have never heard anyone complain about the use of the gums.
The only way a commercial ice cream maker can avoid the use of these “stabilizers” is to use egg yolk, and push the hot mix through a very high-pressure nozzle to completely homogenize the mix. I know of one very good ice cream maker in Dumfries & Galloway that does that. But that isn’t an approach that is feasible when you are making 20 litre batches on the stove. The investment in the homogenising equipment only makes sense once you have something like 1,000 litre batches running through the equipment each day.
Even then I’m not sure about the health cost in the body of consuming this kind of homogenized milk product. I’m told by friends who have studied the matter deeply that it is the homogenizing of milk that is the worst thing for our bodies, as we have not evolved to deal with butterfat broken down into these nano-particle sizes. The homogenizing equipment basically works by breaking down the butterfat into particle sizes that are not found in nature. So I see that approach as having problems.
The fact that Tara Gum is made from a part of a seed of a tree doesn’t trouble me at all. What I find far more alarming is that in the USA all ice cream is made with sugar from sugar cane, and all the sugar cane these days is sprayed with a powerful insecticide (Glyphosate) just before harvesting. Why? Because this pesticide also acts as a desiccant (dries out the plant) and thereby increases the sugar yield by about 15%. So all the ice cream you are eating, unless it states that it was made with organic sugar, will contain traces of Glyphosate. I would be FAR more concerned with that compared with the presence of gums.
On the other hand, I also very often encounter ice creams that are made with far too much of these gums, and the clear indication of this is if the ice cream is “chewy”. That strikes me as a crime against humanity, chewy ice cream..! But they do it to achieve longer shelf lives on their product. We use minimal gum quantities, and only have 4 months Best Before dates on our tubs. It would be nice to be able to say BB 6 months, but we don’t add enough gums to enable that length of shelf life.
Don, I read every word you wrote… a few points I just have to stress. First of all, GOOD ice cream shouldn’t be in your freezer for weeks let along MONTHS. If it’s that good, it will be gobbled up. It should be, and always has been considered a perishable item. Not one intended for long term storage. And this use of gums in ice cream seems to be a fairly recent event. The old Breyers commercial where the kid is reading the ingredients, never mentioned gums. Now maybe a small producer could not afford to heat egg and use that, but a company the size of Breyers? There is no excuse not to. Except for money.
Second, some bean gums, tara, guar, are actually not that harmful to us. IN SMALL QUANTITIES. That’s what our own FDA has put out and that’s what all the reading I’ve been doing suggests. But… what exactly is a “small” quantity? And how would anyone know how much they are getting in assorted products when not one company is required to list exactly how much they are using and I have been finding it in more and more things it never was in before?
Simply put, I don’t want any and will flat out refuse to buy ANYTHING now with ANY gums in it. This sure has cut down the products I can buy. Not a single salad dressing in the entire isle of the biggest supermarkets around me doesn’t have xanthan gum in it. I found one store, with a local label item they have to keep somewhat cool in the produce section that doesn’t come with gums. It’s delicious too.
Did not know that about the cane sugar though. Swell, one more thing to look out for.
I swear it’s getting to the point I need to get my own cow if I’m ever going to make ice cream again.
And I wonder, stevia plant (I have grown a few times, easy annual.) Is some 600 times sweeter than sugar. Think that would work with ice cream? I know powder form is available, (not sure the process used to do that.) More reading involved I suppose.
Meanwhile, I started a pinterest board some time ago with all the foods and junk in them. Added a few creams just the other day AND I took the time to call three companies and complain. But go look at one of the most recent pins here. Land O Lakes cream. They actually told me over the phone “carrageenan is added to make the cream creamier.” I said NO! CREAM is CREAMY. This stuff (only I didn’t say stuff) is SKIM MILK with seaweed added to thicken it. Why not put the CREAM you skimmed off the “skim milk” into the container called CREAM and just sell that?
Yea… I don’t know how much good that does, but maybe if a lot more people called and did the same it would help. Phone numbers to that company and a few more are in the descriptions.
Here.
https://www.pinterest.com/artmakersworlds/food-and-the-garbage-companies-put-in-it/
Jenny, for anyone making ice cream on any commercial scale, a shelf life of 2 or 3 weeks is a non-starter, unless you are running an ice cream parlour and scooping it onto cones for folk. Where we are based, on a small island in Scotland, our only option is to get the ice cream to shops and hotels etc in the region. And if we told them that the ice cream needed to be sold within 3 weeks of it being made, first of all, they would just say thank you but no. And what if we make a 100 litre batch of Vanilla in January, and it takes 3 weeks for it all to be sold? Then its Best Before date would be past before the shops even receive it in some instances.
To avoid gums entirely in ice cream, you have two main options. (1) Make it yourself. And (2) find the very few commercial makers that avoid them altogether. There are some in the USA, and a couple of them here in the UK. The only one I actually know of here is called Cream O’Galloway, in Dumfries & Galloway. They make good ice cream, and they use high-pressure homogenizing of their liquid mix, which includes egg yolk, to achieve a decent shelf life without any gums. But to suggest that any commercial ice cream maker, big or small, should be able to get all their ice cream sold and eaten within 3 weeks of it being made is just completely unrealistic, I’m afraid.
Are you aware that 80% of organic milk in the USA is UHT treated. That means the milk is heated to roughly 275˚F for a second or two, and that means it is utterly demolished, nothing living inside at all, no enzyme activity, any spores killed, nothing living left. The UHT treatment gives the milk a 6 month shelf life, and it doesn’t even need to be kept in the fridge in the supermarkets. And this is ENTIRELY about shelf life, and nothing more. Organic milk is so niche, that when the organic milk suppliers first approached the supermarkets, the supermarkets weren’t interested. They couldn’t be sure they would have enough interested customers that would buy the pricier organic milk each week. So the suppliers said to the supermarkets, what if the milk had a 6 month shelf life? And so that’s what happened in the USA with regards to 80% of organic milk sold.
We heat our milk to just over 145˚F and just below 147˚C and hold it in the tank at that temperature for 30 minutes. This is the way that milk used to be pasteurized 50 years ago. We are now the only dairy in the whole of Scotland pasteurizing our milk at this low temperature. We put our milk in glass bottles, and deliver to shops around the region. And we also make very small batches of ice cream – I mean 15 to 20 litre batches. These are TINY batches by comparison with nearly all commercial producers. In a batch that contains 12 litres of our milk, there will also be added 900ml of what is called Double Cream in the UK. That is extra thick cream, and nothing else is added to the Double Cream by the dairy producers in the UK. A bit of egg yolk (400ml) and a similar amount of vegetable glycerine (to help it scoop more easily – chocolate ice cream without it is likely to need a hammer and chisel to scoop, due to the cocoa butter). To this we add 14 grams of Tara Gum, which is about one tablespoon. And 4 grams of Xanthan powder. I think these classify as small amounts.
The challenge with ice cream making in any storage freezer is that the water and fat molecules, which were so nicely blended when the mix was turned into ice cream in the first place, want to drift apart from each other. Water and butterfat simply don’t like being in bed together as it were. They do so reluctantly in the first place, when freshly made. But in a very short space of time in the tubs in the freezer, they move apart. And this is experienced as an icy, gritty texture in eating it.
Some commercial ice cream makers in the UK go way overboard with the use of gums, in order to achieve a shelf life of a year or so. It works, but the ice cream is chewy, almost like chewing gum. Yuk..!
Most of the big commercial ice cream makers in the UK use lots of different stabilizers, including Mono & diglycerides. I don’t know a lot about this chemical, but I just don’t like the idea of putting a synthetic chemical into our mix, and so we have to avoid nearly all of the many commercial paste compounds that are offered to commercial ice cream makers. Have a look at this company: www.acatris.com and you’ll get an idea of what is on offer to commercial ice cream makers. Talking on this subject once again this week with a professional consultant, who is a lovely guy, with a background as a chef, but who has been a consultant to most of the commercial ice cream makers in Scotland, he said that very few of them care if they have to add more E numbers (such as the Mono & diglycerides, etc.) to their product. We are unusual in Scotland for using just small quantities of just 2 of the gums. And I have chosen the ones that have the least indications of causing folk any trouble.
But I am still shocked to hear that cream sold in America usually has carrageenan added to it. There is just NO excuse for that. No wonder the Transatlantic Trade deals discussed are so difficult..! I don’t think folk in the UK would want to see seaweed extract added to their cream.
Don, have you looked at the very top of this thread? The video there? I remember when Brayers Ice cream did NOT have all this garbage in it. Milk, cream, sugar, strawberries.
Brayers is and was then a pretty big company. So how was it possible for them to sell GOOD ice cream without worrying about crystals? They did it for a long time.
Ben and Jerry’s were also once a premium and darn good product. Unilever bought out both and both turned to…. well you fill in the word there.
I can’t even track down the path of owners of Haagan Dazz. But it too is filled with fillers, shelf life preservatives, and what not. Seems as soon as a huge corporation buys out a good company, they start cutting it with cheaper ingredients to pad the bottom line.
I’m sorry but I don’t give a rats behind how long ice cream can sit on a shelf. It’s perishable. It’s not meant to be as long lived as bricks. If that means refrigerated shipping, so be it. Do that. Using Egg, do that. HIGH FAT CONTENT and little water also helps with the crystallization problem. (Then again, I also remember ice milk NOT having all the fillers it does now.) Ice cream WAS once sold as real ice cream. So what’s changed? Possibly the ultra pasteurization of milk. I know that’s a bad development. Again I might have to contact a dairy and see if I can buy real milk.
Sponsor a cow or some such thing. Or… I did find out you can order real cream on line. Probably costs a mint. Come summer I’ll look into that. Making ice cream in your own machine is really simple. IF I can find cream without fillers.
BTW… I read just yesterday that Carrageenan will be added to the list of ingredients NOT allowed in organic products. Won’t happen till Nov of 2018 but at least it’s coming. Small start, but I’ll take it. Unfortunately ALL the brands of cream available in my are are NOT organic. Some milk is, much more expensive too.
Xanthan gum. Do you really use that? Ever look it up?
It needs bacteria to process. Xanthomonas Campestris is the stuff responsible for “black rot” on vegetables.
The action of the bacteria produces black rot or a slimy gel depending on where it is applied. In the case of producing xanthan gum, Xanthomonas campestris is applied to some sort of starchy material (ie. corn, wheat, dairy or soy) and ferments it to produce a slimy, indigestible polysaccaride (a string of multiple glucose molecules) substance. This slimy material is then further refined, dried and milled into the white powder we know as xanthan gum.
That stuff was only approved for use as a food additive in 1968. So how did we ever survive without it before that?
I want NOTHING to do with gums of any kind. Real food, or it can just stay on the shelf.
Jan 27th, 2018
I was trying to reply to Jenny, but there was no link as she pretty much said everything I was thinking.
Breyers has been around for 152 years – 136 years of retail selling. And until the Unilever transaction – purchasing Breyers from Kraft in 1993 – the ice cream had remained the same. No gums, no fillers….REAL ice cream, with simple ingredients sold on a massive scale to grocery chains across the nation. Most other brands have also been selling for decades without the use of gums, stabilizers, preservatives. This gum and carageenan addition is a very recent change and NO, its not needed as history proves.
The same goes for cottage cheese, sour cream, cream cheese and cheese. There never used to be any gums or stabilizers, fillers added to most of these items until one company does it, then the rest follow suit. Friendship used to make great cottage cheese – but again, was bought out by Saputo – whose specialty is EXTENDED SHELF LIFE DAIRY PRODUCTS. Guess what happened? They added the gums, carageenan, maltodextrin, potassium sorbate. It was NEVER needed before, but along comes the new owner and whammo – cut back on the real ingredients and insert JUNK. Daisy brand makes their cottage cheese and sour cream with nothing but cultured skim milk, cream and salt. No gums needed, no carageenan needed, no maltodextrin needed or potassium sorbate. One brand remains standing so far, without succumbing to this filler madness.
We even had a local farm promoting their very own “homemade” ice cream. After buying a couple of pints – we read the ingredients – polysorbate, xanthum gum, carageenan, mono and diglycerides. Yeah, real homemade…..uh, I don’t think so.
More sunshine being pumped up our derrieres.
Everyone should take the free coupons, buy the ice cream and throw it down the drain. Then don’t buy anymore. What speaks loudest to these companies that are trying to fool us is a Direct hit to the wallet. The days of customer service are over. Now all they care about is the bottom line. I am extremely upset with Unilever buying Breyer’s. They don’t even make good soap much less ice cream.
Yep, just like Nestle taking over Good Humor and Haagen Daz. And unless people complain and stop buying, they will continue to reduce the quality or products – making Frankenfood.
p.s. If you live in the South, Mayfield Ice Cream is wonderful.
Please scratch the Mayfield comment. Apparently Tommy Mayfield must not own the company anymore. I bought the natural vanilla Mayfield that use to be so good, my mouth had a slippery, slimy coating on the roof of it that took forever to get off. I looked at the package and sure enough guar gum. Not just a little either, it was horrible. I will not buy that again. I, too, will start making my own home made ice cream.
Haagen Daz (owned by Nestle) has now been adding corn syrup to some flavors and Lactose reduced milk. Not to mention, its not always as dense as it used to be and I see many reviews complaining how its changed.
Yet another brand ruined by the corporate takeover.
As for the heavy cream, yes, almost all you see sold on your grocery store shelves is ULTRA pasteurized. If you can manage to find just standard pasteurized, it won’t have anything else added – but unless you live near a place that sells it or shop online you’re out of luck. Keep pestering your local grocery chain to carry NON Ultra Pasteurized – which is just a fancy name for EXTENDED SHELF LIFE. This is the new strategy in ALL dairy products: Cottage cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, yogurts.
Toxinless.com is a great resource. Not sure if he added ice cream to the list.
1 cup 35% Table cream
1 cup 10% coffee cream
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
I pinch of kosher salt
Only 5 ingredients
Very simple! try it you’ll like it!
I buy Turkey Hill All Natural Chocolate Ice Cream. It has simple ingredients. The HT All Natural Ice Cream is a good choice too. I don’t buy anything but these 2 brands.
Stabilizers are added to many brands of ice cream. The purpose is to prevent the gritty taste that often occurs when ice cream is refrozen. Once delivered to the super market or other retailer, the manufacturer loses control. For example, ice cream can sit for a period of time between delivery and stocking in the store freezer. Some thawing can occur.
For many YEARS ice cream was made without using “stabilizers” such as guar gum (among others.) Brayers was one of them. So what happened to make this suddenly necessary?
Bottom line (no pun intended) is they are cutting the product to pad profits. Slip just a little flavorless and cheap filler into a package, do that thousands of times and at the end of the day they saved $$$$ Yea well, I won’t buy it anymore.
And this isn’t just happening with ice cream. This blog should be expanded. I’m finding BEAN GUMS in stuff it has absolutely NO BUSINESS IN!
My store brand (spartan) half and half now has carrageenan in it! HOW can they get away with calling it HALF and HALF???? Then stuff filler into the package?
Cottage cheese? Prairie farms has the trifecta of crap. xanthan, carrageenan, AND carob gums. And it tastes like bland goo. This stuff has suddenly appeared in the yogurt, spaghetti sauce, breads, MOST canned foods. It’s disgusting. Takes me three times longer to get through the grocery store because I have to read EVERY label now, and I end up with three times LESS than I use to buy. I don’t even go down the ice cream isle anymore. Make your own. SO much better. Same goes for everything else. Somethings though I can’t make. Heavy cream for example. Even making ice cream from scratch is getting difficult since I can’t buy a plain carton of cream without it having carrageenan in it!
I’m ok with stabilizers. But Breyers and other manufacturers are also using these stabilizers as fillers for actual cream. No ice cream needs 3 different types of ‘gums.’ We weren’t born yesterday.
Yes Guido, the posts here are all incredibly negative regarding the use of the gum powders. I’m a very very small ice cream producer, and we found that the grittiness from the development of small ice crystals was present in a month, even when the ice cream was stored frozen the whole time. So we add a very small amount of Tara Gum Powder, and an even lesser amount of Xanthum Gum. The amount we add of Tara Gum is about one tenth of one percent of the recipe, and with the Xanthum Gum it is about one hundredth of one percent of the recipe by weight. I have of course read up on the risks etc of the various stabilizers, and these two seem to be pretty much harmless.
Not when they are showing up in EVERYTHING. Small amounts… IN just about every product on the shelf now? It adds up.
Seems if I want real cream I’m going to have to get a cow. I can’t even find plain heavy cream that doesn’t have carrageenan in it anymore.
Made some homdmade soup today. Only because the canned variety I’ve been buying for years is also slipping bean gums into it.
I’m NOT buying it anymore. I don’t care how small the amount. Ice cream with a high butterfat content, or use of eggs as an emulsifier works just great.
How weird, adding carrageenan to heavy cream. Why in the world would they do that? I suppose it makes the cream thicker, and so it appears to the not-paying-attention consumer as having more cream content. Carrageenan is one of the products we avoid entirely, because it is found to cause bowel irritation in various studies. Its derived from seaweed, so on the face of it ought to be ok, but not according to the research I have seen.
I’m in the UK, and we at least do not find additives in our cream. What we do have is milk that is rendered awful to the taste, by high-temperature pasteurising. So different from the flavour of raw milk.
Don I agree. Carrageenan is known if it’s over processed it’s downgraded to animal feed, and it can even make them sick. Seems the only way to get good milk is buy a cow. (And not feed it carrageenan.) I got the store manager the other day. EVERY SINGLE BRAND of cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and all but one sour cream had carrageenan, if not more gums as well in it. I said I gave up on the ice cream isle, and now I can’t even make my own since I can’t find plain cream without carrageenan. He commented that he didn’t have any idea. AND that the one I found that was good is made by the same company as all the others full of carrageenan. I said yea well… so far. Give it time. Even the canned soup I use to buy, it’s been showing up now.
So that’s one more person educated on the subject. Hopefully, being a store manager, he MIGHT have the ear of corporate, and THEY MIGHT have the ear of the company they are buying from. Gotta keep doing this until more people know what garbage has been showing up in our foods.
Thanks for posting this. My husband and I were just talking about how Breyers ice cream is not the same as it used to be. My husband too thought maybe there was something wrong with our freezer because the Breyers ice cream was so soft. I did a search and found your post. You’ve just confirmed what we were thinking. Thanks – we will not be buying Breyers any more.
I buy the Turkey Hill (All Natural) or HT (All Natural). They have just a few ingredients the way Breyers used to be. It’s a shame too.
Bryers use to be the only ice cream I could eat. We bought some two days ago. Woke up next morning with swollen face and mouth and congested. After reading all the comments I am so sad. No ice cream for me anymore. Use to be a clean product. It is the gums. Pills covered with it also make me react. Someday I hope company’s will come back to quality. In the long run producing bad food will make them less profitable.
Kathie – Turkey Hill’s All Natural Homemade Vanilla ingredients are: nonfat milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla. No gums, carrageenan, or any other ingredients some of us don’t want in our ice cream.
Wish it were sold in Michigan. Found a few stores near my daughter (hour away) that MAKES their own. OF course… with carrageenan showing up in cream now I doubt even that is free of it.
I agree with everything said about Breyers not being what it used to be. My main problem is the texture. It is not creamy. It breaks apart into clumps so that you can’t put it on an ice cream cone. Like so many others, I grew up enjoying the truly all-natural Breyers vanilla bean ice cream, and their coffee ice cream was the best. Now it tastes like burnt sugar, and is not creamy. I grew up less than a mile from the original Breyers Estate in Elkins Park, PA. My brownie troupe visited for a tour. We had great reverence for this landmark. Unfortunately, the old Breyers estate was sold to Cheltenham Township and now houses the police station and the township building. I concur that Turkey Hill does a great job with their ice cream and, if you don’t mind spending a bundle, the very best, richest, yummiest ice cream is made here in Philadelphia. It is Zsa’s Ice Cream. It comes in pints, and the flavors are amazing! If you’re a true ice cream devotee, treat yourself to Zsa’s Ice Cream, and you’ll be hooked.
If anyone wants to make ice cream, enough to sell or give to friends family and neighbours, this little Italian batch freezer is fantastic. Very easy to use, and very reliable, superb build quality. I’ve used one for the past 3 years. https://www.machineryworld.com/used-machines/ice-cream-batch-freezers/cattabriga-mantematic-k20-s-br-batch-freezer-brand-new
That is a Cattabriga Mantematic K20/S Batch Freezer. Machinery World in England is the cheapest place in Europe to buy one. They export 6 or 7 of these machines to the USA each year.
Well, it is pretty simple to know what happened with each of the brands of ice cream you have referred to, from Breyers to Ben & Jerry’s etc. When they were owned by the original folk or family, they were content to have a shelf life of maybe 6 months. Breyers would have used egg yolk combined with high-pressure homogenizing to achieve that.
Then the business is bought by bigger companies, and they look at their new asset and figure they know how to mine it for more profit: give the ice cream a longer shelf life. By adding the gums, combined with the high-pressure egg yolk system, they will achieve a shelf life of a year.
Two years ago I bought a tub of Strawberry ice cream made here in Scotland by one of the big manufacturers, Mackies. I put it away in the freezer, and forgot about it. When I next noticed it, about a year had gone by. It was maybe a few months past its Best Before date. Out of curiousity I opened it up… it looked fine. So I tasted a bit. Tasted fine, and the texture was as good as it had been when I bought it. I was astonished. Mono & Diglycerides, and various gums had enabled a remarkable shelf life. It kind of pissed me off. Damn! They achieve that shelf life, and all we can manage is 4 months. Oh well.
Jenny, you may not care at all about shelf life, but I would simply argue in favour of moderation. Breyers in older times wanted good shelf life, you can be sure of it, and they invested heavily in the process to achieve that. I have lived in the UK too long to recall if I ever in my childhood had tried their ice cream, but I figure folk here must be telling the truth, that it used to be good. It is just a pity that corporate greed means that these good products get altered by “clever” folk at the corporations, who presumably got bonuses at the end of the year for having pushed the profits up. I’m not an extremist, and if a zero tolerance policy for gums is the only approach you can allow, then we have to disagree. I saw one comment here that disparaged Tara gum on the basis that it was made from the “endosperm” of a seed of a tree in Peru. That is correct, but the word endosperm seemed offensive to the writer. It is simply an accurate description in biological terminology of what is used to make that gum. Why should a word like that cause such offense?
Personally, I am much more skeptical of the health risks posed by high-pressure homogenizing. That’s why we don’t use that approach. And there is a great deal of research on Xanthan powder, going back 70 years, and it appears to be pretty darned safe. And no manufacturer would use it in quantities that would be considered substantial, as it swells so tremendously when in contact with water, that it would be impossible to work with, if it did become even a quarter of one percent of a recipe.
Of course, this website here is about making ice cream at home. For that you don’t need a month’s shelf life, or even two weeks. The best advice I can give on this topic of home-made ice cream is to get the best little batch freezer you can afford. Generally the more expensive it is, reflects the quality of the condenser inside, and the better condensers will mean the ice cream is made quicker. The little Cattabriga 2 litre batch freezer we use turns liquid ice cream mix into ice cream in about 7 minutes. Some of these machines take 20 minutes to do the same thing, and that means bigger ice crystals forming, and a poorer texture.
Don, how long do you store your milk? A YEAR????? From cow, to truck, to packing plant, to store, to home… mine MIGHT last two weeks in the fridge. And I’ve been buying milk all my life.
So why is it so hard to do the same with ice cream? Make it good, pack it, transport it in cold trucks, sell it off quickly. It’s not suppose to sit on a shelf for a year. And with all the garbage in it now, it can just stay on the shelf for a year or until it mummifies. I don’t want it.
As for assorted gums… some are worse than others. Tara and guar are actually just plant based gum. BUT… they DO cause gastrointestinal issues if you get too much. And there is my point. NO company is required to list just how much they use. Assuming every product is using a minimal amount, swell. So you go get a hot dog, GUM. Bun, GUM. Catchup, mustard, relish, gum gum gum… Side salad? Dressings all have GUM. Some cottage cheese? Gum gum gum. (yes some have three now.) Ice cream for desert? GUM.
At the end of the day, you have had more than “a little.”
Ya know you can eat just a little rat poison too and not die from it. I’d rather not have any.
Only recourse now is sites like this one getting the word out, and taking the time to CONTACT each and every producer and tell them exactly why you won’t be buying their garbage.
Then actually don’t.
If I cannot locate pure cream, I may not ever eat ice cream again. It’s that simple. NO more filler for me. Not a little, not any. Real food. Let the preserved stuff just sit well preserved on the store shelf.
I realize this is about ice cream, but going along with the gum additive craze – impossible to find a store bought real frozen fruit bar. Outshine, Whole Fruit – they all have gums as well as corn syrup, sugar, guar gum, carageenan, etc. Just gross and so sick of this junk in everything – including, to my surprise, PICKLES.
Easy enough to make my own with all fruit juice.
All I can say is I feel like the author. I couldn’t believe Breyers did this change. It was like someone you trust stabbing you in the back. That horrible feeling and mad. Well done Breyers, you sold out like most everyone else. I loved your ice creme. No more. 😖
Breyers still makes real ice cream, if you can find it (make sure you read the ingredients label). It’s usually more expensive one than the “other” less-expensive Breyers in the case.
Craig – I don’t know if “real” ice cream should have tara gum and “natural” flavors. Both are these are added to Breyers natural vanilla ice cream. And natural isn’t that far off from artificial flavors:
More here about natural flavors..
Craig…You couldnt be more wrong! Breyers doesnt exist anymore…….just the name…..Unilever makes the chemical garbage and they bought the Breyers name….Their “natural” frozen dessert has 146 chemical compounds. Unilever should be sued and closed down…..I wish peopkle would just NOT BUY IT!!!
It’s gotten so bad that even a local farm, which has a retail shop, claims to sell their own “Homemade” Ice Cream. Yes, homemade ice cream with preservatives and stabilizers.
-Sucrose
-Corn Syrup
-Guar Gum
-Mono and Digycerides
-Polysorbate 80
-Xantham Gum
-Carageenan
And yet they have customers who keep buying it. Unless they get the pint size container, most will never know what they are eating and just assume its all wholesome.
And, of course, they offer other baked and dairy items from other farms and the Amish with boatloads of preservatives and the ever popular extended shelf life dairy crap.
This really aught to be illegal. In some countries it is.
You’re right Wendy! All we can do is try to educate people so they stop buying fake garbage!
I ate Breyer’s years ago when it was good. I stopped when they started charging more for a smaller size. Since then I’ve done organic. Last week I couldn’t find it so I deferred to Breyer’s. There’s an underlying taste of chemicals. Almost like a type of fuel. Glyphosate, maybe? They’re so happy to brag about no growth hormones but don’t think twice about allowing a known poison that screws with your DNA and causes cancers of all types. I taste it in almost all fruits that are not organic. Nectarines, berries, peaches…not the same. I’m old…I remember.
I waited for the slop in my bowl to melt. Left it in the sink for 3 days and it was a gooey clump. Supposed to be vanilla.
I have never had ice cream product like this in the last 40 years.
I consider this to be a form of poison.
Trying to contact Breyers is pathetic as you have to give your mother’s maiden name on their form and them asking for all these product codes that they don’t have labelled on the product and then after it all it says-oops! but nothing to show where the oops is. Won’t be buying this crap again-no matter the price.
P.S.
I left the tub of slop under my bird feeder last night for the feral cats and raccoons to eat.
Nothing touched. So if a starving animal won’t touch this-is it Ok to feed to our kids??
Bought the cookies and cream today. It was tasteless and super soft. Then my child ate some and said mom this is terrible. Doesn’t taste like ice cream. I will not but this again. Very disappointed.
All Natural Harris Teeter Ice Cream (Truly Chocolate) only has milk, cream, sugar, cocoa. This is the best brand I have seen so far if you want to buy ice cream at the store.
“All natural” Harris Teeter you say???? Yea well, I looked up vanilla. NO ACTUAL VANILLA in it.
“Vanilla flavor.” Which could be any of some 700 ingredients no company has to disclose. My guess would be castorium. Tastes like vanilla. COMES OUT OF A BEAVER! No thank you.
Now you said “truly chocolate.” Didn’t find truly, just searching for chocolate Double Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream came up. Ingredients TOP MY LIST of crap to avoid.
here… right off their page.
Milk, Cream, Sugar, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Nonfat Dry Milk, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Whey, Guar Gum, Mono- and Diglycerides, Cellulose Gum, Polysorbate 80, Carrageenan, Locust Bean Gum, Salt, Glycerol Monostearate, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Phosphoric Acid. Chocolate Swirl: Corn Syrup, Sugar, Bleached Flour, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Butter, Chocolate Liquor, Palm Oil, Whey, Caramel Color, Salt, Natural Flavor, Modified Cornstarch, Soy Lecithin, Sodium Bicarbonate. Brownie Bits: Sugar, Egg Yolks, Coconut Oil, Corn Syrup, Wheat Flour, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Hydrogenated Coconut Oil, Chocolate Liquor, Soybean Oil, Cocoa Powder, Modified Cornstarch, Salt, Soy Lecithin.
Corn syrup ESPECIALLY the High Fructose kind, (this has both) are BAD FOR YOU. Plain corn syrup has about as much flavor as glue. But it’s cheap.
Guar gum? DOES NOT BELONG IN ICE CREAM (or anything else for that matter.)
Cellulose gum. Joy, more plant gum mixed with cardboard. Just eat the box.
Polysorbate 80? So you want your body to outlast the mummies?
Palm oil. Again NO BUSINESS IN A DAIRY PRODUCT.
Carmel color? Seriously? Isn’t the natural color of chocolate brown? We have to colorize it? Must not be very good then.
Here we go. “Natural flavor.” Yea keep your beaver butt oil thank you very much.
Cornstarch… yummy flavorless thickener that is. Guess the guar gum wasn’t thick enough.
Hydrogenated….. ANYTHING. Seriously people, look this one up. HYDROGENATED ANYTHING is really really bad for you. I read the process of taking a liquid oil and turning it into a solid oik somehow involves metal and it’s now known that microscopic shards of metal stay in the thickened oil. This scrapes against the walls of your arteries, and the artificially thickened oil acts like glue. In other words, it’s like eating inner tube patches. And again, this is ice cream. There is NO REASON for thickened oil to be in it.
Yea… I’ve said it before, buy an ice cream machine and make your own.
CREAM (if you can find THAT without carrageenan in it now.)
Milk, Sugar, add flavors. REAL flavors. VANILLA. Or CHOCOLATE (good chocolate, no crap in that either.) Or real fruit. That’s it! No polysorbate, no hydrogenated oils, no plant gum, no cardboard,
I’m not impressed by that brand at all.
The All Natural in the green carton for Truly Chocolate only has milk, cream, sugar, cocoa. I don’t know about the other flavors. I buy this one all the time. You may be looking at the other brand they carry which is not the All Natural.
Here is the link for the Truly Chocolate
http://grocery.harristeeter.com/pd/Harris-Teeter/All-Natural-Truly-Chocolate-Ice-Cream/48-fl-oz/072036511485/
The “Vanilla flavor” won’t be from the backside of a beaver. It will be Vanillin, which is an aromatic compound that is extracted chiefly from wood pulp, and is used very widely to make the cheaper “Vanilla” ice creams. All the more so at this time, as the cost of good quality genuine and natural “Vanilla Extract” costs about 5 times as much as it did a few years ago.
Most of the good vanilla pods in the past few decades have come from Madagascar, and they had a terrible cyclone in March 2017. Wiped out 85% of the vanilla pod harvest. It takes 18 months from harvest to create the best Vanilla extract, as the curing of the beans takes time. I was able to buy a litre of top grade Vanilla Extract 4 years ago for £75 (about $100). The same now costs £350 (about $430) per litre. Hence most ice cream companies are either using Vanillin (which is one of the main flavor compounds found in natural vanilla extract; there are hundreds of compounds though in the natural extract), or dropping Vanilla from their offerings altogether.
Great information there…. I knew about the shortage of real vanilla. But then ice cream companies need to state EXACTLY what is in their product. If it’s vanillin, fine. LIST THAT!
Don’t just put “natural or artificial flavors.” NOT when there are over 700 chemicals that could be in this mystery list.
And certainly NEVER use artificial vanilla in any form on a product labeled right on the front of the carton ALL NATURAL VANILLA! EIther USE all natural vanilla, charge how ever much you have to charge, or change the title to say, “All natural artificial vanilla.” Yea that would sell well. (Not to mention the all natural guar gum also in the goop.)
We’ve switched to hagen daz, the only natural ice cream left in our local supermarket since breyers quit being breyers and became crap. Expensive, but good.
Better read the ingredients for Hagen Daz too. I have found the same crap fillers in their stuff. Same for Ben and Jerry’s. Nothing good anymore. I stopped even looking. Make it myself.
I was noticing that it didn’t have the same consistency, and it does not melt the same. Flavor is blah. Then I found this article, looked more closely at the label, and soooooo disappointed. Never buying Breyers again unless they change back to the original recipe.
It will never happen.
WARNING ABOUT FORMERLY good Blue Bunny “Vanilla Bean Ice Cream” in the
1.5 QT tub form….As of last year about July of 2018 they REMOVED “natural vanilla extract”, and REPLACED IT with “Vanilla Flavoring”. I bought some around that time and noticed that the
slight sharp burn that you get from REAL vanilla extract was missing and the flavor was flat in my opinion…..I looked at the ingredients and sure enough they changed it. I called Wells which makes Blue Bunny and the rep politely admitted that they changed the ingredients because of the cost of vanilla extract. She said they still use it though in their Frozen Yogurt which has gums and stabilizers in it so I refused the free coupons, told her that I would be making my own ice cream from now on. Wow in a sense the industry is putting itself out of business since most people are pretty savvy today with the internet.
I found this article after doing a search on “has Breyer’s changed?”
I just bought two cartons and they’re both awful. I’m going to see if Breyer’s has a Facebook page where I can educate them.
Just finished a bowl of Breyers and thought the texture tasted like frozen powder and milk. It was so gross. Then I tried to search what it was made out of and found your website.
Thanks for posting.
Its terrible that is so expensive to produce a normal ice cream these days. HaagenDaz or McConnels (in So Cal) is so tiny and expensive but the only ice cream worth eating in So Cal. I wish Blue Bell would come to California.
I bought Breyers Reese’s Ice cream. near the middle/bottom I took a spoonful and I almost gagged (only didn’t because I held it in since I was in the living room) I spit out that Awful horrible disgusting Ice “cream” dessert. I called the company and explained to them something must be rotten, the tub was poisoned, or someone took a crap in the tub. It was DISGUSTING. They explained to me something might not have been mixed properly!!!!! That is TERRIFYING. even if unmixed it shouldn’t have poison in the ingredients. I’m terrified of eating ice cream now.
I’m going to check the ingredients when I get home tonight. I bought a carton over the weekend, and couldn’t for the life of me, understand WHY my ice cream would NOT get hard. I haven’t bought Breyers for going on two years, and decided to pick up a carton for Holiday Root Beer Floats. Thank you for sharing this information.
I can smell and taste egg yokes in most any ice cream that has it. It honestly ruins it for me so thats why I like Breyers. Raw egg has a nasty smell and its kind of gross to think about eggs in ice cream.
Are you on drugs?
Kyle…. as someone else already pointed out RAW eggs are NEVER in ice cream. I make my own now and one of the best is when I take the time to use egg. But it’s COOKED! Very slowly but well heated. Can’t cook it too hot or too fast or the egg turns into scrambled egg. But do it slow and keep stirring? THEN the liquid is put into the ice cream machine. It’s the best. True french vanilla is made this way.
Ice cream needs an emulsifier. It CAN be made with very rich in fat cream. Which is darn near impossible to find now. (Pick up any container of “heavy cream” and I betcha it’s got more than just cream in it. Namely Carrageenan. Seaweed. YUCK.) Traditional ice cream has always had egg in it. But if you don’t like egg, and you won’t find butterfat rich ice cream in the store anymore, then your stuck with that other stuff. Bean gum, carrageenan, mono- and di-glycerides, Polysorbate 80…. and what your left with is ice cream that has less flavor than the cardboard box it’s stored in.
Basic misunderstanding in this comment, Kyle. There is never any raw egg yolk in ice cream. It is a long-standing ingredient, mixed into the liquid ice cream while it is still cool. It gets heavily blended at that stage, and then the whole mix must be fully pasteurised, circa 85˚C. If you can taste egg yolk then the maker has added too much, it shouldn’t be detectable. But it is NEVER raw in the finished product.
To: Kyle’s comment from May 31st 2019.
I’d love to know what brand or place you have bought this so called “ice cream” that STILL uses egg yolks to make their frozen dessert? You said you like Breyer’s because it doesn’t have any eggs. Newsflash! Almost all brands, aside from maybe a couple of Haagen Daz flavors (their recipe has changed) don’t contain egg yolks, nor do they contain any pure ingredients that make REAL ice cream.
Jenny, don’t forget the emulsifier Propane 1,2 Diol (E405 and E477) which is perhaps the most common emulsifier in ice cream worldwide. Can be made from seaweed, but can also (as the name suggests) be derived from petroleum.
https://www.dailychronicle24.com/2019/04/10/propane-12-diol-esters-of-fatty-acid-market-in-depth-research-and-major-growth-report-by-2027/
I prefer egg yolk..!!
Yea Don, me too. I don’t even look in the ice cream isle anymore. Make my own. No seaweed, no propane… milk, cream, sugar, (egg when I have the time) vanilla or what ever flavor.
That’s it. MMMMMMMMM
Andy, I don’t recall Blue Bell being without junk.
Bluebell’s “Homemade” Vanilla or Dutch Chocolate:
milk, cream, sugar, skim milk, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, natural and artificial vanilla flavor, cellulose gum, vegetable gums (guar, carrageenan, carob bean), salt, annatto.
Mmm, sound delicious, especially with the extra gums.
Haven’t had Breyers in ages, hubby bought some vanilla to go with an apple pie today. It’s so bizarre and gross, it’s nothing like it was when I was a child. It’s texture is more like gelatinous goo with some low quality vanilla flavoring that just leaves me feeling sickly. There’s no presence of ice crystals (maybe they added more artificial crap to keep it from getting freezer burned?),it doesn’t even stay cold. You know it’s bad when that junky ice cream you get at roadside diners and convenient stores tastes better!
Thanks, I was wondering that myself as an all time lover of Carvell Ice cream cakes I too noticed the ingredient label 3 times as long as it was in the 1970’s.
The original ingredient are no where to be found. I think it’s criminal that we are being lied to and deceived by those brands and companies we use to trust. Ginger snaps which I loved to dip in milk is no longer recognizable. It looks like and tastes like liquid cardboard..I no longer eat ice cream and I no longer eat any product that do not have natural homemade ingredients in them …This is all Wrong..and just Evil
How depressing. I KNEW there was something different about the Breyers we just bought. After years of trying to eat healthier I recently decided to treat myself to my favorite ice cream only to find it was nothing like I remember. Now I know why. Breyers, you’ve lost another customer. Probably good for me you ruined it. It won’t be any problem resisting it.
Katie, I don’t know how far back you read but here….. We bought a machine very similar to this one….Breville Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker (ours was about 250.00)
EASY to use, basic formula is cream, or half and half, sugar, if you have time melt or heat up an egg yoke with the sugar and some milk to make it really creamy and good but it will work even if you don’t do that step.
Some vanilla and/or what ever you like. (I’ve dropped in chopped cherries and some almond extract, comes out dandy.) Toss it all in and the machine does the rest.
Anyway the ice cream is SO good you will never buy that glue in a store again. And it’s so rich, honest you don’t need to eat much to feel like you had your treat.
Know what else is just sad? Being summertime, making smores on the fire, well… you cannot find plain old marshmallows anymore. My daughter pointed this out, THEY DO NOT BURN! I swear toss one right in the fire. Know how fast those things would ignite? That’s how they use to determine how many calories something had based on how fast it burns. These once were almost pure sugar. Not anymore. Nope, they lay there like tar. Even ants seem less than interested.
I was curious, so I looked up ingredients for Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows:
This is a long way off from when the Ancient Egyptians made theirs from marshmallow sap with nuts and honey.
Wikipedia: Marshmallows consist of four ingredients: sugar, water, air, and a whipping agent/aerator (usually a protein). Two primary proteins that are commonly used as aerators in marshmallows are albumen (egg whites) and gelatin.
Oh wow… one I hadn’t noticed before, “Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate” So looked it up.
In part… “This chemical is used as a cleaning compound; oil well drilling; water treatment, cheese emulsification; as a general sequestering agent, to remove rust stains;”
REALLY? Do we want to EAT something that is both used as cheese emulsification and a CLEANING COMPOUND to remove rust?
copy again;
Human Toxicity Excerpts:
ALKALINE AND IRRITATING. NAUSEA, VOMITING AND DIARRHEA ARE PROBABLE AFTER INGESTION.
Great thing to add to a simple marshmallow then feed to our kids huh?
I swear the FDA does NOT have our backs. Not at all. HOW did that one EVER make it into food?
Here is the full page.
https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+854
If you are all concerned about ice cream, what about the changes to milk itself in the past 40 to 50 years? Remember when it used to be nice to drink, back in the 60’s..?
The main change was the introduction of faster (= cheaper) pasteurizing. For 50 years+ milk had been pasteurized by holding it in a big tank at 145˚F (63˚C) for 30 minutes. This was a protocol developed just before WWI because it killed the pathogens, but didn’t have much effect on the wonderful flavor of raw milk.
But as the supermarkets came along, pressure came on the dairy processors to provide ever cheaper milk, because cheap milk was the biggest lure for customers to their shops. So they sped up the pasteurizing: by bringing the temperature up to 162˚F they only need to run it through pipes for 15 seconds.
Huge reduction in cost for the dairy processors. So the supermarkets got what they wanted, and the public were robbed of good old-fashioned milk that tasted good. The ruining of food to feed the market today goes far beyond ice cream..!
We just finally gave up eating it for the most part. I must say I don’t really miss it anymore.
Breyer’s should read these comments! I too had butter pecan recently and after a few spoons knew something was wrong. Breyer’s was a treat in my home growing up. The pecans were so good I’d eat the ice cream and chew the nuts separately. The smaller container and never freezing factor are off putting. The flavor is ugh! No more Breyer’s for my family. Oddly enough we enjoy walmart brand classic dipped cones. It’s not world’s best but it satisfies our ice cream craving and it taste like ice cream. Not sure if I want to know what is in it.
Well it’s not hard to find out what’s in it. You really should start reading the packages, then put BACK anything stuffed with garbage.
So here ya go,
The full list…
Ingredients
MILK, SUGAR, CREAM, BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, BUTTERMILK, COCONUT OIL, DRY ROASTED PEANUTS, WHEY, CORN SYRUP, SKIM MILK, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF COCOA, UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE, WHOLE MILK POWDER, COCOA BUTTER, NATURAL FLAVOR, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI CANOLA OIL, SALT, SOY LECITHIN, FOOD STARCH-MODIFIED, MOLASSES, SOYBEAN OIL, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, CAROB BEAN GUM, CELLULOSE GUM, CARRAGEENAN, ANNATTO FOR COLOR, CARAMEL COLOR.
So this starts out ok, except “bleached” wheat flour. Bad news there. Then I see corn syrup. (Sugar is so much more flavorful but corn syrup is cheaper and easier so they use that instead.)
Then here we go, “NATURAL FLAVOR.” Could be any of some 700 ingredients no one has to list. Right there I’ve started putting anything with the word “flavor” natural or otherwise back.
REAL food had REAL flavor. If they ruined it with flavorless crap and have to add flavor, it goes back.
HERE WE GO……
CAROB BEAN GUM, CELLULOSE GUM, CARRAGEENAN,
The trifecta of garbage. And that last one…. carrageenan…. SEAWEED! Nasty, fibrous, too tough to digest until it’s been “processed” seaweed. Then its used as a thickener. And WHY? Because instead of CREAM… filled with butterfat, they used skim milk. Thickened with powdered, dried, seaweed to make it “creamy.” YUCK!
Honest, buy yourself an ice cream machine. Make your own. That’s IF you can find real cream without the carrageenan. Good luck on that. Whole foods carries real cream, only wish I had one closer to me. But in a pinch, a few brands still make half and half without carrageenan. It works ok.
I find it has a metallic taste to it, maybe not the first scoop, but for sure after it’s been in the freezer for a bit. It’s so gross. It’s sad that people still think it’s a quality brand of ice cream.
The gums in ice cream bother my stomach. So, now the only ice cream I eat is Haagen Dazs or homemade.
I switched to Alden’s…if you can find it. It’s organic and you get a full 1/2 gallon. Pricey but worth it if you don’t want chemicals and Round-up ready ice cream.
Alden’s huh? I googled the ingredients list. Here.
Milk,* Cream,* Cane Sugar,* Tapioca Syrup,* Tapioca Starch,* Vanilla Extract,* Guar Gum,* Soy Lecithin,* Ground Vanilla Beans,* Locust Bean Gum,* Xanthan Gum.
So the trifecta of GUMS. Guar, Locust, and the best of all, not even a plant gum but nasty processed seaweed, zanthan.
Tell me what’s so good about this?
Xanthan gum is an extracellular polysaccharide secreted by the micro-organism Xanthomonas campestris. it is produced when glucose, sucrose or lactose is fermented by the bacteria Xanthomonas campestris. Then, it is made into a solid by isopropyl alcohol. After being dried, it is ground into fine powder so it can be added to liquid to form gum.
Aldens is just as bad as breyers. Thickeners etc….just 4 times the price!
I think I commented about Alden’s awhile back. First saw it in our grocery probably over a year ago. I noticed it said organic and was $9.99 for, I assume, a half gallon! (This is in New Jersey) I had to, of course, read the ingredients. I was once again shocked that a new brand of Fake Ice Cream was shucking “organic” while completely disregarding anything REAL or wholesome in their overpriced carton of crap.
Sadly, as shown by Carol, people are buying it thinking its something special and never bothering to read the ingredients.
I haven’t had Breyers in awhile due to their price spike. I purchased the cookies n cream flavor for my daughter and regret it. Tasted like chemicals. Every time we burp we have an awful chemical taste in our mouth. I threw the ice cream out and will never purchase Breyers again.
The Hood Company, a New England favorite for over 100 years is owned by some huge foreign mega corporation now. They have so degraded their products that they can no longer legally call it “ice-cream.” The really small print now says “Frozen dairy dessert.”
Thank you for writing this well research article. I too remember when Beyer’s marketing strategy was based on its simple list of ingredients. I got fooled the other day when Beyer’s was on sale. I bought a package of butter pecan. Terrible. I can hardly detect any cream in it at all. Then I started to wonder and Googled “What happened to Beyer’s” which led me here.
Fortunately, the Turkey Hill All Natural line is very close to what Beyer’s used to be. And we have a local brand around here, Homestead Creamery, which makes excellent ice cream. In a way the market is working. People who are satisfied with what Beyer’s has become ( skim milk, corn syrup and gums) can eat it, saving the cream for the rest of us.
Even “Natural” Breyers isn’t natural anymore. Read the ingredients.
If you hate what they’re doing, boycott Unilever products. I do the same with Nestle, Bayer, Amazon and many more I don’t want to patronize. You can find lists of these products online. Boycotting
No more Breyer or any unilever product for me period, change from natural sucks.
Breyers you’ve just lost two very dedicated elderly people who are no longer buying your product.It’s so hard our hands are so feeble we can’t even cut the ice cream you guys screwed it up you had it made good luck in the future
Thank you for your article about Breyer’s ice cream. I’m 66 and grew up in NY. We always bought Breyers.
I stopped buying store bought ice cream when my kids moved out, but wanted to start buying it again for my grandkids. I was extremely disappointed to see how adulterated Breyers had become.
There are no natural ice creams in the store, and I live in “the dairy state”(which should be a crime in Wisconsin).
I buy Culver’s custard at times, but sometimes I give my poor grandchildren the fake, easily scooped, chemical concoction. I am going to investigate making my own ice cream on your website.
I was reading a fluff piece on Breyers and they never mentioned that the recipe changed. Thank you for shining the light of truth.
Your welcome, Ron. Yes, making your own ice cream is always a good alternative. Here are our ice cream recipes that we make when we can’t find all-natural ice cream in the store.
Hey guys, ever hear of a place called mooville? Not sure if they are nation wide but several in Michigan. WELL WORTH A VISIT! Bring the kids, lots of animals to pet there too.
Now Mooville is a dairy farm where the cows are self milking. They literally line up to be milked by robots. The place is even cleaned by robots.
But then the milk is pumped directly to the kitchen where they sell real whole milk (that won’t get anyone lactose intolerant sick). AND they make the best ice cream I ever had.
My daughter and I both got double scoop cones, then went back for seconds. Later she says to me, I don’t have that sugar rush then tired feeling like I usually do after eating ice cream. I thought about it and said me either. Lets get more! (Yea diet went to hell that day.).
Seriously this place is worth a trip to go see.
Thanks for sharing, Jenny. Mooville sounds like a great place!