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Worse yet, some ice-cream brands (e.g., Breyer's) are also reformulating their recipes to use cheaper ingredients -- meaning they no longer meet the standard to

Worse yet, some ice-cream brands (e.g., Breyer's) are also reformulating their recipes to use cheaper ingredients -- meaning they no longer meet the standard to be called "ice cream", but instead must be called "frozen dairy dessert": http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/dining/remembering-when-breyers-ice-cream-was-you-know-ice-cream.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/dining/remembering-when-br...

rhizome 12y ago
An upshot of this is that staples like ice cream, mayonnaise, and cheese are some of the most label-regulated industries. The existence of terms like "processed cheese food" is a good thing.
- Jedd 12y ago
  Ice cream, mayo and cheese are staples? I'm guessing you're based in North America. :)
  - JetSpiegel 12y ago
    Maybe that fake cheese they eat on pizzas and the like.
  - alphapapa 12y ago
    Can't pass up that chance to take a cheap shot at an entire continent of people! After all, everyone knows that people who live in North America are all fat, lazy, and too stupid to know it!
maxerickson 12y ago
That's a case of the labeling law working nicely though. I like it when package prices have to be shown next to sensible unit prices, it really simplifies the comparison, regardless of any psychology that has been built into the packaging.
- mikeash 12y ago
  This really makes me hate the half-assed use of the metric system in the US. It seems like my local stores go out of their way to use different imperial units for different products, making it harder to compare. Unit prices are great, but when one package is $/oz and another is $/gallon, it defeats much of the purpose.
  - WalterBright 12y ago
    Oz is weight and gallon is volume. This is not a metric vs standard issue.
    - mikeash 12y ago
      Oz most certainly can be used for volume. It's called the "fluid ounce".
      - kiiski 12y ago
        But both oz and gallon are still imperial units. In metric they would use liters. So this isn't caused by half-assed use of the metric system, but rather by not using it at all.
        mikeash 12y ago
        In your rush to be pedantic, would it kill you to engage your brain for a few seconds first? The US uses the metric system in many places. However, adoption has been half-assed, and non-metric units remain in common use in many situations. I buy soda and wine in liters but milk and juice in gallons, for example. The fact that any non-metric units remain at all is due to the half-assed nature of metric system adoption in this country.
        kiiski 12y ago
        What's with the hostility? I was pointing out that WalterBright was down voted for the perfectly valid point that the problem you spoke of is not caused by half-assed use of the metric system. No matter how much I use my brain, it won't become such either. There may be other problems caused by that (I wouldn't know; I'm not American), but you specifically brought up one that is not related to metric in any way.
rcthompson 12y ago
You know, I have just been noticing this from a lot of "ice cream" brands in the grocery store: some of their flavors say "ice cream" while others say "frozen dairy product". Mind you, these are different flavors from the same brands, so you can't just go for a specific brand and assume you're getting ice cream, you have to read the fine print.
cosmie 12y ago
Keep in mind this is a brand-specific change. Unilever, the owner of Breyer's, is the worlds largest ice cream manufacturer and also owns Ben & Jerry's, Klondike, Popsicle, Magnum, and a host of other brands. Breyer's being one of their non-premium brands, it's one of the few they have that's so price sensitive that they'd risk so blatantly using filler substitutes.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
WalterBright 12y ago
My father told me that before and during the Depression there was a chocolate bar that sold for a nickel. The price stayed the same, but the size of the bar varied with the changing price of chocolate.
- ertdfgcb 12y ago
  That actually seems like a good idea - as long as they market as "one nickels worth of chocolate".
- WalterBright 12y ago
  found a link: http://www.hersheyarchives.org/exhibits/default.aspx?ExhibitId=20&ExhibitSectionId=42 http://www.hersheyarchives.org/exhibits/default.aspx?Exhibit...
  - vxNsr 12y ago
    It's not clear why, but the fourth wrapper in the link (1906-1911) actually says "10 cents" (possibly the wrapper is slightly larger)
qq66 12y ago
Part of this is for cost, and part is for consumer taste. Starting in the early 80s through 90s, consumers started seeking out products based on the amount of fat per serving, leading to the rise of "fro yo" and low-fat high-sugar formulations which had to move away from creamy, low-overrun ice creams. Ice cream is defined by high butterfat content and low air injection (overrun), but as people have started to recognize that sugar is as bad for you as fat, perhaps the market will tilt again.
- yudnkfwydk 12y ago
  Can we stop already with this fat is bad for you? There is so much nutrition misinformation that no wonder there is an obesity epidemic... Fat is not bad for you, in fact it's critical to living a healthy life. Sugar is much easier to abuse because it's absorbed too quickly (which is why fruit juice is bad, no fiber slowing down the absorption) and provided in such vast quantities. We need to real governance here, bring back some real nutritional science in to the consumers attention and make organisations legally liable for spreading dangerous misinformation. It could save more lives than stopping smoking/alcohol/drugs, gun violence, wars and car accidents combined.
  - crahrah 12y ago
    Saturated fat is bad for you - and dairy has saturated fat. Canola = OK Butter = Bad
    - Afforess 12y ago
      There is no evidence Saturated fat is bad.
    - SoftwareMaven 12y ago
      Go get the current issue of Tine Magazine[1]. This thinking was never backed up with good science 40 years ago and has been totally debunked in literature in the last decade. Saturated fat is very much a part of a healthy diet. 1. No, I don't consider that the "literature", but it's a good jumping off point to start learning what is true in nutrition versus what is dogma.

rhizome 12y ago

An upshot of this is that staples like ice cream, mayonnaise, and cheese are some of the most label-regulated industries. The existence of terms like "processed cheese food" is a good thing.

Jedd 12y ago
Ice cream, mayo and cheese are staples? I'm guessing you're based in North America. :)
- JetSpiegel 12y ago
  Maybe that fake cheese they eat on pizzas and the like.
- alphapapa 12y ago
  Can't pass up that chance to take a cheap shot at an entire continent of people! After all, everyone knows that people who live in North America are all fat, lazy, and too stupid to know it!

maxerickson 12y ago

That's a case of the labeling law working nicely though. I like it when package prices have to be shown next to sensible unit prices, it really simplifies the comparison, regardless of any psychology that has been built into the packaging.

mikeash 12y ago
This really makes me hate the half-assed use of the metric system in the US. It seems like my local stores go out of their way to use different imperial units for different products, making it harder to compare. Unit prices are great, but when one package is $/oz and another is $/gallon, it defeats much of the purpose.
- WalterBright 12y ago
  Oz is weight and gallon is volume. This is not a metric vs standard issue.
  - mikeash 12y ago
    Oz most certainly can be used for volume. It's called the "fluid ounce".
    - kiiski 12y ago
      But both oz and gallon are still imperial units. In metric they would use liters. So this isn't caused by half-assed use of the metric system, but rather by not using it at all.
      - mikeash 12y ago
        In your rush to be pedantic, would it kill you to engage your brain for a few seconds first? The US uses the metric system in many places. However, adoption has been half-assed, and non-metric units remain in common use in many situations. I buy soda and wine in liters but milk and juice in gallons, for example. The fact that any non-metric units remain at all is due to the half-assed nature of metric system adoption in this country.
        kiiski 12y ago
        What's with the hostility? I was pointing out that WalterBright was down voted for the perfectly valid point that the problem you spoke of is not caused by half-assed use of the metric system. No matter how much I use my brain, it won't become such either. There may be other problems caused by that (I wouldn't know; I'm not American), but you specifically brought up one that is not related to metric in any way.

rcthompson 12y ago

You know, I have just been noticing this from a lot of "ice cream" brands in the grocery store: some of their flavors say "ice cream" while others say "frozen dairy product". Mind you, these are different flavors from the same brands, so you can't just go for a specific brand and assume you're getting ice cream, you have to read the fine print.

cosmie 12y ago

Keep in mind this is a brand-specific change. Unilever, the owner of Breyer's, is the worlds largest ice cream manufacturer and also owns Ben & Jerry's, Klondike, Popsicle, Magnum, and a host of other brands. Breyer's being one of their non-premium brands, it's one of the few they have that's so price sensitive that they'd risk so blatantly using filler substitutes.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

WalterBright 12y ago

My father told me that before and during the Depression there was a chocolate bar that sold for a nickel. The price stayed the same, but the size of the bar varied with the changing price of chocolate.

ertdfgcb 12y ago
That actually seems like a good idea - as long as they market as "one nickels worth of chocolate".
WalterBright 12y ago
found a link: http://www.hersheyarchives.org/exhibits/default.aspx?ExhibitId=20&ExhibitSectionId=42 http://www.hersheyarchives.org/exhibits/default.aspx?Exhibit...
- vxNsr 12y ago
  It's not clear why, but the fourth wrapper in the link (1906-1911) actually says "10 cents" (possibly the wrapper is slightly larger)

qq66 12y ago

Part of this is for cost, and part is for consumer taste. Starting in the early 80s through 90s, consumers started seeking out products based on the amount of fat per serving, leading to the rise of "fro yo" and low-fat high-sugar formulations which had to move away from creamy, low-overrun ice creams. Ice cream is defined by high butterfat content and low air injection (overrun), but as people have started to recognize that sugar is as bad for you as fat, perhaps the market will tilt again.

yudnkfwydk 12y ago
Can we stop already with this fat is bad for you? There is so much nutrition misinformation that no wonder there is an obesity epidemic... Fat is not bad for you, in fact it's critical to living a healthy life. Sugar is much easier to abuse because it's absorbed too quickly (which is why fruit juice is bad, no fiber slowing down the absorption) and provided in such vast quantities. We need to real governance here, bring back some real nutritional science in to the consumers attention and make organisations legally liable for spreading dangerous misinformation. It could save more lives than stopping smoking/alcohol/drugs, gun violence, wars and car accidents combined.
- crahrah 12y ago
  Saturated fat is bad for you - and dairy has saturated fat. Canola = OK Butter = Bad
  - Afforess 12y ago
    There is no evidence Saturated fat is bad.
  - SoftwareMaven 12y ago
    Go get the current issue of Tine Magazine[1]. This thinking was never backed up with good science 40 years ago and has been totally debunked in literature in the last decade. Saturated fat is very much a part of a healthy diet. 1. No, I don't consider that the "literature", but it's a good jumping off point to start learning what is true in nutrition versus what is dogma.