On a hot summer day, nothing hits the spot quite like ice cream, especially here in the Dairy State. But while a frozen treat can help you cool off, it also puts you in a race against the clock to finish your scoop before it becomes a puddle — or worse, a sticky mess coating your hands, favorite shirts and new jeans.
Cameron Wicks, a PhD student in the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Department of Food Science, is working on a new technology that adds naturally occurring compounds to ice cream to prevent it from wreaking so much havoc.
“When you have normal ice cream, it will become a puddle of liquid in no time,” says Wicks. “However, we learned that adding polyphenols to ice cream can create a product that holds its shape for over four hours at room temperature. That’s pretty close to a no-melt ice cream.”
Polyphenols are compounds that are found naturally in foods like green tea, blueberries and cranberries and are known for their health benefits. By incorporating polyphenols into a standard ice cream recipe, Wicks was able to study how they interact with the ice cream’s milk fat and protein structures.
Learn more here: https://foodsci.wisc.edu/bringing-delight-by-investigating-a-no-melt-ice-cream/