7 Ice Cream Brands That Use Junk, Not Real Cream
Real whole-foods cream can take a humble treat and transform it into a rich, decadent, truly delicious dessert—but not all ice cream brands use actual cream to make ice cream. Many supermarket options contain every additive you can think of but not anything resembling cream. For context, McConnell’s Golden State Vanilla contains just cream, nonfat milk, cane sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and annatto extract. Other brands, not so much. So which ones don’t have cream (even if they taste good!)? Here are seven ice cream brands that don’t use real cream in their products.
Turkey Hill
The closest Turkey Hill Brownie Fudge Swirl comes to real cream is the addition of whey, which contains “2% or less of cream”, according to the ingredients label. The rest of the ingredients are a laundry list of ultraprocessed red flags including artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives, but the brand actually has some good stuff available too” The Turkey Hill Simply Natural Belgian Style Chocolate is a great option with cream listed as the first ingredient.
Great Value Chocolate Ice Cream
Walmart’s Great Value Chocolate Ice Cream contains sweet cream buttermilk but not actual cream and the rest of the ingredients list isn’t much better, with additives, preservatives, gums, and stabilizers. A better option is the Great Value All Natural which has milk and cream as the first and second ingredients.
Member’s Mark Vanilla Ice Cream
Member’s Mark Vanilla Ice Cream does not contain cream and also loses points for ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, and gums. Luckily Sam’s Club has plenty of other options available for ice cream lovers who want the real deal, like the Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Milk Chocolate Almond Ice Cream Bars.
Klondike Frozen Strawberry Shortcake Cones
Klondike Frozen Strawberry Shortcake Cones do not contain any cream, but they do contain over 160 other not-great ingredients including glucose-fructose syrup and carrageenan. The Klondike Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich isn’t much better in terms of ultraprocessed ingredients but at least it contains cream.
Edy’s Vanilla Frozen Dairy Dessert
Edy’s Vanilla Frozen Dairy Dessert has skim milk as the first ingredient, but no cream at all. This frozen dessert also contains corn syrup and guar gum, more ultraprocessed ingredients and additives.
Friendly’s Butter Pecan
Friendly’s Butter Pecan Ice Cream contains no cream, and is packed with additives and preservatives. It does have pecans and buttermilk, for those who want a frozen dessert-type treat that has nuts in it. Otherwise, pass.
N!ck’s Triple Chocolate Brownie
N!ck’s Triple Chocolate Brownie looks amazing but the ingredients are anything but. This ice cream contains ingredients like erythritol and other artificial sweeteners, plus gums and stabilizers. The butter ingredient is made from pasteurized cream and salt, but that’s it for anything approaching cream.
