What Is The Ice Cream At McDonald's Really Made Of?
NEWS
By Dennis Lee
These days, ice cream treats have been getting a bit of extra scrutiny, as many aren't actually classified as ice cream. McDonald's soft serve, however, truly is ice cream.
The ingredients in McDonald’s soft serve are milk, sugar, cream, corn syrup, natural flavor, mono and diglycerides, cellulose gum, guar gum, carrageenan, and vitamin A palmitate.
The treat falls under a specific subset of ice cream: reduced-fat ice cream, which the FDA defines as having 25% less fat. This is because the main ingredient is milk, not cream.
Some of the other ingredients like cellulose gum, guar gum, and carrageenan are thickeners and stabilizers that don't contribute to the ice cream's fat content.
The monoglycerides and diglycerides are used as emulsifiers, which help oil and water blend together. Finally, the vitamin A palmitate is added to low-fat milk to replace vitamins.