NEEPS

Maidenstone · Neepster Joined: 14 May 2008 Posts: 303

Well, I bought a little tub of ice cream from Mitchells, purely for research of course, and there didn't seem to be anything nasty in it - no hydrogenated fat, but it is not the best creamiest ice cream around.

I tried Bicocchi's when I was up in Fraserburgh and they insist theirs is home-made and it is good, so is Portsoy icecream from the shop in the main street, also homemade, but try as I might I can never actually identify any particular ingredient, and these two taste just like the Cullen ice cream.

I think I'll just have to do some more research .....
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Local food - better by far!

Julie · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:36 am Post subject:

All retailers have a legal obligation to provide you with a list of the ingredients in everything they sell - this includes restaurateurs, cafe owners and hotels too. When something comes pre packaged it will be on the wrapping somewhere which covers this requirement.
All you have to do is ask and they will produce a list for you. If they can't do this on demand, they are in breach of the regulations and could have their licence to trade revoked. It's all about your right to know as well as health and safety.
It would save you a lot of time and trouble researching it

If you try the ice cream recipe I posted on the north eats, you won't eat any commercial kind ever again. I'd be quite interested to know if anyone made use of it.
It is a professional recipe devised by a real chef (not the celebrity kind) and I promise you, it is 'to die for' as they say. I got it from the BBC years ago - they did a series of short 10 minute films called 'hot chefs' which would be well worth re-running IMO.

By the way, if you want to continue your quest for real ice cream then watch out for those trans fats disguised as E numbers and by their chemical names. Even the so called organic products have them lurking in them - I expect the veg oil is organic before it is hydrogenated or something. All that glisters is not gold and all that

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It is better to light a candle than to rail against the darkness
VOTE WITH YOUR FEET!

Ina · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:18 am Post subject:

Julie · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:32 pm Post subject:

Look for them disguised as mono and di-glycerides of fatty acids, they're the same thing
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/mono_diglycerides.html

Of course, if these things aren't permitted they wouldn't dream of trying to pull a fast one, people just aren't like that are they?
My faith in human nature is restored.......
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It is better to light a candle than to rail against the darkness
VOTE WITH YOUR FEET!

Maidenstone · Neepster Joined: 14 May 2008 Posts: 303

Thanks for telling us that - I didn't know about mono and di-glycerides of fatty acids.
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Local food - better by far!

Ina · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:59 pm Post subject:

Have you actually seen these fats in any organic products?

This is an American article - I can imagine that they (the Americans) have different rules on organic foods.
And I know, Julie, that you are very suspicious of organic - but the controls are quite strict. At least in Europe they are.
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Ina

Julie · Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:16 pm Post subject:

I checked out the organic ice creams in Tesco on Tuesday - they only had two, Green and Blacks and Tesco's own brand. They were both free of trans fats but still had stabilisers and other odds and sods in them - why they have to add them makes me wonder what they are compromising on elsewhere. As far as I'm concerned an additive is an additive and if I wouldn't add it in the kitchen, it shouldn't be in my groceries.
The Mackie's range was there in it's entirity but for the organic stuff - conspicuous by it's absence, which is one of the organic brands I have seen mono and di-glycerides in. My friend's son used to work for them for a few years actually making the ice cream. He left there a couple of years ago but I could ask him exactly what and how much of those things he was required to mix into each batch. In their defence, I do know the animal welfare standards are very high there.
I am no more suspicious of organic foods than of any other, baffled why you should say that, perhaps you are thinking of someone else :?
I am of the mindset that wants answers and doesn't take anything at face value, which I feel is a good thing.
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It is better to light a candle than to rail against the darkness
VOTE WITH YOUR FEET!

Ina · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 5:07 am Post subject:

I haven't seen any organic Mackie's for the past two years or so, either - maybe they stopped doing them. (If you do discover them somewhere, could you please check who they are accredited by?) I'll have to see if I can find the list of allowed additives; some of them may be just something like "starch" - nothing wrong with that! Not all E numbers are unnatural additives, either.

Sorry I had the impression that you were particularly suspicious of organic... Actually, I think (my personal impression, from my work in that area), that organic producers are more likely to be open about what they stick into their products than others. At least, most of them are. As always, the bigger the company, the more likely they are to try and get away with whatever they can... Which is why I don't like organic if it comes from "factory farming and production" - i.e. if it's just the same old huge company (like Nestle, for example) putting on a green polish!
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Ina

Thrawnquine · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 10:22 am Post subject:

I've just checked my Mackie's Organic Ice-cream and it is accredited by the Organic Soil Association; is Gluten free, and suitable for vegetarians and is produced to E.U. standards.