ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the manufacture and composition of ice cream and related products. It also focuses on the use and role of fats in these products. The importance of ice cream and related products as a food commodity is very significant, with perhaps an annual production of 136 million hectoliters worldwide, increasing at 4–5% per annum. Sweet ice cream is usually desired by the consumer. Sweeteners improve the texture and palatability of the ice cream, enhance flavors, and are usually the cheapest source of total solids. Ice cream stabilizers are a group of ingredients (usually polysaccharides) commonly used in ice cream formulations. Emulsifiers have been used in ice cream mix manufacture for many years. They are sometimes integrated with the stabilizers in proprietary blends, but their function and action are very different from those of the stabilizers. Pasteurization is the biological control point in the system, designed for the destruction of pathogenic bacteria.
