Why Won’t Walmart’s Ice Cream Sandwiches Melt? Well, Here’s Why

January 6, 2015 by Jeff Roberts. 6 Comments.

It was a hot and sunny summer day in July, when Christie Watson, a suburban Cincinnati mother of two, noticed something strange. A Walmart-brand ice cream sandwich she had given her son, which had been left out in the hot sun for over 12 hours, was still perfectly in tact.
Confused, Watson decided to replicate the experiment to see if what she was seeing was in fact real. This time she would compare a few different brands. Not surprisingly, the Walmart brand still kept its form, while other more expensive ice cream brands melted partially or completely.
Naturally, the story went viral, as a concerned public rightfully yearned to know how a cream-based product was able to hold itself together in the sizzling rays of the mid-summer sun.
Walmart responded quickly, stating that the lack of melting was due to the heavy cream content of their ice-cream sandwich. However, Sean O’Keefe, a professor and food chemist at Virginia Tech, gave a different answer, explaining that more cream-content should see ice cream melting faster.
So what’s the answer? Well, a Consumer Report video explains…

The answer lies in the processed ingredient list. Various thickeners and food stabilizers such as guar and cellulose gum, carrageenan, and more, are the reason the ice cream didn’t melt.
At the end of the Consumer Report video, the question was asked: “Should we be worried about feeding our children these ingredients?”, to which a woman simply explains, if your child is already eating processed foods, then they are already eating these ingredients, and because the FDA has approved of them, they are considered ‘safe’.
Is it just me, or does this statement seem a bit misguided? Heated ice-cream not melting is normal?
Let’s look at the ingredients:

Ice Cream (Milk, Cream, Buttermilk, Sugar, Whey, Corn Syrup, Contains 1% Or Less of Mono-And Diglycerides, Vanilla Extract, Guar Gum, Calcium Sulfate, Carob Bean Gum, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan, Artificial Flavor, Annatto For Color)
… Wafers (Wheat Flour, Sugar, Soybean Oil, Palm Oil, Cocoa, Dextrose, Caramel Color, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Flour, Food Starch-Modified, Salt Soy Lecithin, Baking Soda, Artificial Flavor).

Real and basic ice cream at most should contain about 5 key ingredients, including milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and other ‘real’ food ingredients such vanilla bean, nuts, etc.
Should we be surprised about the ingredients list in Walmart’s ice cream sandwiches? Perhaps not, considering almost all food products sold at Walmart are heavily processed and loaded with artificial colours, flavours, preservatives, and texturants.
This could also be why Walmart Supercenters are linked to obesity, with an additional Walmart Supercenter per 100,000 residents increasing average BMI by 0.24 units and obesity rates by 2.3 percentage points.
While food manufacturers state many processed food ingredients are safe, research says otherwise. Many chemical preservatives have been linked to cancer, allergic reactions, and more. For more on this, check out one my of previous articles, 10 of The Worst Food Ingredients To Never Eat Again.
Refined sugars and other carbohydrates are another issue.  Overloading our bodies with these ingredients is a recipe for insulin resistance, which is related to a plethora of chronic illnesses as well as weight gain. Processed foods are also robbed of their nutrients, fiber, water and natural enzymes, making them more difficult to digest.
Finally, there’s the stimulant response associated with processed foods and refined carbs, which releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, that substantiates junk food cravings, a recipe for addictive and non-nutritious eating habits.