Questions & Answers
from "On Ice Cream" featured in Dairy Foods magazine
and sourced from "On Ice Cream" technical short courses.

Low Temperature Processes:

Question: Do you have any information about ice cream produced in Europe at very low freezer exit temperatures÷around 0 F?

Answer: A process developed in Switzerland and embodied in equipment manufactured and sold by a German engineering firm produces such ice cream. After conventional freezing (to 20-22F) and whipping, the ice cream passes through a low temperature twin-screw extruder from which it exits at around 0F to +5F. The product's rheology allows it to be pumped by the energy applied in the extruder. Soon after that energy is removed, the product develops the usual hardness expected for product at 0F to +5F. In the meantime, it can be molded or shaped as a novelty, or packed as regular packaged ice cream. There is no need for customary hardening. Finished products have smaller ice crystals, retain more of their shape upon melting, and have "creaminess" similar to ice creams with higher fat levels.