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

Prevention of Sogginess in Cones & Wafers:

Question: Is there a way to treat sandwich wafers and cones to prevent them from getting soggy?

Answer: The migration of moisture into an unprotected, low moisture, hard baked item, like a cone or a sandwich wafer, from the unfrozen portion of ice cream with it comes into contact is unavoidable.
Protection against moisture migration can be provided by coating the contact surface with a material impervious to water (e.g., chocolate or fat/oil coatings), yet compatible with desirable eating qualities.

In the case of cones, this is accomplished effectively by spraying a thin film of a chocolate coating inside the cone shortly before it is filled. This however will change the eating quality of the cone.

It is impractical to do coat sandwich wafers inline and limitations of logistics and cost work against the use of pre-coated wafers. In addition, the presence of pre-coating would likely make it necessary to change the methods of handling the wafers possibly reducing throughput and increasing breakage. The industry has more or less accepted the idea that in order to maintain cost parameters (with respect to wafer cost, handling and throughput), it is inevitable that wafers become soggy within a few days of manufacture.

Apparently consumers accept this condition as normal, as the sales volumes for ice cream sandwiches seem not to be affected by this apparent defect. Further, a crisp, stiff wafer can have problems as well causing ice cream to slip from between the wafers during eating. Thus, a crisp, dry wafer may not be totally necessary or desirable.