Pi-Consulting

Hope is at hand for sweet-treat enthusiasts who dislike the taste of all those “virtuous variants” on ice cream. There are now creamy, dense reduced-fat ice-creams with fewer additives, and consumers think they taste great. Here’s the science bit (and get ready, it’s weird): one of the most promising such processes uses proteins cloned from the blood of the ocean pout, an eel-like fish found mainly in the Arctic Ocean. Says an expert, “Ice-structuring proteins protect the fish in freezing waters. Otherwise they’d die”. (We are not making this up. And no, the ice-cream doesn’t taste of fish). Edy’s/Dreyers Ice Cream’s version is dubbed slow-churned or double-churned, both techniques deriving from “low-temperature extrusion”, which reduces the size of fat globules and ice crystals in the product. The result is a “creamy mouth-feel”, and more satisfied customers whose consciences remain clear as they wolf the stuff down on hot Summer days. Go, fish! (Source: New York Times, Pi)