Ice Cream Maker Basics

photo credit: bulliver

You can probably guess from the name of the website that I favor home made ice cream and it seems that now, I have  a really good reason as it turns out that store-bought ice cream can kill you! Ok maybe that was a bit drastic but it could be true. I was reading the news headlines in Google today and ran across a recall of the Dove Ice Cream Company’s product, Carmel Pecan Perfection which sound like a heavenly name and it’ll certainly get you there if you’re allergic to peanuts. According to newspaper, The Daily Citizen, as submitted by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, there was one batch of ice cream, lot number 931AB5YN07, that got made with an additional ingredient not listed on the ingredients label: peanuts.  From the newspaper article:

Dove Caramel Pecan Perfection is sold in a brown and gold 15.10 fl. oz. pint container and pictures a ribbon of caramel, pecans and a square of Dove Brand Chocolate on the front.
This recall is limited to one specific lot number (931AB5YN07). The recalled ice cream was distributed in the following states: Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
Consumers who have purchased this recalled ice cream may return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may call the company’s toll-free number: 1-800-551-0895 between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM Monday – Friday.

So for heaven’s sake if you have someone in your family who loves ice cream and who has an allergy to peanuts let em know so they don’t end up int the ER.

The incident also made me think about what other ice cream catastrophes have happened in the past. Breyer’s, the ice cream giant has had similar problems in the past with unintended ingredients ending up in its products; the most recent being a recall involving wheat inadvertently sneaking its way in.

Fox news source lists ice cream as number six on it’s list of foods that possibly cause food poisoning. They go on to cite salmonella from raw eggs as the biggest reason. I say if your making homemade ice cream and using high-quality fresh eggs and you have a strong immune system, there’s no reason to ninny about salmonella. They also list another factor but one that is probably almost universal to mass-produced ice cream and that’s listeria to which they list soft-serve ice cream machines as the source. I’d say you could probably throw E. coli OH7:157 in as well with the lack of hand washing after doing number two that goes on in your local ice cream shop.

Another danger of mass-produced ice cream is that it really brings out the sickos. Sickos like a Kansas City man who spiked ice cream with roofies so that he could make semi-nude photos of little girls. Although the article doesn’t say that it was specifically mass-produced ice cream, it’s pretty safe to say he wasn’t making his own. But I will admit that although not likely, a sick pervert could use homemade ice cream to some nefarious end.

In conclusion, making your ice cream really is better. Maybe it’s not much healthier but since you decide what goes into it you can make it better for you. You’ll also never face the problem of having to worry about anaphylactic shock which is what you get when you eat something you’re allergic to or get stung by something your allergic to. I will give one more reason which I would back up with a photo but I’m not so sure about Japan’s laws on taking public photos so I won’t but you never know under what conditions mass-produced ice cream is being made. I used to ride by a local ice cream plant on my way to work. I say ride because I use a bicycle. The commute took me over a sky-bridge over the ice cream factory and between the dingy look of the building (not at all like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory) and the smell, I gave up on eating Japanese ice cream. Yuck!