Nestlé Makes Ingredient Improvements to Ice Cream Brands

Nestlé Dreyer's Ice Cream will make key ingredient improvements to six iconic brands including Dreyer's, Häagen-Dazs, Outshine, Skinny Cow, Nestlé Ice Cream and Nestlé Drumstick. This is the latest milestone in a multi-year effort to update existing products across the entire portfolio of brands. 

With a focus on simplifying ingredient lists while maintaining the same great tastes consumers recognize, the newest changes vary across more than 100 products, with examples including the removal of artificial colors and flavors, high fructose corn syrup and GMO ingredients. Other noteworthy accomplishments include the use of fresh milk from cows not treated with rBST, the addition of more real fruit or fruit juice and a reduction in sugar by an average of 11 percent on select products. In December 2015, Nestlé made a commitment to transition to using only cage-free eggs in all of its U.S. food products, including ice cream, within the next five years. Nationwide roll-out for the newly updated products began in March.

"Nestlé Dreyer's Ice Cream understands that consumers want to know what's in their food, where those ingredients come from and how the food products they purchase are made," says Robert Kilmer, president at Nestlé Dreyer's Ice Cream. "We are the industry leader when it comes to innovation and, as consumer demand centers on transparency and choice, we are responding with new ways to make ice cream even better. Using simpler ingredients that our consumers can recognize, and removing those that don't belong, is a natural next step for our brands."

For 150 years, Nestlé has been making food while fostering a commitment to nutrition, health and wellness across its more than 2,000 brands. Nestlé has re-imagined family-favorite foods by making them with less fat and sugar; reducing calories; including portion guidance messaging and using Facts Up Front labeling to display key nutrition information on the front of food and beverage packages. The evolution of the ice cream portfolio builds upon the company's ongoing efforts to improve ingredient profiles while maintaining the great taste and flavors consumers expect.

Nine of its most popular Dreyer's Slow Churned flavors will now be branded Slow Churned Simple Recipes, to reflect their simpler ingredient profile. The improved recipes feature a label with seven or eight ingredients, reduced from an average of 22. Additional changes include the removal of all artificial colors and flavors, high fructose corn syrup and GMO ingredients along with the addition of fresh milk from cows not treated with rBST. Examples of specific ingredients removed include carrageenan and xanthan gum, replaced with ingredients such as pectin. The team, led by research scientist Michael Sharp, analyzed every ingredient and recipe to determine the opportunity to simplify the ingredient list.

"Our mission is to deliver the best product for the consumer," says Sharp. "In the case of Simple Recipes, this meant maintaining the great taste and texture of an established and well-liked product with simpler ingredients that consumers understand."

Nestlé plans to update the remaining Slow Churned flavors by the end of 2017 and will continue to update other products across all brands in its portfolio.