Key consumer benefits: Pleasure, Health (Weight management)
LOW-FAT ICE CREAM: Half the fat with all the taste thanks to Nestlé's low temperature freezing technology
It was only in the 1990s that technology was developed to make low-fat ice cream with the same rich texture and taste as regular ice creams. First, Nestlé in Switzerland and then Dreyer’s in the US worked on a process called “extrusion freezing”. Nestlé was already using extrusion cooking for breakfast cereals. The challenge was to transfer the technology from cereals to ice cream, in effect by turning the extrusion-cooker into a freezer. It took R&D almost a decade to perfect this technology.
But how do we get half the fat with all the taste?
By “destabilising” the tiny fat droplets in the product, half the fat goes twice as far. This changes the ice cream’s microstructure so that it feels and tastes the same as full-fat ice cream. Nestlé now has global patents, covering both the technology and the products.