Chocolate ice cream should taste aromatic, richly chocolatey, and sweet, and feel creamy, smooth, and smooth in the mouth. Besides, the ingredients should be harmless. So the bar is set high. Öko-Test reveals which products they took.

Already in ancient times, wealthy Greeks and Romans enjoyed ice cream. Luckily, these days, the treat is affordable for everyone. Reason enough for Öko-Test to take a closer look at household packs of chocolate ice cream.

For this purpose, chocolate ice cream was purchased 20 times, including private labels from discounters and supermarkets, organic products and well-known conventional brands such as Mövenpick, Cremissimo, Landliebe and Ben

For an ice cream to be called “ice cream”, it must contain at least ten percent fat from milk. A laboratory for Öko-Test verified this by measuring the butyric acid contained in the milk fat. Some manufacturers add coconut fat to their products as a cheap substitute for whole milk and cream, which they then of course have to declare in the list of ingredients.

Most of the test products bear special claims, for example “with fresh cream” or “with Belgian chocolate”. In the sensory test, trained examiners not only checked whether the ice cream tasted good and met the basic expectations of the chocolate variety, but also whether the expressly advertised flavors could at least be easily tasted.

A specialized laboratory also examined the ice for mineral oil components with which many ready-to-eat foods are contaminated. Overall, the results of the pollutant test are pleasing. The fat pollutants 3-MCPD and glycidol are not a problem in the tested chocolate ice cream. However, the laboratory found mineral oil components in the product from the frozen food delivery service Eismann (chocolate split ice cream 6857, “poor”), including aromatic mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOAH). This group of substances also includes carcinogenic compounds. The “Häagen-Dazs “Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream”, priced at 6.51 euros, has a content of saturated mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOSH/MOSH analogues), which the testers rate as “elevated” (“sufficient”). MOSH accumulate in the human body The health effects have not yet been researched.

The bar for a good chocolate ice cream is high. However, many brands pass the test and score “very well”. Including two very cheap ones. These include: “Alnatura chocolate ice cream with fresh cream” (2.99 euros per 500 milliliters), “Bio Cool chocolate ice cream” from Ökofrost (2.50 euros), “Dennree chocolate ice cream, Naturland” (2.95 euros ), “Bofrost Dolce do Cioccolata Chocolate Ice Cream 1562” (4.30 euros), “Rios Premium Chocolate Ice Cream” from Lidl (0.95 euros) and “Romanza Chocolate Ice Cream with Whipped Cream” from Netto for only 0.95 euros .

A small drop of bitterness: Ice cream is very sweet and too much sugar is unhealthy. So enjoy the sweets in moderation.

(This article was first published on Thursday, May 19, 2022.)

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