GELATO AND ICE CREAM DIFFERENCES
Let’s clear some confusion about our beloved frozen desserts. Both can be part of a healthy diet when consumed in moderation.
{Image attribution Wikimedia Commons}
Tour Puglia 2022
Buongiorno amici:
After pizza, Italian ice cream is one of the best known and loved products globally imitated. However, the term Ice cream is the English translation and identifies a product with some substantial differences.
Halfway between history and legend, some trace the birth of Italian ice cream back to Sicily, others to the Romans, still others to the Egyptian civilization, up to the sacred scriptures. However, the advent of the modern Italian ice cream parlor, which has become famous worldwide, is thanks to the Palermo Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, who in 1686 founded the Café Le Procope in Paris.
In 1770, ice cream landed in New York together with Giovanni Basiolo. The pastry chef Filippo Lenzi soon after opened the first ice cream shop in America. Thus, the first ice cream factories were born in America, while in Italy, packaged ice cream arrived after the war with the first ice cream on a stick, patented by the Turin ice cream parlor Pepino. Since then, the industrial production of ice cream has grown more and more.
The most loved gelato in the world continues with the growth in the export segment and a new candidate as a Unesco World Heritage Site. To date, Italy represents a fifth of the total Community production. From 2010 to 2016, Italian ice cream production grew by 30% to reach 595 million liters.
In short, the ice cream market is doing well, so much so that from April, the giant Ferrero will launch its first line of ice cream abroad with the Kinder brand. At the moment, an investment will exclusively concern the European market: Germany, France, Switzerland, and Austria.
Five differences between Italian artisan Gelato and Ice-cream
Not everyone knows that there is a difference between Gelato and Ice-cream. It is not just a question of translation into English.
1) Italian artisan gelato makes you fat less because it has a lower fat content: those provided by dairy products, added to those obtained from dried fruit or other origins, do not exceed 8%, of which at least 3.5% of milk fat. Ice cream, on the other hand, according to the regulations of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has a higher fat content than ice cream: it cannot be less than 10%.
2) Italian artisan gelato melts faster because it contains less air. On the other hand, ice cream melts more slowly thanks to the insulating effect of the air: the law allows it to incorporate air up to 100% of its weight.
3) Italian artisans make gelato using mainly fresh milk and fresh cream, while ice cream contains powdered milk and vegetable byproducts.
4) Italian artisan gelato has lower distribution temperatures and is not stored. In contrast, the ice cream is stored in the cold as if frozen food with preservatives included for the proper shelflife.
5) Italian artisanal gelato does not crystallize because produced with a batch freezer (at -12 °), then it passes directly into the counter or pauses briefly in a blast chiller. On the other hand, ice cream uses a continuous freezing process in a constant cycle.
Aware of the fame of Italian gelato, many American companies produce packaged ice creams by passing them off as Italians, thus fueling the Sounding Italian phenomenon. There are many examples, among the best known: the American Luigi’s, Real Italian Ice, and the Peruvian D’Onofrio, a company owned by Nestlè. In addition, Häagen-Dazs has chosen the taste of the most famous Italian dessert globally for one of its packagings, which has contributed to the relevant boosting of morale and bottom-line.
Supermarkets and gourmands worldwide are full of imitations of all kinds that exploit the fame and appeal of Italian excellence to attract and deceive foreign consumers, putting in place a real unfair competition against our companies.
How does a foreign consumer, who has never been to our country, recognize the real Made in Italy product from imitations? He can download the Authentico App for free, created to counter the Sounding Italian phenomenon globally and help you find authentic Italian restaurants abroad. You can know if you are buying a genuine Italian product or an imitation by simply scanning the barcode.
Tour Puglia 2022
Thanks for reading. Eat safe! Ciao Chef W
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